The Government Of Bermuda Quickly Delivers Paperless Services

As part of the Government of Bermuda’s Paperless Initiative, a cross Ministry team of public officers were tasked to completely digitise its paper processes. In this low-code development case study, we’ll explain how the team used Plant an App to successfully establish a single approach for the electronic exchange of information within Government.

The Challenge

The Government of Bermuda’s need to create digital forms was hastened by the onset of COVID-19. The isolating impact of the pandemic created a more immediate need for the Government to keep in contact with its citizens, and to develop accessible, digital touchpoints. This was coupled with the fact that citizens were showing an increased preference to use mobile devices to engage with Government systems.

Along with the need to satisfy citizen demand, there was a growing requirement to offer services and information to businesses and private clients. Pressure was therefore put on the Government to adopt cost-effective processes that would keep data current.

Responsible for this digital transformation were a ‘Paperless Team’ of public officers, consisting of only three primary developers. The team urgently required ways to deliver in-house solutions under tight deadlines. Their long search led them to various SaaS tools, but not many were suitable, either having steep learning curves, or being too limited in scope. Furthermore, not all vendors offered on-premise capabilities, which would cause issues regarding the Government’s strict data regulations.

The Solution

After several months of research, Plant an App’s diverse use cases attracted the attention of the Government’s David Wellman, Assistant Director of the Department of Information and Digital Technologies. Meeting David’s criteria, the Plant an App platform was one even a small team could handle, with nobody would being left alienated.

Partnered with Plant an App, David shared how he and his small team were able to start prototyping dashboards within short time periods, using the platform to leverage their individual talents and areas of expertise. With mentoring from Plant an App’s low-code experts, the whole team could contribute their combined skill and knowledge towards application design.

The Plant an App low-code development platform has allowed my three developers
to deliver sophisticated applications within the first several weeks of using the
platform

The Result

Using Plant an App, the small group were empowered to quickly develop paperless solutions, using visually-aided tools and sophisticated workflows to create customer portals. These applications could be functional within a day, complete with complex back-end data.

Using Plant an App, the team’s wider achievements included:

●  Being able to act like a group triple their size
●  Managing to save the Government thousands of dollars
●  Being roughly two years ahead of schedule
●  Maintaining strict governance standards regarding data usage
●  Creating applications that generated citizen interest and engagement

David and the team’s solutions played a vital role in fulfilling the Government’s Paperless Initiative, changing the way it could interact with internal and external services. The team’s performance was so highly regarded, that they even won a public excellence award.

Not resting on their laurels, the team are currently looking to leverage APIs to deliver their next phase of operations, moving closer to an open government model. By bringing in third party applications and external developers, they hope to start empowering the communities around them.