The Belgium experience: Achieving Social Sector Interoperability

The 2nd “Talking Interoperability” dialogue series discussed the experience of the Crossroads Bank for Social Security (CBSS) achieving interoperability across 3,000 social sector actors in Belgium. The electronic data exchange amongst the actors in the social sectors takes place by way of an integrated functional and technical interoperability platform which complies with strict security standards and is based on modern technologies such as service and object orientation, component-based development, multichannel service provision, open standards, reutilization, cloud computing, and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) synergies within social security institutions.

This interoperability effort has been central to facilitating the automatic approval of most social benefits and subsidy rights in Belgium, in turn resulting in significant public savings and reduction in administrative burden.