Customer
In addition to coordinating Austrian government policy, the Federal Chancellery (BKA) is also responsible for the dissemination of information for the federal government. A part of this dissemination work is the Legislative Information System.
Highlights
- Comprehensive database of the Austrian law
- Numerous search criteria and full text search
- Faithful representation of the laws in the RIS
- 100% barrier-free access thanks to WAI compliance
- Browser-independence
- Migration and standardisation of data
- Continuous availability even during the transition period
- Short project lead time
The problem
Since 1997, the Legislative Information System is accessible on the Internet, allowing citizens to view Austrian law and selected judicature online free of charge and search the database by various criteria. While at the beginning there were only a few thousand visitors per day, this number has grown steadily over the years.
„Since the advantages of the technological progress could no longer be implemented with the old Web application, we had to completely re-design it. In addition, there was also the requirement to make government applications accessible to all citizens“, explains Mag. Brigitte Barotanyi, RIS project manager at the Austrian Federal Chancellery.
The solution
The Federal Chancellery opted for RUBICON as the partner for the new development, because the re-motion framework optimally supports the E-Government style guide and convinced in terms of WAI conformity. IT professionals of the BKA were able to actively participate in the development, which meant that the first applications of the RIS based on the new technology were ready for use in a record time of only three months.
„Thanks to the use of our development framework re-motion, we were able to demonstrate the effectiveness after only a very short period. Thanks to our experience in implementing large software projects for public administrations and our excellent partnership with Microsoft, we were also able to meet all the challenges of this project and respond flexibly to changing circumstances“, says Christian Walter, project manager at RUBICON.
Facts & Figures
- 6 mio. queries per day
- 2.4 bil. queries per year
- More than 1.5 mio. documents
as in 2013
Technologies
- MS .NET
- Windows Server
- MS SQL Server
- IIS
The Challenges
In addition to the short turnaround time, the migration of the historic legacy data to the new version was the biggest challenge, because the RIS comprises a large number of applications with different data. In addition to the documentation of consolidated federal law, the RIS is also used to publish federal law gazettes. Likewise, the RIS is used by the states as well as some municipalities to documenttheir legal norms. The service is completed by applications of the Austrian judicature. The different data of the numerous applications first had to be migrated and then processed so that they reflected a uniform picture in the RIS.
Within a year, all 32 applications were on the new platform and in operation – 100% WAI compatible and accessible with any browser. In addition, it was necessary to maintain the availability of the RIS even during the transition phase, because the legally binding publications of the federal law gazettes had to be ensured. Since then there have been no unplanned service interruptions.
The result
Every day, around 6 million queries are recorded at www.ris.bka.gv.at. This equals about 2.4 billion queries a year – and counting. Today more than 1.5 million documents can be accessed through RIS and be searched using various search criteria or full text search.
„With the RIS we can offer citizens access to a clear and comprehensive online database of Austrian law. Thanks to the numerous search functions, the wealth of information can be systematically used by everybody depending on his or her needs. This is also noticeable in the traffic“
