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One stop shop for Companies
Ministry of Public Administration
Slovenia

The Problem

Registration of companies in Slovenia was very long procedure, 60 days long, and it required several contacts with public administration and notaries. 90% of applications were incompleted. Costs for registration were high (250-600 EURO for a registration of a company). There was extreme need for renovation of the system of submitting applications to court register, which was obsolete for electronic business. In Slovenia there has been for 3 and half years running project One stop shop for sole traders that brought very positive impacts on public administration and for sole traders. The registration of a sole trader is finished in few hours so we set a goal to achieve registration of a company (all kinds of companies, not only Ltd) in 4 days and at the same time free of charge.

Beside complicated registration companies had to visit several other institutions to submit tax data, to obtain a craft permit, to register employees and their family members into obligatory social insurance, to make changes and terminations on obligatory social insurance, so we decided to offer them all mentioned services at one place, online and at one stop shop contact points. These procedures can be carried out at the same time with submission of application for registration or later when company is already registered. The system One stop shop is used for future and existing companies.

The system is used (since February 1st) by companies (over 50000 in Slovenia), One stop shop contact points (180 in Republic of Slovenia), notaries (90) and district court (only for entries under compulsory power). Together over 700 civil servants are using the system. What is very important for public administration is, that the system is used at public administration for registration of civil servants at obligatory social insurance online.

The project was difficult due to involved executive and judicial branch and notaries, who lost a notaries certification of memorandum of association for simple ltd companies. It was difficult due to integration with six databases and 6 different subsystems. All stakeholders in the project had to finish their work by the set deadline (set by the law-it could not be moved).

In the time of recession consequences the system is encouraging for new start ups because it enables free of charge registration and that gives the opportunity to earn money.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
The main benefits of the project are:
- Services are not limited by time or geographical factor (24*7*365)
- All services at the One stop shop portal are free of charge
- A portal is a single point for e-services and life events for businesses
- The procedure from opening the bank account, submitting the application for registration into court register to receiving a decision about the entry can be done electronically (e-signing, e-delivery in a safe mail box)
- Companies can perform more than 1.600.000 procedures per a year online (Slovenia has 2 mio inhabitants)
- The ministry has measured savings for companies by CSM method. With the introduction of One stop shop system they estimated that simplified and online procedure have generated savings amounting to 10,24 mil EUR per year compared to the situation before the establishment of the One stop shop system (before 1 February 2008).
- Registration of a company is done in 4 days (due to complete forms and electronic support of making decisions of entries into court/business register)
- 80% of all companies can be registered free of charge. Reasons :
o Abolition of mandatory disclosure of entries in the Court register in the Official Journal (replaced by a publication, free of charge, on the AJPES portal)
o The possibility of registering a company in one place, on over 180 entry points all over Slovenia (Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for Public Legal Records and Related Services, Administrative units, Chamber of Craft and Small Business of Slovenia, Chamber of commerce and Industry of Slovenia, Tax Administration of Republic of Slovenia, Public Agency for Entrepreneurship and Foreign Investments, notaries). On 1 February provisions of the Court Register Act and Companies Act came into force, which enable creation of simple limited liability companies by a completion of a “VEM”, One stop shop, form. This means that such companies no longer need to produce notary documents endorsing their memorandum and articles of association – an endorsement on one of the One stop shop entry point suffices.
o Single member company can be register online (free of charge)
- With entry into business is done also an entry into court register and a tax data is assigned to the company simplified procedure for companies
- Educated civil servants-we run permanent training program for civil servants at one stop shop contact points better support to companie
- 21% more registered companies in average per month in comparison with a year before the production of new system it shows positive impacts of free registraion
- high satisfaction of companies. Ministry of Public Administration did a survey among companies visiting a One stop shop contact points in May and June 2008-just few months after introducing new system: kindness of civil servants: 4,8, general estimation of service: 4,6 (5,0 was a max grade)

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The project leader has been Ministry of Public Administration that has successfully implemented One stop shop for sole trader and their minister proposed new project. The project team involved the representatives of following institutions:
- Ministry of Public Administration of the Republic of Slovenia (holder of the project)
- Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Slovenia (holder of Central register of population where the system gets the data about member of companies)
- Ministry of the Economy of the Republic of Slovenia (holder of Companies Act)
- Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Slovenia (holder of Law on Court register-the law set the deadline)
- Tax Administration office of the Republic of Slovenia (holder of Tax register where the system gets the data about foreign members of companies and One stop shop system is connected to their system for submitting tax data)
- Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia (district courts are users of the system and they decide about entries of companies into court register (that was joined with business register) and they are substantively competent for making these decisions)
- Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for Public Legal Records and Related Services (AJPES) (technological holder of merger of business and court register, holder of Business register where the One stop shop system gets the data about members of companies that are Slovenian companies and One stop shop system is connected to our system for submitting the applications for registration, changes and closure of companies-we offer the system for making decisions to courts and with registration in court register it is done also a registration in business register. Our system within one second get also a tax data for a company that is registered from the Tax administration system)
- Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia (competent for database of Standard activities that is connected to the system)
- Surveying and Mapping Authority of the Republic of Slovenia (competent for Register of special units that is connected for controlling typed in addresses)
- Health Insurance Institute (One stop shop system is connected to their system for procedures regarding the social insurance to Health Insurance Institute and they are holder of a register of socially insured person where we get data when a user makes changes about employees or would like to terminate an insurance)
- Pension and Disability Insurance Institute of the Republic of Slovenia (all the decisions from health Insurance Institute are send through One stop shop system to the Pension Insurance Institute
- Chamber of Notaries (notaries are users of the system)
- Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia (one group of One stop shop contact points are contact points of Chamber of Commerce and Industry)
- Chamber of Craft (One stop shop system is connected via web services to their system for submitting application for acquiring a craft permit with Craft Chamber of Slovenia and district chambers of craft are one stop shop contact points)
- Employment Service of Slovenia (One stop shop system is connected to their system for publication of a free post with Employment Service)

Ministry also included banks into project to support online opening of a temporary bank account.

Each stakeholder had to develop his subsystem to be able to communicate with One stop shop system and all civil servants using the system had to be trained.

(a) Strategies

 Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
 a.      What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
The concept was done by the Ministry of public Administration. The concept of the system has been brought from One stop shop system for sole traders, that has been in production since July 2005. The system One stop shop for companies is based on the same concept, but is much more complex and it supports more electronic procedures and connects more public state institutions.

The project had great support within the management of the Ministry of Public Administration and within the Government in general. The project was also supported by the management of other involved institution. However, they followed their priorities and at the same time following the goal of the project that required full time involvement of the team members.

The main goal of One stop shop project for companies was:
– to enable fast (in 4 days), simple and free of charge registration of a company
– to perform all other obligatory procedures for start up at one stop shop contact point or online
– to support other (most frequent) services for businesses at one stop shop contact point or online

The system also supports other goals of Ministry of public Administration as:
- transparency- all applications can be monitored by status
- accessibility – the services are available 24 hours online or at One stop shop contact points and notaries
- responsiveness – the system supports completed forms and fast decisions of the institutions

The project leader has been Ministry of Public Administration that is in charge for e-government development in the republic of Slovenia. The Ministry is not competent for any procedure that can be done through One stop shop system and is regarding the procedure competence the only actor in the project that has no competence for deciding in procedures. That makes the project leader independent. Other included institutions in the project are:
1. holders of the procedures that can be done through One stop shop portal
2. holders of the registers that are connected with One stop shop system
3. one stop shop entry points that are contact points for companies and are users of the system
4. holders of the legislation that is base for procedures that can be carried out at One stop shop portal.

The base for the project was the legislation, already existing and some must had been changed before the production. The amendments of the legislation were done parallel with making the specifications of the system, so that there is no difference between the legislation and its implementation within the system.

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The project began in January 2007. The preparation on the project and development of the idea and the concept began few months before. The preparation phase has encompassed the record of the situation and the processes at that time and the record of our wanted result. Through the several iterations of what we want and what is possible we got scheme of the system, basic flow of renewed procedures and involved institutions.

The management of the Ministry of Public administration has reached the agreement with the management of other institutions to start the project and finish it in the set timescale.

The project group has been appointed. Ministry of Public Administration prepared all documentation needed that the One stop shop project has been confirmed and got a right for co-financing from ESS.

The development of the project had few phases:
1. system lay out of the system
2. alpha version of the system
3. beta version of the system
4. training version of the system
5. production version of the system
6. training of users
7. production of the system

Not only One stop shop system had to be developed but also systems of institutions connected to central system had to be adopted. These institutions ran their own development with contractors or with their own resources.

The training of civil servants-at one stop shop entry points, notaries and civil servants at court was in September and October. Notaries and users at district court had organised workshops where they worked with computer so they could get known with the system. One stop shop entry point civil servants and notaries had two days long substantive training on the procedures that can be done through the portal. In January they had two day long training where lecturers explained the entry of the data in the system on already developed system-on the training version of the system. Lecturers were chosen from the competent institutions:
- Ministry of Public Administration
- Ministry of the economy
- Chamber of Craft
- Employment Service
- Health Insurance Institute
- Pension and Disability Insurance Institute
- Tax Administration office
- Supreme Court
- Agency for Public Legal Records and Related Services

Together there were 18 lecturers giving lessons.

The system has been maintained constantly and training is permanent. It is already ongoing a second phase of One stop shop system to develop new functionalities and the promotion has started (TV spot, newspapers, Bus advertising etc.) Civil servants have in February and March 2009 4 days long training. In November 2008 Ministry has opened renovated-graphically- One stop shop portal and they prepared short movies of how to fill in applications at One stop shop portal and these movies are going to be on DVD and will be given to companies together with leaflets.

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
The project has faced problems at:
- technological level
- communication level

The One stop shop system has 80 code tables, runs on 16 servers, it is connected to 6 registers. In order to function properly, the portal requires access to external databases. Access methods vary, as they are dependent on the administrators of individual databases. Data from the business/court register are obtained by calling a web service and with the appropriate parsing of XML files received. Data from register of spatial units and the central register of population are obtained with the help of JDBC calls. The One stop shop integrator, which is responsible for the correct flow of documents, represents the second segment of the application. Similar to the portal part of the application, the integrator was development using java technology. The integrator is connected to external systems with regard to their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems (web services and PGP encrypted e-mail). The integrator records the status of an application, and thus coordinates the entire application process. The system communicates with systems of 6 other institutions. They have their own rules. Data, received from one institution are transmitted to another system and aforementioned features of the system are a reason why integration on technical level was very demanding in the phase of system development. Only highly technologically educated civil servants and contractors were involved in the project.

Communication in the project among the members was sometimes critical due to pressure of the project. Project had its milestones and in case some institution did not reach the goals, the failure result in nervous communication. So the role of the project leader was crucial at those phases to know how to calm down the situation.

The project was very complex and it was not possible to have meetings with all stakeholders, therefore the correspondence was via e-mail. Such correspondence sometimes brought misunderstanding of written words, especially at people who were not used to the pace and demands of the project. The goals and activities did not allow any delay and for each activity was clearly defined who a responsible person for the activity is. So good project plan helped.

At the end it was difficult to maintain high level of attention, work, because so called “finish” lasted 4 months and it demanded that people overfulfiled their human capabilities. In those circumstances the choice of correct words for describing mistakes and needed additional actions was very important.

Regarding the wide knowledge of different areas of pubic administration that civil servants had to gain there was no special problems because trainings were well organised.

(d) Use of Resources

 d.      What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
Total budget spent on the Project by the time of production was::
– 2.140.000 EURO for development of the system and 2 year maintenance
– 260.000 EURO for training
– 1.000.000 EURO for adjustment of subsystems

Total: 3.400.000 EURO (Ministry of Public Administration: 2.400.000 EURO, 85% ESF)

One million EURO was invested from the side of other stakeholders. These number includes development of the subsystems, maintenance is not included.

Together the project in one year required 36 man/year of human resources.

Team member were working from their institutions, only at meetings and testing they gathered at one place.
The second phase of development of One stop shop system for companies has a contract worth 1.278.000 EURO, but 252.000 EURO is going for training of civil servants. This development is financed by Ministry of Public Administration and 85% are co financed by European Social Found. The promotion, also co financed by ESS, is worth 303.000, also paid by the Ministry of Public Administration. All One stop shop entry points receive marking board to be put one the wall at the entrance of One stop shop contact point and billboard with information about One stop shop services. All material is financed by Ministry of Public administration.

Development of subsystems is financed by the holders of subsystems and they are also competent for their maintenance. All institutions, except Ministry of Public Administration are using Slovenian budget.

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
Tranferable

The project has shown that in Slovenia state institutions can cooperate and build a system that
is a result of the state and not only the result of each institution. The One stop shop system is
dependent from systems of other institutions and even more, procedures of one institution are
dependent from the registers or systems of few other institutions.

Any country that would like to create a friendlier environment for companies can reuse the
project and its concept. If they fulfil all main conditions:
1. They must have a political agreement on implementation of the system, adoption of the
legislation.
2. Institutions must have developed their system in order to communicate with other systems
3. Registers in the country must be built
4. Budget is assured

From these 4 conditions arise some other needed elements for implementation of such system:
- flexible civil servants who can run or be a member of such project, management that understands the needs of the project, that give directions to project leader
- appropriate system of public tenders
- appropriate mentality and computer literacy of users of such services
- experienced contractors
- etc..

In that case any county can achieve such results as Slovenia did.

Sustainable

The system supports constant self employment and it can help with reducing unemployment due to 0 EURO costs for establishing a company. It is friendly application and it offers simple services online or physically. It can be used at the time of making registration of a company and later when a company is already existing. With the training of civil servants it is cared for permanent knowledge and therefore information given to companies are better. The system has constant development and offers new procedures and lately project has expanded to other areas as promotion and in next month there are going to be organised trainings for future entrepreneurs.
The system is environmentally kind because it supports online support to more than 1,6 mio procedure.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
Key elements for success

The project is successful due to fact that is constantly run by independent institution that coordinates other institutions and users. All institutions have their own interest to cooperate. Therefore the cooperation of the institution is good. The project is co financed by European Union and that allows constant development and training of civil servants.

Technological solution enables One stop shop concept. That means that when a user sends and application for registration into the system, he can at the same time send other applications. Those applications wait in the system until the system receives the information that the company has been registered in court/business register. At that time the systems sends all other data (tax, health insurance etc.) to competent institutions together with the data about now already existing company.
Technical and legal experts, lecturers work together on the project and that enables fast development and effective training.

Users of the system has wide substantively and technical support for using the system.

Lessons leaned


1. Appropriate and on time communication, understanding of problems of each involved and motivation can solve most of the issues and problems. If they are not presented and are hidden, they pose bigger threat to the project as they would if exposed early enough. Encouragement not punishment of member is needed. When there is a problem and made wrong decision, any of the institutions should attack other institution for the mistake. It does not bring a progress and even more, it can happen to anyone.
2. All stakeholders in such integration system must be taken equal despite good experience with some of them from the past. In our project the strongest stakeholder by our best conviction in the beginning of the project and even all to the production demonstrated as the stakeholder where we should put more attention to its development.
3. Without strong support of the highest level of the Government, strong budget, experienced contractors and team members with strong affiliation to the project, success of so strong integrated project with so many possible conflict points is impossible.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   Ministry of Public Administration
Institution Type:   Government Agency  
Contact Person:   Teja Batagelj
Title:   higher advisor  
Telephone/ Fax:   +38614788593
Institution's / Project's Website:   +38614788649
E-mail:   teja.batagelj@gov.si  
Address:   Tržaška 21
Postal Code:   1000
City:   Ljubljana
State/Province:  
Country:   Slovenia

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