The Netherlands Country Report Antwoord voor Bedrijven

Transcription

1 The Netherlands Country Report Antwoord voor Bedrijven Contents 1 Introduction Availability and quality of PSC services Provision of information on the types of administrative requirements applicable to both establishment and temporary cross-border scenarios Availability and quality of information Electronic completion of procedures: coverage and level of sophistication Assistance to PSC users Overall quality of PSC services for users from other countries Language support Finding the relevant information on applicable procedures Completing procedures electronically Use and usability Task completion Identifying the right procedures and finding appropriate information Comparison of results between national focus group and other focus group General usability and user satisfaction Accessibility Take-up, positioning and promotion Administration, organisation and back office enablers Back office integration and cooperation with competent authorities Finance and resources Status of key technical enablers (eid, e-signatures, e-payments) Future Outlook Strengths, weaknesses and recommendations Availability and quality of PSC services Summarising expert assessment Use and usability

2 6.4 Administration, organisation and back office enablers Introduction This country report provides an overview of existing Point of Single Contact (PSC) infrastructure and services offered in the Netherlands. The report provides details about the availability and quality of services found during portal testing by egovernment experts, views obtained from end-users from the Netherlands during focus group sessions 1 about usability of the portal and the views of Dutch PSC's portal staff and other egovernment experts from The Netherlands about the development and functioning of the portal. For ease of cross-referencing the text in this document with the data gathered during the study, a set of tables has been placed in annex B. Annex A provides details of six scenarios used during the study (referred to in Section 2 of this country report). The PSC of the Netherlands is a web portal which leads to all the information and transactions that entrepreneurs need when starting up or running a business in the Netherlands. It was built on the existing portal (for foreign users the name was translated in As part of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, Answers for Business works closely with the entire Dutch public sector, including Ministries, municipal authorities, provincial authorities and water boards. The launch date of the website was 1 January 2008 and it is continuously developed to fulfill the Services Directive's requirements. 1 End-user testing was undertaken by focus group participants and Deloitte experts in each country studied. Participants examined the PSC in their home country and one other country. Details of the scenarios and country pairings can be found in Annex A. 2

3 Figure 1 Homepage of the Dutch PSC portal Figure 2 Homepage of the Dutch PSC portal (English version) 3

4 Because of the decentralized governmental system in the Netherlands, the website contains basic information for entrepreneurs and links towards specific information, forms and transactions which are made available on the websites of more than 600 Competent Authorities. For entrepreneurs from the Netherlands and abroad this is the only portal were all information can be found in a centralized manner (i.e. a central portal linking towards decentralized websites). It provides an overview of rules, permits, taxes and subsidies for potential cross-border users who want to do business in The Netherlands. The portal covers some issues that go beyond the scope of the Services Directive, such as taxation and subsidies (see table 1). On the other hand, some important information required under the Services Directive appears to be missing or incomplete. This is the case in particular for procedures regarding the recognition of professional qualifications or social security issues. The portal also contains the Berichtenbox (for foreign users translated in "Message Box".) This secure "mailbox" tool can be used by entrepreneurs to complete all transactions with Competent Authorities and to communicate with them. The English version of the website (see screenshot 2) carries the EUGO logo and states that it is part of the EUGO network. The Netherlands chose to translate almost the entire website and in the right upper corner there is a link to the English version of the website. The English version contains almost all the needed information and also provides information that is not available in Dutch (e.g. information concerning documents that are not required in the Netherlands but that may be required in other countries [e.g. specific diplomas]). On the English website there is a special page for foreign users that contains information on specific documents etc. that are not required in the Netherlands but may be required in other countries, such as diplomas for carpenters. As regards assistance to users, the PSC uses a multichannel approach (website, phone, mail, chat, social media, etc.). It also contains links to social media and provides additional links to Dutch (platform) websites. 4

5 2 Availability and quality of PSC services Points of Single Contact are the most visible benefit of the Services Directive for businesses. They are meant to become fully fledged e-government portals allowing future entrepreneurs and existing businesses to easily obtain online all relevant information relating to their activities (applicable regulations, procedures to be completed, deadlines, etc.) and to complete electronically the relevant administrative procedures. The services offered by PSC s needs to be available not only in the country of the administration but they must also be accessible for businesses from other countries, across borders. The degree of availability of services through the PSCs was analyzed on the basis of six business scenarios. The six scenarios focused on concrete examples in three sample sectors architecture, restaurants/catering and tourism. One set of three scenarios focused on establishing a permanent business in the specific sector in the Netherlands these are called the 'establishment' scenarios. Three other scenarios investigated the steps required if someone from another country wants to temporarily provide a service in the Netherlands these are called the 'temporary cross border' scenarios. These terms are used throughout the tables and text in this report. Details of the scenarios can be found in Annex A. For each scenario, eight groupings of administrative formalities (e.g. authorization schemes, licenses, other procedures etc.) that businesses are most typically obliged to fulfill in order to provide their service activities were examined. For each grouping, the study analyzed to what degree information was available through the PSC and to what extent a business was able to complete the relevant procedures electronically. The eight groupings (henceforth called 'types of administrative requirements') are: Company registration; Obtaining a general business license; Procedures relating specifically to the service provider/ profession that they are exercising (recognition of professional qualifications, licenses to act as a travel agent, architect, sell alcohol etc.); Tax and financial formalities; Social security formalities; Regulations relating to the premises of the provider, such as providing proof of the location and/or ownership of the premises; Procedures relating to the way service are carried out and to the place where the service is carried out, such as applying for authorization to make outdoor sales or serve food on a street (called 'operations and location' in later tables); Procedures applying only or specifically to cross border provision of services. These eight types of administrative requirements cover the most common procedures businesses usually need to comply with when starting their activities. In order to complete the above requirements, service providers are often required to provide specific supporting documentation (e.g. proof of insurance coverage, proof of good 5

6 repute, etc.). The different supporting documents are referred to in the tables contained in the annex as "Procedural components that may be relevant to the preceding procedures". They include: Provide a translation of legal documents produced in another country; Provide details of the location of the business; Provide proof of the ownership of the business; Demonstrate proficiency in the local language; Demonstrate good repute or the lack of a criminal record; Prove accreditation from a financial organisation guaranteeing funds if the business should fail; Provide official proof of your experience or qualifications; Provide official proof of your identity; Provide proof that you are not bankrupt; Provide proof that you have sufficient financial resources / solvency; Provide evidence of relevant insurance; Provide proof that you have no outstanding tax payments. The availability of most of the eight groupings of procedures is mandatory under the Services Directive, for others it is not (in particular social security and tax procedures). However, from a business perspective, it is strongly recommended to make available all these procedures through the PSCs as they are the main steps required to start a business or to provide cross-border services. In this section the availability and quality of the three main tasks of the PSC are assessed: provision of information to businesses, completion of online procedures, assistance to PSC users. It must be noted that not all of these types of administrative requirements exist in all Member States, and therefore some portals obviously did not provide them online. For example, in The Netherlands it is not necessary to apply for a general business license, as this procedure does not exist. The regulatory environment in the Netherlands can be defined as relatively light. Answers for Business provides general information about procedures within the portal and, for detailed information (e.g. forms, etc.); it links to the websites of the competent authorities. The portal is therefore dependent on the available information and forms that competent authorities provide. So when a Competent Authority has no information online or is not providing/updating its information, the PSC cannot point entrepreneurs towards the right procedures. To ensure consistency and organize the linkage between the PSC and decentralized websites in a consistent way, all competent authorities under the Services Directive had to implement Samenwerkende Catalogi (SC) into their website (Content Management System, 6

7 CMS). SC is a technological solution which links the product catalogue of the Dutch portal with the product catalogues of all other competent authorities. Most of the relevant groups of procedures are covered through the PSC portal (6 out of 9, see table 1), knowing that the category General Business License is not relevant in the Netherlands (see above). The portal does not provide or link to information regarding Social Security Formalities ; all other relevant types of administrative requirements contain enough available information, forms or online procedures to complete the task. The website does not provide exact details into how and where the application forms can be submitted this information can be found on the websites of the competent authorities. Their availability and quality varies widely Provision of information on the types of administrative requirements applicable to both establishment and temporary cross-border scenarios The obligation to set up PSCs means, in practice, that business must be able to complete the entire cycle of all procedures and formalities relating to the access to or the exercise of their activities without having to contact any institutional interlocutors other than the PSC. The first key requirement for the PSCs is to make available all relevant information concerning applicable procedures Availability and quality of information In a first exercise we looked at the number and coverage by the portal of requirements or process steps needed for permanent establishment or temporary service provision based on the business scenarios described above, see Table 3. Table 3 shows that the Dutch portal provides comprehensive access to five out of eight information and/or services (business license is not required) to fulfill the requirements of the six establishments and temporary cross-border scenario s. In total, 50 regulatory requirements need to be undertaken to complete the scenarios. Logically the establishment scenarios have significantly more regulatory requirements than the cross-border service provision scenarios without a new establishment as they are of higher complexity and usually involve formalities relating to premises, the environment, etc. None of the procedures are totally covered by the main portal itself, because transactions in the Netherlands need to be done directly with Competent Authorities (and the portal provides links to them, as mentioned above). Generally, all the procedures are covered by the web sites of competent authorities linked by the portal. Focus group users generally remarked that information on applicable regulations was easy to identify. In a second exercise we assessed the quality of the information provided by the portal for the eight types of administrative requirements mentioned previously. The column 'sector specific: person' refers to the procedures for individuals to get the recognition of their professional qualifications. As can be seen from Tables 4, 6B, 8, 9, 10, 11 and Table 18, basic qualitative information is provided by the portal. Yet not all details are provided in terms of which format supportive documents have to be 7

8 submitted. In addition, users cannot complete all steps of the tasks online; instead they are referred to other sites for additional information or to complete certain tasks. The use of e-signatures and e-identification is not an obligation to obtain full completion. Finally, payment is required as an additional formality in order to complete the procedure. Table 4 shows that the portal scores well for those groups of procedures that are covered by the PSC. In general sufficient information forms or online procedures were available to complete the task. However, the overall score on details provided about how and where the application forms have to be submitted is unsatisfactory, because this detailed information is in general hosted on the websites of the 600 decentralised authorities (and therefore quality/availability varies). 2.2 Electronic completion of procedures: coverage and level of sophistication The Services Directive establishes an obligation on Member States to make it possible for service providers to complete a number of key administrative formalities related to the establishment or cross-border provision of services online and across borders. This includes both the submission of an application (with supportive documents) as well as the receipt of the administrative decision from the responsible competent authority. If e-signatures are required in the context of e-procedures, Member States have to accept as a minimum advanced e-signatures supported by a qualified certificate and, if justified, also supported by a secure signature creation device (i.e. the qualified e- signatures) 2 Moreover, MS have to be able to technically process certain formats of advanced e-signatures (C/X/PAdES) 3. The sophistication of the PSC portals in terms of online completion of procedures is examined with a commonly adopted egovernment maturity model with a four-step scale. The four steps or stages of development are: Information: only the information required to understand how to complete the procedure is available; One-way interaction: forms concerning the procedure that can be downloaded and printed are available (these can then be returned by post, or taken directly to relevant competent authority offices); Two-way interaction: forms concerning the procedure can be downloaded and uploaded, which enables the entrepreneur to start the procedure electronically. However, procedures are not fully online, some tasks need to be completed via alternative means (e.g. by post or visit to an office); Full case handling: the whole procedure can be completed online (including the receipt of the administrative decision). 2 Decision 2009/767/EC 3 Decision 2011/130/EU 8

9 Table 6 shows the portal offers the possibility to complete a relatively high number of procedures electronically. Many procedures can be completed by a two-way interaction, using the Message Box. In this case all documents/forms can be submitted online but administrative decisions are communicated by post/letter. The degree of online sophistication differs depending on the business sector and it depends on the degree of online sophistication of e-services provided by the competent authority. The degree of online sophistication does not differ between services for the establishment scenario or the cross border scenario, since the requirements in the Netherlands are the same for permanent establishment of a business and for temporary provision of services. Table 6B shows that none of the eight types of administrative requirements can be fully undertaken online as full case handling. The completion of all administrative requirements referred the user to the web site of a competent authority. On all occasions it was only necessary for the user to visit one additional site. The submission of specific documents is determined centrally and locally (i.e. the documents must be obtained locally through websites of the competent authorities, but can thereafter be submitted centrally through the Message Box, which will communicate them to the relevant authority). Answers for Business provides the possibility to search for specific documents, however the submission of each different type of forms is regulated by the websites of the competent authorities itself. In general the workflow for submitting documents is as follows: the PSC links to websites of authorities, where documents/forms can be downloaded. Thereafter PSC users can fill out the forms and submit them electronically to the relevant authorities by using the "Message Box" available at the PSC. At the moment, there are no web forms available that can be fully completed online. All the competent authorities are in possession of a Message Box, which connects them to the PSC infrastructure. Documents can be submitted in variety of file formats, including MS Word, TXT, PDF, CSV, JPEG and TIF. 9

10 Figure 3 Message Box Table 7 shows that for completion of procedures, no advanced eid and e-signatures tools are required. To apply for a Message Box entrepreneurs can use a specific eid. For entrepreneurs already registered in the Netherlands, an eid under the Dutch eherkenning (erecognition) scheme can be used. For entrepreneurs who have no such eid yet and for foreign entrepreneurs, there is also a possibility to use the Message Box following a simplified online registration process, wherein only a name, phone number and an 10

11 address must be provided. After completing this process, the Message Box can be used. However, when using the Message Box to communicate with competent authorities, it depends on the competent authority which further identification and esignature procedures might apply. Most of the competent authorities do not require the use of advanced esignatures but accept signing a hard copy, scanning and then sending it through the Message Box. There is however no guarantee at this stage that this process is accepted by all competent authorities and no complete overview of eid/esignatures requirements from all authorities exists. Therefore, there is also no guarantee that all procedures can be completed in accordance with the aforementioned Commission Decisions. Overall, the portal provides access to (by links to the competent authorities) two way interaction transactions for most of the relevant procedures. There are only a few full case handling transactions possible for the registration as an architect. These procedures do not have a link for the transactional part with the portal (i.e. they cannot be completed directly and exclusively through the relevant point of single contact ), as required by Article 8.1 of the Services Directive. Table 10 shows that company registration and most of the licenses to be undertaken in the Netherlands require payment. The PSC in general does not provide details about how the payment can be completed due to the fact that payment-possibilities differ per competent authority. The Dutch PSC portal itself does not provide online payment facilities, and most of the competent authorities do not provide an online payment facility. The entrepreneur will receive the bill (digital or printed). Table 11 shows that for all types of administrative requirements to be undertaken in the Netherlands no tracking services are provided for users to monitor the process of the service they require. Again the competent authority is responsible and the user is informed of the outcome of their request by a message in the Message Box. A letter is used subsequently to deliver an administrative decision. 2.3 Assistance to PSC users The Dutch PSC portal provides a number of highly praised interactive tools to help users obtain information. When users encounter problems a number of sources of help are available. Assistance is provided in a variety of ways (forums and FAQs). The website offers the users the possibility to contact the organization by a general address (with the aim to respond within 2 days), a telephone number and a chat session (both can be used between 9:00-12:00 and 14:00-17:00). The average amount of questions is around 300 a week (45% Phone, 45% and 10 chat). Most of the questions are from Dutch entrepreneurs. A simple standard query (concerning steps to be undertaken in order to provide temporary architect services, sent to all portals involved in the study) was answered in about one day. The response was clear and helpful. Online help is available by and by chat and the PSC just started answering questions by Twitter. It can be easily found on the website. The quality of the provided information by the service desk is unknown. 11

12 2.4 Overall quality of PSC services for users from other countries Language support To enhance cross-border activities it is recommended that portals are available in the language(s) of neighboring countries or in one of the most commonly used languages. Answers for Business has translated the portal for usability-reasons in English All the general information is provided in English, information on regulations and requirements is largely available. Both the telephone and the /chat assistance is available for all international visitors of the website and is available in English (Table 13). Language availability largely varies on the websites of the competent authorities, which have no obligation to provide for translations: some forms have been translated in English, but further effort should be committed on this issue. This can lead to frustrations, as users from other countries (who do not speak Dutch) may frequently get stuck in the process of completing procedures Finding the relevant information on applicable procedures As Table 14 shows, on the website it is quite easy to find relevant information on different themes, next to this the site offers a page with guides for doing business in the Netherlands. The different guides help entrepreneurs to quickly determine which obligations they must fulfill. However they do not rule out that there will be more obligations next to the ones mentioned in the guide. There are general guides concerning all companies and there are guides for specific sectors. However, the portal does not provide a specific menu or an explicit distinction as regards procedures that specifically apply to the cross-border provision of services (such as the recognition of professional qualifications). This may be partly explained by the fact that the number of regulated professions in the Netherlands is quite low. However, this may be hard to understand for entrepreneurs who do not have a prior knowledge of the Dutch legal system Completing procedures electronically Table 14B confirms that the use of the site for the online submission of forms and documents (through the Message Box) is possible for cross border users. Electronic signatures issued in another Member State cannot be used at this stage, as mentioned above. Presently most authorities do not require e-id or e-signature means, so that there may currently be few technical problems in completing procedures across borders. But for those authorities that require the use electronic tools, currently no solution seems to be in place to allow for cross-border completion. 12

13 3 Use and usability The focus group did remark however, that it was very hard to understand how to fulfill the electronic procedures. Use and usability is examined through three criteria, which are considered separately below. The overall ease of use and usability of the portal was examined by focus group participants (in the Netherlands and in Belgium) and egovernment experts in The Netherlands. The group participants (9 each for the two countries) were business people who are active in the three sectors covered by the study (architects, restaurants/catering, tourism). Usability was measured using the System Usability Scale (SUS) methodology, which uses an attitudinal scale where users are asked to respond to statements with a rating on a five-point (Lickert) scale of Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree. SUS examines the efficiency, effectiveness and ease of use of the portal. User satisfaction was also investigated using the Analysis of Web Application Requirements (AWARE) methodology. AWARE uses a similar Lickert based attitudinal scale to SUS. AWARE examines user satisfaction by examining users' views of various features of the portal; these include content, structure, navigation, presentation and user operation. In addition, this chapter also looks at portal positioning, promotion and take-up by business users so far. 3.1 Task completion Identifying the right procedures and finding appropriate information A key role for the portal is to enable users to find appropriate procedural and regulatory requirements prior to starting a business or starting cross-border trading. Tables 15, 16 and 17 examine the ability of focus group participants to find the procedural requirements necessary to complete the six business scenarios. Focus group participants had 15 minutes using the portal to find the regulatory requirements and procedures required to complete the establishment and crossborder scenarios they examined. In general, the overall opinion of the focus group and expert users was that the tasks were difficult to be completed. But there were important differences across sectors/scenarios studied. Tables 15, 16 and 17 show differentiated results in the percentage of participants who answered correctly in finding the relevant procedures over the three scenarios. On average, 45% of the procedures identified for establishment scenarios where correctly selected. Interestingly, the percentage of participants who answered correctly was high (79%) for the restaurant/catering scenario, while the architectural (36%) and travel agent (20%) scenarios had a very low percentage of correct answers. Regulatory specificities in the Netherlands may be the most important reason for this discrepancy concerning the architectural and travel agent scenarios. The architectural and travel agent sectors are relatively non- 13

14 regulated sectors in the Netherlands, differing very much from the other EU Member States. Usability-research on these sectors probably leads to low outcomes for instance because there is no specific regulation and therefore no information. An important area for improvement therefore seems to be to indicate clearly on the portal the fact that for some activities no specific requirements exist (so that users can be sure that they do not need to complete procedures), in particular in cross-border situations (where there is no specific menu indicating what is needed, or what is not). As regards the completion of procedures, users experienced significant difficulties to identify the way to complete procedures: none of the test users managed to find themselves the way to complete the procedure with the Message Box. This proved to be a major source for improvement, and a unanimous response on improvement suggestion is the possibility of online full case handling. As can be derived from Tables 19, 20, 21 and 22, with regard to the ease of access to information, the portal is considered to be user-friendly, trustworthy and there is an overall satisfaction: the stock of information present is considered sufficient and generally the format and quality of the information was consistent Comparison of results between national focus group and other focus group Tables 20 and 22 show that Belgian users were slightly more positive about the use of the Dutch portal than their Dutch counterparts. However, they did find it harder to understand the necessary requirements that had to be fulfilled to complete the scenarios as they did not have prior knowledge of the Dutch administrative and legal system. Table 22 shows that against all measures (for content, structure, navigation, presentation and user operation) Belgian users provided slightly higher user satisfaction scores than their Dutch counterparts for the Answer for Business portal. 3.2 General usability and user satisfaction Tables 23 and 24 examine the usability using the SUS framework. These tables show that on average the PSC portals of all the other countries covered in this study were perceived as being easier to use than the Dutch portal. The various function on other portals for undertaking the activity were found better integrated that the Dutch portal. Against all the SUS user satisfaction criteria, the portal received less favorable responses on average than counterparts in other countries. An important reason for this is most likely the decentralized system in the Netherlands that results in a situation where many different competent authorities play a role in completing procedures. The PSC helps entrepreneurs towards the right information and transaction, but is not a one-stop-shop where entrepreneurs can complete transactions. As already mentioned, quality of information/procedures provided by decentralized authorities varies largely. 3.3 Accessibility Several evaluation tools were used to examine portal accessibility and the extent to which the portal was usable for people of all abilities and disabilities. 14

15 Table 25 provides the number of errors preventing full accessibility found by two of the most commonly used accessibility tools. The lower the number of errors is, the better accessible is the portal. The average number of errors for all tested portals is shown in the right hand column. Overall the Dutch portal has a relatively high level of accessibility, as the number of errors is low. The most important result in terms of usability and accessibility is the W3C Markup Validator 4. It assesses the html markup used in the web site and states whether any errors have occurred. In the Netherlands only 1 minor error were found. Finally, accessibility was measured using the W3C CSS Validator 5, which measures the degree to which web-sites adhere to web standards as regards cascading style sheets (CSS). CSS errors mean that information does not display correctly, or at all. For a website to be considered of good accessibility, the maximum number of errors should be 100. With the assessment of the accessibility of the Dutch portal no error is found. Compared to the average amount of errors across the PSCs examined by this study one can conclude that the accessibility of the Dutch portal has a very high level of accessibility. The average scores of all portals studied for the WAVE Web accessibility was 3 compared to 1 for the Dutch portal, for the W3c CSS Validation the average score was 34 compared to zero for the Dutch portal and for the W3C Markup Validation the average score was 13 compared to 1 for the Dutch portal. 3.4 Take-up, positioning and promotion Answers for Business received more than 1,5 million visits between the 1 st of January 2011 and the end of September. In total 445 Message Boxes were created. The PSC manager comments that 153 messages were sent with attachment and are considered by the organization as real transactions. The number of foreign visits from other member states in the same period is Key PSC related phrases were examined in two search engines. Table 26 shows that for roughly half of these searches (with Dutch keywords) Answers for Business was ranked on the top positions in the search results. One search result was unpaid, the three other results were paid advertisements. E-government for business, business advise/help and business regulation license permit resulted on a first or second place in the paid results and could therefore be easily found by entrepreneurs. Table 27 describes the focus group's recognition and awareness of aspects of governmental portals such as its affiliation with the EUGO network. Answers for Business was not known amongst the participants prior to the focus group, and recognition was equal to the average of all States studies. The portal is recognizable as an official portal backed by the government and describes the role and tasks clearly

16 The site had the same design and style as other governmental websites. The use of the EUGO was only found on the English part of the website. This link leads visitors to the EUGO website. 16

17 4 Administration, organisation and back office enablers This section examines the operational aspects that impact on the practical functioning of the portal activities. This includes the degree of back-office integration (i.e. the interplay between competent authorities responsible for specific procedures handled through the PSC and the portal itself); it investigates the degree of resource availability and it includes the overall egovernment readiness of a Member States, in particular as regards key technical enablers such as the ability to handle electronic IDs, e-signatures or e-payment means. 4.1 Back office integration and cooperation with competent authorities For the portal to offer its services to business in an effective manner, it is vital that all relevant competent authorities are closely connected to the portal. Without successful back-office integration, it would be challenging to ensure up-to-date information and electronic application forms are available in a coherent manner across the board. Secondly, providing the means to access/complete a wide array of electronic procedures through a single portal can potentially offer serious efficiency gains through a push towards a standardization of relevant forms as well as the means to sign applications electronically and to submit application files. As Table 28 illustrates the number of authorizes dealing with the procedures offered through the portal amounts to over 600 (441 local authorities, 12 national government ministries, 109 Government agencies, 12 regional authorities and 26 water boards). This high number of involved actors requires teamwork and professional interaction and can therefore pose a serious challenge: it is therefore necessary to increase the commitment in order to propagate information and benefits coming out from such procedure, so to increase stakeholders awareness. Answers for Business can be seen as a hub, where all the relevant links to websites can be found. The (application) forms and detailed information are all on different local and national websites, which are all managed by the different organizations themselves; consequently the coherence between the different forms is relatively low. There is no general database to which the individual Intelligent PDFs are linked. Before the Services Directive a lot of organizations did not (or only limited) offer online information and application forms. After the implementation of the Services Directive all competent authorities offer online information and at least a word or PDF form for all the regulations under the Services Directive. The link between Answers for Business and local and national governmental organizations is managed by Samenwerkende Catalogi. Most links refer to websites where the required information and application forms can be found in Dutch. Local and governmental Dutch organizations are not obliged to offer the required information and application forms in other languages, but they can choose to do so. Users who use the English version of the PSC may get stuck in the middle of completing procedures where they need to do business with a competent authority who provides information and forms only provided in Dutch. 17

18 Answers for Business and the PSC staff have no formal remit vis-à-vis competent authorities. The Department of Economic Affairs that oversees the day-to-day administration and development of the portal also has no authoritative remit over competent authorities. However, their position as a central government department does enable some pressure to be exerted if required. In general the relationship developed between PSC staff and competent authorities has been on the basis of equals able to help and assist each other. If the competent authority does not deliver the required service to users of the Message Box, the user can file a complaint with. There are no legal arrangements in place to ensure that information and services provided through the PSC are reliable and up-to-date. 4.2 Finance and resources The Dutch PSC s costs in 2011 are 3,9 million euro, composed as follows: Website/ICT (PSC), inclusive translations in English: ; Contact center PSC (ICT-support): ; Transactions (message box), inclusive technical Service desk: ; Personnel: ; Communication: These costs are representative for budgets needed to maintain the quality of the PSC. Although currently resources are adequate, it is difficult to foresee ICT-costs in the near future. 4.3 Status of key technical enablers (eid, e-signatures, e-payments) On the Dutch portal, and more specifically for the use of the Message Box, no advanced identification or esignature processes are required, and at this level only the completion of online registration forms is required for cross border users. It would therefore be possible to receive messages from doubtful addresses, which still need to be answered by the competent authorities. However, authorities are free to ask for additional identification if necessary (i.e. accompany copy of passport with application); similarly, competent authorities are allowed to impose specific esignature requirements (this is determined by the authorities on a case by case basis). Electronic signatures issued in another Member State cannot be used at this stage, as mentioned above. Presently most authorities do not require e-id or e- signature means, so that there may currently be few technical problems in completing procedures across borders. But for those authorities that require the use electronic tools, currently no solution seems to be in place to allow for cross-border completion. Document types that are most used are (intelligent) PDF or Word files. Intelligent PDF files can be filled in and uploaded directly to fulfill a request. Other PFD and Word files can be printed, scanned and uploaded in the Message Box on one s Answer for Business account. This last step is not often done by visitors, as they find the process to unclear or comment that the Message Box cannot be easily reached 18

19 (contact through the Message Box can only be initiated by the applicant). In general, no (integrated) online forms are available at this stage epayment facilities are currently not implemented through the PSC either. In the Netherlands, more advanced versions of these key technical enablers will be available in the PSC itself in November Future Outlook Promotional activities have been and will continue to be carried out to improve use of the PSC. The use of the Message Box is very low at this moment. Most of all the transactions with the government are not related to the procedures studied in this report and cannot be done by the Message Box. One of the ideas to encourage the use of the Message Box is to broaden the base, so it will be possible to use the Message Box for more transactions than those related to the Services Directive. Another idea is to introduce a new law: wet recht op elektronisch zakendoen met de overheid. This law is in exploration phase at the moment, but might in the future provide the entrepreneur the right to do business with all governmental organizations electronically. For the development of eidentification and esignatures an ongoing project (named E- herkenning) is underway, the implementation of which is very important to make a success of the portal and electronic transactions. eidentification will enable a higher percentage of full case handling because the transaction will be easier to realize and more secure for the government as well as the entrepreneur, it requires less manual activities and guarantees a higher degree of safety. 19

20 6 Strengths, weaknesses and recommendations This study examined the readiness of Answers for Business portal by investigating its ability to support the completion of six business scenarios. The Answers for Business portal was able to support access to a large number of procedures required to complete the six business scenarios but procedures linked to social security and to the premises of the provider were missing. The websites linked to Answers for Business still have to make some steps forward to make it easier for (foreign) visitors of their website to retrieve the necessary information. A first start can be made by offer all basic information and (application) forms in English, which is still not the case for a large proportion of authorities. Efforts should be made to ensure a better consistency of presenting information and forms on the websites of decentralized authorities. In addition, a wide range of procedures need better support to reach a higher level of sophistication and user-satisfaction. 6.1 Availability and quality of PSC services Information provision on the central PSC portal is generally good and the quality of the search facility, which provides easier directions or access to information for business activities was commented to be easy to use : links to websites of authorities were easy to find, as well as documents to be downloaded and submitted. However, the search facility, FAQs and several other user support elements on the linked sites of competent authorities were frequently only offered in Dutch and therefore provide insufficient support for foreign visitors. Furthermore, there were significant differences in style. Both experts and focus group participants were impressed with the amount and relevance of the information available on the portal. The main function of the portal is redirecting an entrepreneur to the required part of the services the competent authority provides. The redirecting is done based on the exact subject search query. Some important procedures are currently not covered by the portal, in particular those regarding the premises of the service provider and those regarding social security. It is recommended to integrate these procedures in order to increase usefulness for entrepreneurs (offer a complete service of all the important steps). Furthermore, there is a need to improve navigation for cross-border users. Currently there is little specific information available regarding the cross-border provision of services. Although procedures generally may be the same for the crossborder provision of services, this may not be intuitive for users from other countries. At this point, only a few percent of the tested procedures can be fully completed online with full case handling (i.e. all applications and replies delivered electronically). All the procedures can be carried out through two way interaction. It is clear that more needs to be done to ensure the full online completion (full case handling) of administrative procedures through the portal. This may also require continuous efforts to bring on board those authorities not yet using the standardized tools available through the portal, thus ensuring a consistent service offering across the range of authorities and procedures. There is a need to address the use of e-id and e-signatures, in particular in crossborder situations. Most of the competent authorities currently do not require the use 20

21 of advanced esignatures but accept signing a hard copy, scanning and then sending it through the Message Box. There is however no guarantee at this stage that this process is accepted by all competent authorities and no complete overview of eid/esignatures requirements from all authorities exists. Therefore, there is also no guarantee that all procedures can be completed in accordance with the aforementioned Commission Decisions. 6.2 Summarising expert assessment Table 18B shows that in general the expert assessment of the portal was above average, in particular for the structure and organisation of information, and submission and storing of edocuments and forms. The portal received below average scores for online payment methods and tracking facilities. In general, efforts need to be made to ensure consistency between the portal and decentralized websites of authorities. 6.3 Use and usability Overall the use and usability of the UK Dutch PSC was perceived to be. Key attributes were thought to be: Clear and professional appearance Simple and clear language Easy to navigate to the different relevant themes and business sectors Provides all the necessary links to other site where the requested information can be found. All the necessary documents can be downloaded The chat function enables visitors to get direct advise Nonetheless, experts and focus group participants suggested some areas for improvement. These included: Possibility for more full case handling procedures via the portal through online forms More user-friendly usage/identification of Message Box, which is hard to find presently The linked websites of Competent Authorities should provide more information and (application) forms in English Consistent presentation of information throughout decentralised websites Competent Authorities should provide an easier way to upload application forms. More entrepreneurs should use the facilities of the portal, especially the Message Box. Improving information on cross-border provision through a specific menu (including as regards recognition of qualifications) 21

22 Although the information provided and redirecting to Competent Authorities by the PSC is very good, many responses consider it difficult to find the right place for uploading the different application forms. Applying for an account for the Message Box is not conducive to attracting users. Levels of use and usability would probably be increased if a more user-friendly method of access and registration was adopted. Another important area of improvement is the degree of information available on providing services in the Netherlands on a temporary basis. The Dutch website offers a general introduction for businesses from abroad but it does not consistently make it clear for all service sectors which administrative formalities a business has to complete if it only wants to enter the Netherlands on a temporary basis (i.e. without establishment). On the English website Answers for business created two special step-by-step plans on this subject for entrepreneurs: Carrying out a temporary assignment in the Netherlands and Posting employees to the Netherlands. These are good first steps as they provide concrete examples, but they should be extended to all the relevant activities. 6.4 Administration, organisation and back office enablers The key attributes identified by experts, PSC staff and competent authorities are: The high quality and on-going support provided for competent authorities. The simplification of the implementation of the Services Directive. The step-by-step guide for the implementation of the Services Directive with ongoing support. Liaison with the 600 competent authorities generally works well but the buyin/cooperation level varies and needs to be improved in a number of cases. A more consistent approach to presenting information and completing procedures on decentralized websites could boost the attractiveness of the PSC. If the economies of scale and savings envisaged when the portal was first developed are to be achieved the numbers of portal users will need to increase considerably. However, the budget for promoting the portal is very limited. More support or resources to promote the site should increase portal use and help to improve 'returns' from the current level of investment. In general, there is a need to address the use of e-id and e-signatures, in particular in cross-border situations, and to make sure it is possible for users from other countries to use their own e-id/e-signature tools. The use of intelligent PDFs has been efficient in providing citizens and businesses that want to access services and understand procedures with a high level of usability and service quality. However, PDFs require competent authorities to 're-key' data into their own systems. Efficiency and resource savings could be achieved if 'rekeying' was avoided by users being able to complete relevant automatically generated forms as HTML, or by enabling access to the data as.csv or.txt (or some other standardized format) so that it can automatically be input to competent authority systems. 22