Smart City Project: Lokeren
The City of Lokeren, a municipality in East Flanders, faces a crucial challenge: how to effectively and legally manage information in an era where data comes in various shapes and formats. Implementing a robust Information Management Plan (IBP) is essential to comply with federal and Flemish government regulations and to manage a large volume of data in a user-friendly way.
What was needed?
The project for the City of Lokeren focuses on developing and implementing an IBP tailored to the city’s needs.
The IBP, or Information Management Plan (informatiebeheersplan), is a plan created by the Flemish and federal governments to help governments manage their data. The IBP ensures that all information is regularized, including aspects such as purpose, retention periods (how long may information be kept?), and disclosure of information.
Where managing information according to specific legal instructions is mandatory for the Flemish and federal governments, local governments are currently somewhat less strictly bound by legal requirements. However, they must already work in series. These series form the overarching level at which files and records of the local government in question are managed. The defined series in the IBP are provided with specific metadata concerning purpose, retention periods, and sensitivity of the information. This metadata is automatically assigned to the files and records that belong to the series.
With the help of Wortell, an experienced IT partner and PM of this project, and Sirus, the City of Lokeren sought expertise to develop a structured IBP tailored to their city and integrate it with SharePoint Online. The main three factors for this IBP were: usability, maintainability, and searchability.
What did Sirus do?
Sirus played a crucial role in the project by providing expertise in architectural design and implementation of an IBP in SharePoint. This IBP was drafted according to the specific needs of the City of Lokeren, starting from the selection list for municipalities, prepared by the VVBAD and approved by Het Rijksarchief. This was supplemented with specifications from the series templates developed by Digital Flanders. The developed IBP does not only include a technical solution but also takes into account legal obligations, user friendliness, maintainability, and searchability.
Sirus was involved at every step of the process: from setting up the IBP structure to guiding the migration of data from the City of Lokeren’s file server to SharePoint Online.
The journey of the Smart City project
April 2021: Start of the project
Design and development of the IBP structure in collaboration with the City of Lokeren and Wortell
Implementation of the IBP structure in SharePoint (with a first pilot project: Heritage domain)
Migration of data from the file server to SharePoint
Testing phase and adjustments
First phase of the project went live
Guiding the City of Lokeren in adopting the new digital workspace
Transitioning all services of the City of Lokeren into the IBP structure
Support & review
The building blocks of the IBP for the City of Lokeren
Based on various workshops, we developed the IBP architecture. We decided not to start from the City of Lokeren’s organizational chart but from the selection list for municipalities, prepared by the VVBAD and approved by Het Rijksregister. Why? Because an organizational structure can change over time, and the entire SharePoint environment must change accordingly. By working with a structure based on administrative processes, the IBP is more future-proof.
Moreover, the series established within the IBP align with the Series Registry of the Flemish government (a database in which every series managed by a local authority must be registered, including a number of parameters such as public access, retention period, purpose, information sensitivity…). This registration became mandatory for cities from January 1, 2024. We ensured a link between the Series Registry and the IBP of Lokeren.
The IBP structure: a hierarchical division
- Basic division (highest level)
- Domain (e.g., Heritage domain)
- Task
- Action
- Series (contains metadata about purpose, retention periods, public access, information sensitivity, etc.)
- Folder
- File (lowest level)
= the basic structure to set up the IBP and the SharePoint Online environment of the City of Lokeren.
With this IBP, the City of Lokeren transitions from working with files on local file shares to folder-based work in SharePoint Online. The folders are based on folders from the local file shares and belong to predefined series, equipped with specific metadata concerning the purpose, sensitivity, and retention period of the data.
Mapping the information flows of the City of Lokeren
To map the information flows that needed to be included in the IBP structure, the City of Lokeren could use the selection list from VVBAD (Flemish Association for Libraries, Archives & Documentation). This list was compiled by archivists and information managers from various local governments. It provides an overview of all tasks performed by a local government, including the different types of files, their destination, and retention period. Starting with this selection list, we were able to logically and clearly structure the SharePoint Online environment.
Technicalities of the project
The IBP for the City of Lokeren consists of a combination of out-of-the-box features from M365, combined with Power Platform apps & workflows, PnP web parts, and a remote event receiver to support the IBP structure.
A search solution is also provided to efficiently search the IBP information.
- SharePoint Online
- Power Platform
- PowerApps
- PowerAutomate
- PnP webparts (Visual Studio Code & JavaScript)
- PnP search web parts
- Custom PnP web parts
- PowerShell scripting for configuration and migration
- Custom remote event receiver (Visual Studio, WCF & C#)
- Azure
- Entra ID
- App service for hosting the event receiver
- SharePoint Migration tool
The benefits of the IBP for the City of Lokeren
Because each series contains specific metadata about the folders and files that belong to this series, the archivist of the City of Lokeren gets a clear overview of all folders eligible for archiving or destruction. This significantly reduces the chance of errors, as well as the amount of manual work. Moreover, files can be found more quickly, and it is clear when certain folders become publicly accessible. All these factors lead to more standardized and better information management.
What does the future hold?
Sirus continues to work closely with the City of Lokeren and Wortell to implement further optimizations (including integration with Intranet, Teams, address register, and other external applications), provide user training, and implement other domains within the City of Lokeren into the IBP structure. In addition, we continue to provide ongoing guidance and advice on migration, use, and maintenance of the application.
What did our Sirus developers think about the project?
What did Wortell think?
What did the customer think?
Smart City Project
At Sirus, innovation is at our core. We strive to help build the smart cities of the future, and Lokeren City is now part of this innovative future. We are proud to be a part of this collaboration, and if you are to – be sure to follow us on LinkedIn for updates!
Interested to be a part of projects like the Smart City Project for Lokeren? Learn more about Sirus’ Smart City Approach and don’t hesitate to take a look at our careers page!
