“Beeminds created a workflow that guides the implementation of the GMM in an Azure environment step by step.
The Municipal Data Model (GGM) is a model that lays a solid foundation for information-driven work. As the spiritual father of the GGM, it is the ambition of Gemeente Delft that every municipality embraces the data model. Gemeente Delft developed the GGM in an Oracle environment, but noticed that more and more municipalities are opting for Microsoft. To make the GMM more widely applicable and to better help other municipalities, it started a pilot with the Microsoft-oriented Beeminds. Together, they demonstrated that municipalities can also implement the GMM effectively and efficiently on Microsoft Azure.
In this article, Mark Lander, Department Head of Data Management, and Ashkan Ashkpour, Senior Data Architect, talk about how the partnership with Beeminds has opened the way for innovative GMM applications in the Microsoft Azure cloud.
GMM: From internal project to a nationally applied model
‘About five to six years ago, the term information-driven working emerged,’ Mark begins. ‘That was the starting point for the municipality of Delft to develop the GMM.
We did that in an Oracle environment. Our goal was to use our data more efficiently and effectively. First, we experimented with the GMM internally for several years to understand how best to deploy the model. Soon we realized that the potential of the GMM was much broader than just for Delft. This caused us to seek collaborations with other municipalities, focusing on sharing knowledge and experiences. These collaborations were so successful that we decided to expand our networks further by also entering into partnerships with government agencies and industry suppliers.’
VNG GemeenteDelersprijs 2022
Ashkan: ‘Mid 2022 we won the VNG GemeenteDelersprijs in the c
ategorie Information Technology with our initiati
ef.
The fact that the VNG also embraces the GMM is a wonderful confirmation for us of the value of the GMM as a tool for the entire public sector.’
Collaboration Beeminds
‘In early 2023, we saw a press release come through from Beeminds via LinkedIn,’ Ashkan continued. ‘Beeminds announced to support the GMM within their Data-as-a-Service solution: the Intelligenthive. With this, Beeminds also wants to contribute to making data-driven working accessible for Dutch municipalities. This perfectly matches our vision to accelerate and simplify data-driven working based on the GMM within the public sector. Our own experience with Oracle had already taught us a lot about the power and possibilities of data management. Beeminds’ expertise with Microsoft Azure and Fabric could well open interesting doors for us.’
‘Beeminds’ expertise with Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Fabric could well open interesting doors for us.”
Win-win situation
Mark: “Reason enough for us to like Beeminds’ LinkedIn message. They contacted us and that was the beginning of a fruitful dialogue and a pleasant cooperation. Beeminds was looking for ways to help municipalities apply the GMM with their innovative solution. For us, it was interesting to explore how this cooperation could accelerate the use of the GMM. A win-win situation. The idea arose to work on a case together, to see if their solution really did what it promised. Instead of focusing on a theoretical project, we chose to reproduce our Label C project in the form of a pilot. Based on the existing mappings and dashboard, we were able to make a good comparison. Moreover, the Label C project, aimed at improving the energy performance of buildings, was
an ideal test because it is based on public data from, among others, the BAG – Basisregistratie Adressen en Gebouwen -, enriched with data on the energy labels (RVO) of all residential objects within the Municipality of Delft.’
‘During this process, the standards from the GMM were combined with the power of Beeminds’ Microsoft Azure-based data management service.’
Mark Lander – Department Head of Data Management Municipality of Delft
The Label-C dashboard
The Label C dashboard, reproduced as part of this project, provides relevant and reliable insights into energy performance in a user-friendly manner. This is further supported by the Intelligenthive Control Center, which provides overview and control over the complete data journey, from collection to visualization.
‘This pilot shows that you can also implement the GMM effectively and efficiently in a Microsoft Azure environment. That makes Beeminds a great option for municipalities that want to start working information-driven with the GMM in a Microsoft environment.’
An increasingly rich model
‘The GMM consists of two aspects,’ Ashkan explains. ‘The technical aspect – or implementation – and the model itself. We once invented and designed the logical model, but – and here comes the challenge – you then have to fill that model technically. That means you have to translate data from a system into the GMM. If we do that for system A and another municipality does that for system B, the model gets richer and richer.’
Flying start in Azure with Beeminds
Mark: ‘We have gained our experience with filling the model in an Oracle environment. Beeminds can provide the right support to realize this ‘filling process’ in the Microsoft Azure environment. Whichever solution you use, the model remains the same and the possibility of exchange is maintained. The GMM is freely available as open source through GitHub and the choice of platform depends on the needs of the municipality. Beeminds has included the GMM as standard in their Data-as-a-Service solution.’
‘You can, of course, hire someone to do the work in an Azure environment for you,’ Mark explains. ‘But Beeminds has created a workflow that guides you through the implementation in Azure. It works quite intuitively: you click on the GMM, select the part you want to implement, and create a mapping of the systems needed to populate the GMM. A nice touch is that you may already be able to reuse mappings done by other municipalities. Pretty easily you put everything into an Azure data warehouse. Their solution offers a sustainable, structured way of working that allows a municipality to reach a successful implementation step by step, including the possibility of setting up data quality scores and governance. After that, you can get straight to work with a visualization and analysis tool like Microsoft Power BI.’
GMM as standard
Ashkan: “When we started the GMM, we had hopes that suppliers would also join this initiative. The idea was that we could move much faster as municipalities if suppliers were also part of this process. And look where we are now: GMM has now become a standard, municipalities are pulling together and more and more suppliers, including Beeminds are joining this initiative. In March, we organized a national roundtable discussion to spread the implementation of GMM in the Azure environment more widely. Beeminds was there as one of the speakers.’
Experience the power of data automation without large investments or lock-in
Richard Verburg, co-founder of Beeminds, concludes: ‘The smart and secure use of data in the performance of societal tasks by the government is unimaginable. We therefore actively encourage reuse of opendata standards, such as the GMM, and believe in long-term partnerships in which we deliver added value. Because we deploy everything in the customer’s Microsoft cloud environment, our customers experience no lock-in.’
‘With the Label C project as a practical example, we have demonstrated the power of Beeminds’ Intelligenthive,’ Richard concludes. ‘As icing on the cake, the RVO mapping, crucial for providing insight into energy labels, is now a standard part of the Intelligenthive. Our vision around reusing and sharing developments comes directly to life with this. Our Data-as-a-Service solution is unique in the Netherlands.’
About Beeminds and the Intelligenthive
Beeminds believes in the power of data and sees that the road to data-driven work is unnecessarily complex for organizations. In the jungle of complex data products, it is a challenge not to get bogged down and to keep the focus on improving your business based on relevant insights. Beeminds offers a Data-as-a-Service solution: the Intelligenthive, which allows organizations to quickly and sustainably get more value out of their data.
Getting started with the Municipal Data Model (GMM) yourself? Download it here on GitHub.
Want to learn more about our solution and which municipality-specific links and use cases we include as standard? Click here for more information.
“This project perfectly illustrates how we support municipalities in accelerating their data maturity and implementation of the GMM in Azure, with minimal reliance on third parties or large investments in in-house data teams.
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