In its annual report, Smals looks back on how it continues to build the digital government in a challenging year for the ICT sector. Collaboration, reuse, and AI form the foundations.
The government sometimes faces criticism for slow implementation or high costs of digitization projects, but Smals shows that it can be done differently. In the annual report for 2024 published today, the ICT service provider for the Belgian public sector reflects on a year full of technological progress, with tangible results for social security, healthcare, and broader government services.
First, the figures: Smals saw its turnover grow to 573.6 million euros and welcomed more than two hundred new employees. The workforce counted 2251 employees at the end of 2024. This is striking, as the ICT sector did not have its easiest year.
Many companies put the brakes on new hires and even cut down on the number of employees. A smart combination of reuse, collaboration, and innovation with an eye for security and sustainability is the key to success for Smals.
Belgium Leader in eHealth
Smals opens the annual report with a pat on its own back. Since 2024, Belgium can call itself the European champion in eHealth. Our country scores a perfect score (with Estonia as the only other member state) in all categories of the European Commission’s Digital Decade eHealth Indicator Study. Behind this achievement lies Smals’ commitment to the eHealth platform, which supports more than seventeen billion transactions per year.
The security of the platform is ensured with techniques such as pseudonymization and an infrastructure that runs 24/7 on the Belgian G-Cloud (where G stands for Government, and not another large cloud company whose name begins with G). “The patient has full control over their health information”, emphasize Smals chairwoman Anne Kirsch and managing director Frank Robben in their foreword. Millions of Belgians have now given informed consent for digital data exchange.
e-Gov 3.0
Smals is also not standing still in the field of administrative simplification. The e-Gov 3.0 program lays new digital foundations for social security. A concrete example is the revision of the DmfA declaration for granting social rights. The successor is built around a unique data model, which enables real-time services and reduces administrative burdens.
Under the name Flexi at Work, Smals, together with the NSSO, launched an application that helps employees to monitor their taxable ceiling for flexi-jobs in real-time. Employers can now also more easily provide their wage data, and this information is immediately processed in the career database.
In addition, self-employed individuals and employers gain access to a modern digital environment for social-administrative services through the new MyPortal – with a personalized interface and integration of dynamic forms.
Reuse
Smals proves that working cheaper and faster is possible without compromising on quality with its ReUse catalog. This collection of more than 100 reusable IT components – from APIs and libraries to standard modules – made savings of over 45 million euros possible in 2024, thanks to structural reuse in ICT projects.
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Sixty percent of the functionality in new projects was realized through existing components. Tools such as Wave for process management or Reference Data Management are now widely applicable at affiliated institutions such as NSSO, NEO, or the eHealth platform.
The G-Cloud program also delivered concrete value again: 54.3 million euros in economies of scale in 2024. The shared cloud infrastructure accelerates projects while meeting the stricter requirements of NIS2 and information security.
AI without Hype
Smals takes a pragmatic approach to artificial intelligence. With the Smals AI Competence Center, the organization investigates how AI can be concretely deployed within a government context. This can range from automated document processing and semantic searching to software development using code assistants.
A notable project is the use of Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) for chatbot development, including within Student@Work. Smals is also investigating how GraphRAG and guardrails can help make AI answers more reliable and secure.
Additionally, legacy software also receives the necessary attention. Can AI help analyze poorly documented systems and migrate them step by step? Smals is setting up pilot trajectories for this, including automatic documentation and refactoring support using generative AI.
Cybersecurity and Sovereignty
With the arrival of the NIS2 directive and increased geopolitical tensions, cybersecurity is higher on the agenda than ever in the public sector. Over the past year, Smals again fully committed to cryptographic innovation, including post-quantum cryptography, confidential computing, and zero-knowledge proofs. These techniques allow for secure data sharing without releasing identifiable information.
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The European digital identity wallet, in which citizens will be able to manage their most important documents such as identity cards or the European Health Insurance Card, is also supported by Smals through the DC4EU consortium. The MyGov.be app, which Smals worked on behind the scenes, was launched in May 2024.
Smals itself sticks to a hybrid cloud strategy. American hyperscalers are no longer the obvious choice today. Instead, Smals seeks a balance between public cloud and a shared community cloud, with guarantees in terms of data sovereignty.
Sustainable and People-Oriented
In addition to technology, Smals invests in sustainability and well-being. The Feelgood@Smals program promotes physical and mental health in the workplace. Smals also wants to focus on diversity: in 2024, people from 29 countries worked at Smals, and more than 300 women hold ICT positions.
On the environmental front, data centers and offices are equipped with solar panels. In 2024, 74 MWh of green energy was generated at the headquarters alone, resulting in a CO₂ reduction of 31.5 tons. The collaboration with Out of Use for ICT recycling resulted in 71 m² of new forest planting through Natuurpunt.
In the annual report, Smals shows that digitization in the public sector can be efficient, secure, and people-oriented, if approached smartly. Reuse, collaboration, and a realistic vision on AI form the cornerstones of this approach. In times when the government is under more pressure than ever to modernize and save costs, Smals sets a good example, with results.
This editorial contribution was created in collaboration with Smals. The full activity report can be consulted here.