The Municipality of Watermael-Boitsfort supports citizens every day with a wide range of administrative procedures, including those managed by its Civil Status and Population and Foreigners’ Office. This department handles sensitive files containing many supporting documents, administrative exchanges, and information that must be stored, shared, updated, and tracked with accuracy.

To improve day-to-day operations, the municipality wanted to modernize the way documents and case files were managed, making information easier to access for agents and ensuring better follow-up of each request.

The project focused on implementing a centralized solution for the storage, digitalization, and management of documents related to the Foreigners’ Office. The solution needed to help municipal agents access documents easily, track exchanges with the Immigration Office, and synchronize key information with Saphir, the municipality’s master business application.

Beyond document digitalization, the project aimed to structure the full document management process: creating and updating case files, classifying documents, searching for information, tracking document submissions, and enabling shared access for the services involved.

The municipality wanted to:

Digitalize Foreigners’ Office case files; Centralize document storage in a shared database; Make case file information easier to access; Simplify and trace the submission of information to the Immigration Office; Automate the creation and update of case files through synchronization with Saphir; Implement a scalable solution that could evolve with future municipal needs.

The Foreigners’ Office manages administrative files that require precision, traceability, and easy access to information. Each file may contain several types of documents, sometimes connected through specific relationships defined by the municipality.

Agents needed a reliable way to find the right information quickly, add new documents to the correct file, and follow each step of the administrative process without losing time.

The municipality also wanted the solution to support document sharing, storage, and digitalization across other municipal services, not only the Foreigners’ Office.

Key Pain Points

Before the project, the municipality faced several operational challenges:

Documents were not sufficiently centralized or easy to retrieve; Exchanges with the Immigration Office needed stronger traceability; Some features had to reflect specific municipal requirements, such as the way case files are linked to each other; The creation and update of files had to be synchronized with Saphir; Agents needed a solution that was practical, intuitive, and adapted to their daily work.

IRIS started with on-site workshops to understand the municipality’s operational needs, user profiles, document volumes, team structure, and specific requirements of the Foreigners’ Office. Based on this analysis, IRIS adapted the BAE solution to the municipality’s context, defined the required configuration, and provided templates to help prepare the project before launch.

The solution was then installed, verified, and deployed through practical workshops with administrators and agents. These sessions helped users create key project elements, learn how to classify and search documents, and integrate the tool into their daily work. A go-live support period was also planned to assist teams during the first weeks of use.

The final configuration was tailored to the municipality’s needs, including file structure, links between files, centralized storage, Saphir synchronization, and traceability of document submissions to the Immigration Office.