SPOKU – Application submission and processing system
About this good practice
At the times of submitting applications and confirming participation in hobby activities, people stood in long queues behind the municipality department’s (i.e. the Department of Culture’s) door. Around 5000 people visited in person and 500 paper-based applications arrived each month, which meant a lot of manual scanning and registration.
The municipality wanted az online service with the following system requirements: - Entering through strong authentication - Interfacing with national registers - Data exchange with city government systems - Easily submitted and corrected applications - Electronic confirmation of participation in hobby activities - Electronic submission of reports - Automatic notifications
The result – SPOKU – is a public e-service which allows citizens and enterprises to submit different applications to Tartu City (for grants, land tax exemption, felling permits, etc.). The system works as a self-service environment where the users can easily follow the information about the application process – it aims to simplify everything for the sake of both the citizens and the municipality officials.
SPOKU does not adapt all services the local municipality offers: today there are approximately 40 direct public services included (out of 430) in it.
Resources needed
Development of the system in 2007-2008 – 19 000 € There have been several additional developments within the years. The yearly maintenance of SPOKU is about 11 000 € + ongoing developments, linking with other systems, etc.
Evidence of success
The system is used by 37 municipalities of Estonia, this is one of the few information systems which has been developed at the level of local government but was implemented widely.
Potential for learning or transfer
From the initial simple information system of applying for financial support from the Department of Culture, a flexible and versatile platform has been developed. Today, SPOKU is used by 37 local governments nationally (there are 79 local governments in Estonia overall).
Most of the communication with the municipality does not require complex processes. The clear self-service model – where simple applications or public services are gathered into one e-platform and become easily manageable – is possible to transfer to municipalities in other countries.