Common Ground without fairy tales: the things that really work

Nine years after Common Ground was launched, the programme is needed more than ever. The world outside is in turmoil, municipal budgets are under pressure, and tech vendors have municipalities in a stranglehold. Yet many municipalities are still at the very start of the transition. And that’s not only down to the practical side. The fairy tales going around about Common Ground aren’t helping the programme advance. So, here's a clear-eyed look at the move to Common Ground. What are the things that really work?

From silo spaghetti to clean lines

The core goal of Common Ground: better service to citizens and reduce complexities in the work for municipal staff. Using modern IT facilities, without silos held together by spaghetti connections, without data copies, and with autonomy for municipalities.

Currently, all-in-one packages, data copies and dependencies on your vendor are sending you down a dead-end street. And that is exactly where Common Ground does a 180.

Common Ground is also meant for sharing knowledge, best practices and solutions. Something built by municipality A should also be usable for municipalities B, C and D.

Yet we often see the assumption that 'my situation' is too unique to use jointly developed software, when in most cases sharing works perfectly well.

Common Ground in context: the world outside

Another big mistake would be to see Common Ground as a stand-alone programme. The world keeps turning, and it seems to be turning faster and more erratically than ever.

Under the Trump administration, the danger of a show-stopping 'red button' is closer than ever, especially because municipalities rely heavily on American big tech for their hosting and software. The step towards digital autonomy means being able to leave when you want to leave, not being able to leave only when your vendor allows it.

On top of that, this dependence on big tech reinforces vendor lock-in. Municipalities face unfavourable contracts and steep price increases. Prices for Microsoft 365 subscriptions rose between 5% and a staggering 33% as of 1 July. And Microsoft is far from the only one.

Within municipalities and municipal IT

Inside your own municipality, it’s not plain sailing either. The central government has offloaded more and more tasks, and they have all landed on the municipalities' plate. Budgets, of course, don't grow to match.

And Common Ground isn't the only challenge facing IT and information departments. Haven provides a standard for cloud-independent hosting. The number of APIs is growing, and with it the roll-out of the FSC standard. Let's not forget the regulations that have been around for awhile but still cause headaches, such as the Open Government Act (Woo) and the GDPR.

In today's chaos, Common Ground won't solve all your problems. But municipalities that are fully engaged with it have more control, make fewer mistakes and spend less.

Don't let Common Ground fairy tales scare you off

Despite these benefits, many municipalities are still hesitant to make the switch. It certainly asks something of your organisation, but in many cases, these are fairy tales being told. Which ones?

A greenfield doesn't exist

When it comes to Common Ground, grand visions and green fields are regularly painted. As if the silo spaghetti gets untangled in one go, or ZDS is phased out with a quick 'poof'. That doesn't exist. There is no municipality that can reach the ideal situation in a single move. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be manoeuvring in that direction.

A smart follower becomes a laggard in no time

Alongside the front-runners, many municipalities count themselves among the 'smart followers'. They watch what the front-runners do and benefit from the foundation those front-runners have laid. The trouble is that we see that smart followers often don't follow at all but wait and see. That's how you quickly become a laggard, and that's where things can go badly wrong.

Not only does the transition to Common Ground become an ever-bigger leap, but you can also get into serious trouble. Common Ground is an essential step towards complying with the Open Government Act (Woo) and the GDPR. And towards connecting new applications. By waiting it out, you run the risk of breaking the law and getting stuck when it comes to IT modernisation.

Common Ground doesn't make IT more complex

The architecture diagram for Common Ground looks completely different from the one for the current situation. No more silo spaghetti, but neat blocks with tidy lines running across five layers.

It can easily look as if this makes IT more complex. But once you have the first three layers in order, the data layer, the service layer with APIs, and the integration layer, connecting the individual blocks is far easier than working with monolithic silos.

Common Ground is precisely for smaller municipalities

Because of the new architecture and the adjustments involved, it can look as if Common Ground is reserved for the largest municipalities, the ones with their own IT teams and the resources to guide the transition from start to finish. However, smaller municipalities benefit the most from Common Ground, even if the switch takes more effort.

The modular structure of applications sharply reduces dependence on vendors, something smaller municipalities suffer from most. They don't have the purchasing power of the large city groupings (G4, G40, or even M50). Decoupling gives you more choice, and therefore more power for you as a customer.

The move to Common Ground: how do you get there?

Don't believe the fairy tales and use Common Ground to face the outside world. That is nicely put, but how exactly do you do this? The good news is that it can be done in small steps. It doesn't have to and it can't happen all at once. So which steps can you take?

Start with an overview

Which applications are actually in your landscape? How are they connected? Where does the data come from? Is it data straight from the source or a copy? What does your full architecture landscape look like? What does your data model look like? Do you even have a data model?

Knowing where to start, or what your next step with Common Ground is, begins with knowing where you stand now. That shows you which applications are isolated and easy to replace, where the most data copies are in use, and therefore where the risk of outdated data and errors is highest.

You can often get a long way on your own. But if you need help with the inventory, there are plenty of external parties that can create that overview. At WeAreFrank! we offer architecture sessions: a full day in which we answer all your questions about information architecture, integrations and Common Ground.

Seize the opportunities that are there now

Is a contract with an existing party coming to an end? Is there a process that needs to be redesigned or adjusted? Is there one particular application everyone complains about? Is there suddenly an alderman or director who wants something that fits with Common Ground? Getting started is often a matter of seizing the opportunities that come along.

Sittard-Geleen is a great example of this. When they began the transition, they looked at which contracts were expiring. Instead of renewing for several years, they often renewed for just one. That made it much easier to migrate applications and infrastructure to solutions that fit within Common Ground.

Let the present exist alongside the future

Common Ground isn't black and white. Big tech can exist alongside open source. You can run case-based working (Zaakgericht werken) and its associated applications alongside Zaak- en documentservices.

With data virtualisation, your data warehouse doesn't have to go just yet, but you can still pull more data from the source for insights. And for data you need to use in applications, you put Haal Centraal alongside your existing data store.

From all-in-one procurement to separate contracts

Many tenders are still put out as a all-in-one procurement. The result: the product is inextricably tied to the service. If you separate the choice of product from the service, you give yourself the option to choose your product first. 

That way you aren't stuck with a product that comes bundled with the vendor and isn't actually the best fit. It also gives you the flexibility, once the contract term ends, to keep the chosen product with a different service provider, or the other way around.

Decouple your applications

Breaking down the silos and untangling the spaghetti starts with decoupling. Decoupling your applications from the data store, connecting new applications directly to the data source. You do this by connecting through an integration framework. That way you aren't dependent on the vendor of the application and can switch providers more easily.

Don't forget the non-IT side

It took Sittard-Geleen five years to move from initial awareness to action. Partly because they were one of the first municipalities to move to Common Ground. But also, because the 'soft' side of Common Ground deserves just as much attention: senior management, the municipal executive board and the council, colleagues from other departments.

All of them are affected by Common Ground in one way or another. So don't forget to plant seeds, build enthusiasm and bring people along. Above all, lead with the benefits that go beyond IT: better serving citizens, making work easier for staff, more control over costs, and less dependence.

Integration as the engine behind Common Ground

In the move from today’s municipal IT setup to Common Ground, integration plays a crucial role. Both in connecting all the new applications that fetch their data at the source, and in bridging the present and the future. The data stores, Zaak- en documentservices and other StUF applications won't simply disappear.

They will exist alongside the new setup for the foreseeable future. To make both work and communicate seamlessly, you need integrations that translate between systems.

What's more, decoupling is only possible if you connect your applications in an independent way. Use the vendor's built-in APIs and connectors, and you'll end up with old-fashioned spaghetti in your IT landscape again. And that is precisely what we want to get away from.

Want to know more about how integration helps you move to Common Ground? Get in touch with us for an introductory conversation or a demo of the Frank!Framework.