Croatia Builds New Mobile Government on IBM Mainframe - citizens can now access critical services in just minutes

ZAGREB, Croatia, Sept. 11, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) and APIS IT Ltd., the company that provides strategic, professional and implementation services to the public and Government sector organizations of the Republic of Croatia, today announced the deployment of a new IT infrastructure that will modernize the delivery of government services to the citizens of Croatia. 

The new government project "e-Gradani" (e-Citizens) will greatly benefit from the IBM IT infrastructure as the mainframe environment will help enable faster and more secure access to government services.

Croatian citizens will have the option to open an e-Citizen Inbox in which they can receive a wide range of information from various public institutions now offered in a single unified environment. For example, they can be informed about passport expiry date, tax payment due date, pet vaccination schedule, insurance status and many other tasks that typically required lengthy visits to ministry offices or separate websites. By using the application mPretinac, citizens may also choose to receive those messages on their mobile and smart devices and get real time alerts for every new message.

"The great advantage of the new system is that it makes life easier for Croats as it saves their time because they do not need to physically go to counters of public institutions," said Danijela Marovic, Managing Director, Business Operations, APIS IT. "With one password and one user name it is now possible to 'electronically walk among public institutions.' Citizens can use the secure site to download documents such as birth or marriage certificates, ascertain personal medical doctor or choose where they want to vote. The system can even tap into the school directories and enable parents to track the progress of their children at school." 

"This long term project delivers the core communication and security infrastructure for the Croatian mGovernment strategy, helping integrate important information and applications across a number of different government departments," said Zdravko Dragicevic, Managing Director IT Operations, and APIS IT. "The robust mainframe platform will enable us to transfer selected eGovernment services directly to a mobile platform, enabling flexible working and providing citizen services anytime, anywhere. We estimate that our operational efficiency will increase as a result of using the most reliable and secure platform on the market." 

The IBM mainframe also supports the Croatian government by helping to standardize key data about citizens and businesses. Many registries will be integrated into the system along with other departments including the information systems of the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Public Administration. As a result of this integration, numerous government processes can be optimized, including taxes, birth, death and social security registration. 

The new IT infrastructure, based on IBM zEC12 703, helps to secure sensitive information and ensure interconnectivity and interoperability among Croatian government bodies, individuals and the European organizations. It helps to modernize and simplify dealings with citizens and can advance Croatia's integration into the European Union (EU) systems. 

"Croatia recognizes the importance of online communication in providing efficient public services and IBM has been working with the Croatian government on its eGovernment and mGovernment strategies," said Damir Zec, Country Sales Leader, IBM Croatia. "Through our partnership with APIS IT, we have put in place a core infrastructure that helps to reliably and securely handle high volumes of data and transactions, and allowing easy access to government services."

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IBM Media Relations
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Mirjana Badurina
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SOURCE IBM