Connect your systems with Haal Centraal, without a DDS
With the Haal Centraal Connector, you can seamlessly connect your systems to Haal Centraal (the Dutch government’s standard for retrieving data directly from the source). No DDS required. Even if your systems expect a DDS (data distribution system), the connector acts as if the DDS is still there, so for your systems nothing appears to have changed.
Haal Centraal is a great initiative
With the APIs from Haal Centraal, the Dutch government program for retrieving data directly from national registries, you can now request personal data straight from the source. Convenient. By retrieving data directly at the source:
→ You prevent errors
→ Your data is always up to date
→ You can serve citizens faster
There is just one big problem…
Not all municipal systems are set up for a direct connection with Haal Centraal. Many still expect a DDS. The result?
Municipalities often think they only have two options:
- Rebuild all systems (expensive and time consuming)
- Continue working with a DDS
Most end up choosing option 2.
(Spoiler… there is a third, much better option. Our connector.)
First of all, the costs of a DDS are very high. You end up paying enormous amounts for licenses and storage. And because of vendor lock-in, suppliers can raise their prices as much as they like. Especially with the financial challenges municipalities are facing in the coming years, that money is needed for far more important things.
A DDS retrieves data from the national registries at fixed intervals and stores a copy. Your systems then use that copy. This means you are not working with real time data, but with information that is outdated and potentially inaccurate. This can lead to errors in permit processes and other public services.
Municipalities are required to work with open source software, as it is considered more secure. A DDS is usually not open source. In addition, guidelines from the VNG state that data must be retrieved directly from the source. With a DDS, you do not comply with that requirement either.
Knowledge of DDS systems is gradually disappearing. IT staff who understand them are retiring, leaving you more vulnerable for the future.
Continuing to work with a DDS comes with major drawbacks
You can get rid of your DDS without changing your systems
Normally, you would need to rebuild your systems if you want to retrieve personal data directly from Haal Centraal’s APIs. That is expensive and time-consuming, especially if you need to do it for multiple systems. But with our connector, you can keep your systems exactly as they are. The connector establishes a direct connection with Haal Centraal, while making your systems believe there is still a DDS. As a result, everything keeps working just as before (for your users too).
In fact, it is completely open source and therefore free to use. You only pay for implementation and service, which can be provided by multiple partners. This means no more vendor lock-ins or sudden price hikes. On top of that, you save significantly on storage costs since you no longer need to keep copies of the data.
Implementation is simple and fast. It is like a surgical intervention where only your DDS is replaced. The rest of your IT landscape remains intact. No large projects, no hassle.
The Haal Centraal Connector is open source, which means the source code is fully public and every improvement becomes immediately available to all users. If one municipality has the connector improved, all other municipalities benefit as well.
A well known issue with the current Haal Centraal APIs is the lack of an important feature: your systems do not automatically receive a signal when data in the personal records database is updated. With your current DDS, you do get those notifications. We solved this by building a smart notification system into our connector. This way, your systems are immediately informed whenever data changes. You get the best of both worlds: up to date data from Haal Centraal and the notifications you are used to from your DDS.
For the techies among us: the Haal Centraal Connector automatically translates between different protocols. Your older applications can continue to use the STUF standard, while the connector communicates behind the scenes with Haal Centraal’s JSON REST APIs. New applications can connect directly with Haal Centraal through JSON REST. This way, you enable a gradual migration to modern technology.