Complexity that has increased over time
The digitalization of Swiss municipalities has progressed gradually in recent years: finances, registration of residents, building permits, document management and processes have become digital – using various platforms and interfaces. Each of these IT solutions meets a specific need. Together, however, they form a fragmented system landscape that makes it difficult to keep track of everything and creates complexity. Municipal employees switch between different systems, with distributed data and interrupted processes.
This situation is not the result of a lack of foresight, but of gradual digital development. Over time, the challenge has become more structural: maintaining a seamless and consistent overview of the administrative processes. IT teams oversee heterogeneous system landscapes, specialist departments work with different tools, and for members of the public, tracking the progress of their enquiries is often only possible to a limited extent. This complexity is not always visible, but it makes itself felt in everyday life.
Rethinking requirements: from tools to coherence
In this context, considerations have long since ceased to be only about technology. A crucial factor is the ability of municipalities to retain overall control over their digital environment. The basic requirements remain unchanged: consistent processes, reliable information, efficient collaboration between departments and more time for the actual core task – serving the public. Digitalization can therefore no longer be understood as the sum of individual solutions; it must function as a coherent infrastructure.
This becomes particularly apparent in the procedures surrounding building permits: an application is recorded in one system, processed in another, documented elsewhere and finally archived in yet another system. Each individual phase works, but there is no consistent overview. This results in additional coordination being necessary, a complex tracking process and a fragmented experience.
Civetica: a response to fragmentation
It is in this context that Swiss Post Digital has developed Government Civetica. The platform is based on a simple realization: municipalities don’t need more tools; they need an integrated solution that links their central processes.
Civetica offers integrated digital administration based on a common data structure and end-to-end case processing to reduce the fragmentation of existing systems.
Dieter Lüscher, CEO of Swiss Post Digital Government, emphasizes: “Civetica provides a secure and coherent basis for the Swiss administration of the future. It enables sovereign and trustworthy digital administration that is tailored to the needs of Swiss municipalities – for the benefit of citizens, public authorities and future generations.”
To sum up
The digitalization of municipalities has enabled significant progress to be made, but it has also created structural complexity that is often underestimated. The challenge for the coming years will therefore not be to add more systems, but to link existing ones more closely together again.
Municipalities that achieve an overview gain in efficiency and trust. This is precisely where the next stage of development of digital administration comes into play. Civetica helps municipalities succeed in this development.
