BZelf at the missions

Operational management in Niamey

‘BZelf really helps us do our work efficiently,’ says Eunice. She's worked at BZ since 2006 and has had several postings and assignments abroad. After finishing the operational management course, she began as operational manager at the embassy in Niamey. The role brings responsibilities in a wide range of areas, from digital security to real estate to consular work, particularly in matters relating to general affairs. ‘You can’t overstate the value of having round-the-clock access to the information you need. Particularly for a new mission like ours - we’ve only been a fully-fledged embassy since 2020, so we have a lot of new staff. We use BZelf for all kinds of operational management requests and questions. When we were recruiting a local employee for general affairs, it was very important to me that, besides French, they would also speak good enough English to use BZelf and our other systems.’

BZelf and HBBZ

Jeroen Smoorenburg talks about the development of BZelf: ‘In 2021 we were working hard to decide what BZelf was going to be, and how it could help everyone at BZ to look for the product they needed, find it and then get it.

The first version of BZelf had 150 products available. We showed it to staff and asked them what they thought it would be like using it in practice. That brought us continual new insights as to how to make the platform easier, better and more attractive. And we kept adding new products and services.
Cooperating with the Financial and Economic Affairs Department (FEZ) was a real turning point. They were looking for a platform for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Operational Procedures Manual (HBBZ). Once we integrated that into BZelf, the number of people using BZelf grew exponentially.’

Google

For people doing the demanding work of an operational manager abroad, BZelf serves as a reliable search engine regardless of the circumstances. ‘BZelf is my Google,’ says Eunice. ‘It lets me look for and find information about everything, from staff residences to engaging external staff to templates for contracts, plus the things I need for consular affairs. You type in a word and it gives you a number of hits. You also get a link to the relevant request form in the BZ Self Service Portal (SSP), which is really convenient. When you look for service contracts, you immediately get the latest version of the right one, and a copy in French too, for example. It's such a big help in doing my work they way I need to, particularly in a challenging environment like this.’

Coup

When there was a coup in Niger last summer, Eunice was responsible for organising the evacuation of Dutch nationals from the country, along with non-essential staff and partners and children, including her own family. ‘That was a daunting task, so it was good to know I had round-the-clock access to the information I needed. Activity at the embassy was scaled back and only two of us from the management team stayed here during the coup: me and the ambassador. Non-essential staff returned in January, but partners and children aren’t allowed to yet, so my family has been in the Netherlands since last summer.’

Generator

A lot of sanctions were imposed in the wake of the coup, and one effect of that has been a lack of supply to Niger's electricity grid. Luckily the mission had bought a new generator just prior to the coup; it disposed of the old one after it. ‘Thanks to BZelf it was easy for me to find the rules on disposing of goods. There's so much information in BZelf,’ says Eunice. ‘In fact, I can always find everything I need to know. It's also very handy to have the news feed with the most recent changes, deadlines and updated information. And if we do run into any problems, we can rely on a good helpdesk. But having BZelf means I don’t have to call my colleagues in The Hague every time I have a question.’

2023: Yellow-coloured pages

Jeroen explains how BZelf has been expanded further over the past year. ‘BZelf went live in January 2023 with 518 products and 310 pages of the Operational Procedures Manual (HBBZ). We were seeing 1,750 searches per week and 350 unique visitors per day. We have 83 active editors keeping the pages up to date. But that wasn’t all that happened in 2023,’ says Jeroen. ‘Demand for non-product-related information prompted us to introduce yellow-coloured pages, which contain onboarding information, consular knowledge banks and instructions. BZelf also has extensive documentation for the new financial systems and processes.  As of today we have 255 yellow-coloured pages, and we're adding more all the time!’ The BZelf team joined forces with 3W WorldWide Working to develop the Customer Journey Configurator, or Flamingo, a software extension that makes it easy to automate repetitive processes. This is now being integrated in Consular Service Organisation processes, like the one used to issue travel documents. Doing this reduces the chance of mistakes and improves service.

Webshop feature

So is work on BZelf finished now? ‘Not at all,’ says Jeroen. ‘We work every day to keep the pages up to date. New departments join, and we're even working on a webshop feature that will make it easier to request hardware and software. With Planon due to be replaced in 2024, we're also looking for ways to optimise things in that area. We will continuously improve BZelf to keep up with what staff at BZ need.’