Transparency, accessibility, responsiveness to citizen needs—these are the pillars of an open government. Năvodari’s Town Hall in Romania delivers them using the power of Regista, a Microsoft Azure-based cloud platform providing document management, registration services, tax payments, and management of public requests. As a result, Navodari’s citizens can seamlessly submit requests, track cases, and review regulations from their phone or computer. While they save hours on town hall visits, civil servants keep a close check on over 200,000 documents and work more efficiently.
Almost 44,000 citizens live in Năvodari, Romania. To provide them with quality public services, the town hall pushes the envelope with a bold vision. “The goal of all town halls should be to get close to citizens, their needs and problems, and come up with solutions,“ starts Costel Dumitrașcu, Vice-Mayor at Năvodari Town Hall. “They expect local government services to evolve, and digitization is part of that process.”
To meet these expectations, the town authorities wanted a digital platform to bring public services online. “We carefully evaluated several solutions to facilitate interacting with our officials without leaving one’s home,” explains the Vice-Mayor.
After a careful selection process, Năvodari Town Hall chose Regista, a Microsoft Azure-based document management and registration application. “It is used by more than 1,000 local authorities across Romania. And since it is backed by Microsoft, it provides the scale, high availability, and airtight security we need,” says Vice-Mayor Dumitrașcu.
Civil services made easy
Năvodari’s citizens can access Regista through a web browser or an Android app to report an incident, fill out a form, or send a request to the town hall, for all of their public service needs. “For example, if you are walking in a park and see a fallen tree, you can take a photo and send an online request to get it removed. The location and time of the report are added automatically,” says the Vice-Mayor. Regista also enables citizens to schedule appointments for transactions such as car registrations or getting an ID. Requirements are rather simple, as one only needs an email address and a password. Residents of Năvodari can now get the above services done in 10 minutes without queuing at the town hall.
“Although we have physically moved away from citizens, we have brought them closer to our government.”
Costel Dumitrașcu, Vice Mayor, Năvodari Town Hall
Navodari’s main database—maintained in Azure—also allows for a fast document search and retrieval, using a reference number or even a specific keyword. “We provide access to all local council decisions, projects, provisions, and regulations,” says the Vice-Mayor. “You search for a keyword, and all relevant regulations appear.”
Approvals also became more efficient. The Vice-Mayor illustrates this with his own experiences, before and after using Regista. “Before this digital change, I had to physically go to the hall to check the status of an application I sent two weeks earlier. It took me 20 minutes just to track down my paperwork in the giant physical register, walking from one desk to another. Today, I can search each case online and get all the details within seconds.”
Thousands of appointments, all online
With Regista, town officials also find it easier to track cases, while supervisors can better understand and manage workloads. “I can see how much work clerks have and how fast they process the cases. This improves decision-making and streamlines services in the entire town hall because we need to consider not just the individual impact on efficiency but also the timesaving for the entire team that we have with us,” says Vice-Mayor Dumitrașcu. Since the switch, more than 10,000 activities have been conducted online. “We’ve digitized more than 200,000 documents and made more than 6,000 appointments. About 15 percent of the town population has already interacted with us online,” he reveals.
What is the town hall looking at in the future? Payment modules and tax accounts—all of them online. “Everyone should be able to access their tax account, check their balance, and pay taxes online,” Vice-Mayor Dumitrașcu explains. Plans include adding electronic signatures to enable even more online services. “Although we have physically moved away from citizens, we have brought them closer to our government,” the Vice Mayor sums up.
Follow Microsoft