Municipality of Hilversum: Streamlining Municipality Charges

The municipality of Hilversum aims to send out the annual municipality charges before the 1st of March every year. However, due to many manual interventions, the procedure around calculating and processing said charges are highly complex and time-consuming. On top of that, the tax-software Key2Belastingen that the municipality uses for said process lacks transparency. Therefore, Apolix built a tailored process mining solution based on three pillars: operational efficiency, business control and throughput times. With the solution, not only did we create transparency in the process, we gave them a risk-and-control matrix to manage the risks and a dashboard to discover in real-time the as-is situation of all charges.

Intro

With over 90,000 citizens, Gemeente Hilversum is one of The Netherlands’ larger municipalities. You also might know the Gemeente Hilversum as the “Mediastad” (Media city) since the studios of almost all major Dutch television- and radio broadcasting companies are located in the municipality.

To process all the annual municipality charges (“heffingen” in Dutch), the Gemeente Hilversum uses the software Key2Belastingen from Centric. The procedure for calculating and processing municipality charges is – as you can imagine – extremely complex, and that’s where Process Mining comes in!

Complete process flow 

(All data is anonymized and randomized)

Challenges

Within the process, many different things happen that require manual interventions. Think about investigating whether a house is empty or double-checking whether a citizen has moved to another place. Despite the complexity and the manual work, every year, the municipality’s target is to send out at least 95% of their charges before March 1st. Therefore, the big challenge they face is processing as many charges as possible before the deadline without making significant errors and managing the large variety of risks that come with the municipality charges process.

One of the significant things the tax-software Key2Belastingen lacks is process transparency. It is rather complex to figure out precisely what is happening with an individual charge, especially when that specific charge comes with some complexity. A higher degree of process transparency would also help the Gemeente Hilversum better manage the risks that come with the charges process, which is why they decided to partner up with Apolix for a tailored process mining solution.

Charges process flow 

(All data is anonymized and randomized)

Solutions

The solution that Apolix built for the Gemeente Hilversum was based on three pillars: operational efficiency, business control, and throughput times.

OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY

We analyzed the sending process of the charges so that the root causes of the late sending of charges could be identified. The dashboard also showed how many charges were sent in time and the current outstanding amount of charges.

BUSINESS CONTROL

Business control was crucial as managing (potential) risks is especially important for municipalities. We enabled them to manage their risks by, e.g. tracking all the active ‘stop codes’ (paused charges) and the users who activated them. Also, we built a risk- and control matrix that enabled them to monitor their potential risks actively and act where due.

THROUGHPUT TIMES

Finally, we provided a dashboard analysing how exactly objections and appeals are being handled. Next to the handling speed, we also provided insight into what actions are taken explicitly for each objection (e.g., crediting the charge).

Outcomes

When discussing the project’s outcome with our client, it was clear that we provided them with insights they had never seen before. It was new for them to see their entire charges process mapped out, and they were surprised that their perception of the process did not correspond with the actual reality of the process.

Next to providing these insights, we also stayed true to our core values and focused on realizing value from day 1. Within a few weeks, we had already realized a valuable solution for actively managing the risks that come with the process. Insights are great, action is better!

Risk and control matrix

(All data is anonymized and randomized)

Do you believe that you are not maximizing the ROI you can get out of your information system? As Process Mining specialists, we can help you uncover the truth in your system.