Avoid wasting time: how to enable your organisation to handle Woo requests efficiently

Woo requests are a fact of life for every public organisation. Citizens want insight into policy and decisions. The challenge? Timely and accurate delivery of information, without getting bogged down within the organisation.

In this blog, you will discover:

• The impact of Woo requests on your organisation
• How to optimise your processes for fast processing
• The role technology plays in efficient request processing
• Practical measures to remain compliant

Woo requests: what is really being asked for

Woo requests are formal requests for information based on the Open Government Act. Citizens or journalists request access to documents or processes. You are legally obliged to respond within a certain period of time. Failure to do so may result in sanctions or reputational damage.

Problem: many organisations have their data spread across different systems, outdated storage structures and inadequate metadata. As a result, processing a Woo request often takes an unnecessary amount of time.

Three steps to a more efficient process

1. ‍Make your data transparent in one place‍
   A central search portal – such as a platform like MY-LEX – makes information immediately transparent and accessible. No separate folder structures or impenetrable network drives, but a single environment with a clear overview.
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2. Establish a standard process
   ‍Ensure you have a clear Woo protocol within your organisation. Who is responsible, what are the steps, which systems are involved? This prevents time loss and inconsistencies in processing.
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3. Keep your information in order
   ‍Regularly audit for completeness and timeliness. Are documents properly classified? Is personal data sufficiently protected? This prevents errors or incompleteness in publication.

Technology as an accelerator

Tools such as those from MY-LEX not only help you find information, but also enable you to:

• Automatically detect sensitive data (such as national insurance numbers or IBAN numbers)
• Quickly redact or anonymise documents
• Centrally track the status of requests
• Export documents for public publication

By automating processes, you save hours of work – and reduce the risk of errors.

Stay compliant, avoid fines

Compliance is not a tick box exercise, but an ongoing process. This helps:

• Train your team in current regulations and the use of tools
• Record everything, from the initial request to the final publication
• Set up internal reporting channels so that questions or ambiguities can be addressed quickly

The solution: control over information with MY-LEX

MY-LEX offers a powerful platform for governments that want to professionalise their information management. From data findability to automated editing, our technology helps you respond to Woo requests faster and more accurately.

The added value of MY-LEX software in relation to the Open Government Act is that all data is accessible from a single system (including data from case systems and task-specific systems, but also unstructured data from mailboxes and network drives, among other sources). From your MY-LEX application, you can easily select the data you need and add it to a new or existing file.

We offer data managers extensive resources to improve data quality and make comprehensive selections for various purposes. This includes anonymising and redacting data: GDPR-sensitive information and data cleansing through deduplication.

Once the file is complete and the confidential data has been anonymised and checked, the Woo Coordinator can share it with the applicant at the touch of a button. It can be made publicly available to citizens via the MY-LEX API at any desired location (such as a customer portal/website) or on our own public portal.

Ready to reduce turnaround time, limit risks and make your organisation future-proof?

Contact us and discover how MY-LEX simplifies your Woo processes.