Diia: Digital State

The Kitsoft company, commissioned by the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, developed the most powerful IT platform for state services — Diia. The portal provides more than 100 popular online services, which are used by more than 19 million citizens. We continue to improve the platform and develop new online services on it.

In 2019, digitization became one of the priorities of Ukraine’s government. Volodymyr Zelenskyi, the President of Ukraine, first presented the idea of the “state in a smartphone”, convenient and transparent public online services, at the largest IT event in the country – IForum.

To implement this ambitious idea, there was created the Ministry of Digital Transformation headed by Mykhailo Fedorov. The ministry's goal is to digitize 100% of government services in order to build the most convenient country in the world. The strong commitment of the President enabled the "political will" for such large-scale changes.

This is how the path to creating a digital state, with a person at its center, began. The concept of a transparent and humane state is encoded in the acronym DIIA: "Derzhava i ya (The State and I)”.

Image: President Volodymyr Zelenskyi at IForum

In just two years, Diia became a large ecosystem of digital state services, including:

• Diia mobile application that displays personal documents, informs citizens about their fines, and conducts public opinion polls;
• Diia Web Portal, where you can get more than 100 public services: fast, convenient and approachable.

In order for users to have a holistic experience, we laid the technological foundation for the compatibility and interaction of these two platforms. 

If business has always had a true desire for innovation and speed, then at the level of state institutions, with their inherent bureaucracy, Diia became a real revolution for the country, as well as a tool for public administration during the outbreak of Сovid-19 and the russian invasion of Ukraine.

One of the biggest problems of public services is usually the disparity of information solutions. Each resource was developed by different teams that used different technologies and went through a full development cycle. This approach is expensive, long and inflexible.

After the Ministry of Digital Transformation initiated the creation of a single Diia e-services portal, our company proposed its solution and won the tender for the development of the portal.

Image: Presentation of Diia platform at Diia Summit

We have been specializing in the creation of electronic state services for many years, and we are developing our own low-code Liquio platform, on the basis of which Diia was built.

The digital platform Diia is a marketplace for various public services, each of which is a separate module. Services can be configured by business analysts and configurators, while the involvement of programmers is minimal.

Several teams simultaneously develop dozens of different services. They use the same approaches and a standard set of interface elements and integrations with external services. They do not interfere with each other and have no effect on the core of the code. This approach allows you to quickly scale and adapt the system to needs and challenges.

The agency Fedoriv was responsible for the brand and communication strategy, and Spiilka was responsible for the design. As developers, we advised on technical possibilities, how services can work, how certain elements can be implemented on the platform. We analyzed and designed the first services together. Diia's design received the RedDot international award.

The first release of the Diia portal took place just six months later, on February 6, 2020, at the Diia Summit, where the first online services were presented – a comprehensive service for parents of newborns eBaby and services for private entrepreneurs.

Not only did we digitize paper processes, but we also transformed them: we studied the regulatory framework, analyzed the processes, simplified and automated them as much as possible. Thanks to a deep analysis and redesign of business processes, a person sees and answers only those questions that specifically apply to their case.

For example, initially, a paper form with 70 points had to be filled out when registering private entrepreneurship. Thanks to the redesign, we simplified it to 12 points in the online application. And now young parents do not have to go to state register offices and stand in lines, but can register their child and receive up to 9 services related to the birth of a child in one online application.

Image: Mykhailo Fedorov presents the goal of the Ministry of Digital Transformation — "To build the most convenient state in the world"

Legal language, jargon, excerpts from laws, etc. have been removed from electronic applications for services. The new online processes are based on a few simple steps and have clear descriptions, hints, and explanations that are written in accordance with regulatory requirements, but in a "human", understandable language.

The services in Diia have been maximally automated due to the interaction with state registers, which already possess certain data about a person.

Automation makes life easier for the officials, since they do not need to check all the information manually. At the same time, it prevents the abuse of power and minimizes corruption risks.

Owing to a large number of features of state registries and the frequently low quality of information in old registries, integrations became the biggest challenge at the start. But we overcame this barrier and today Diia interacts with about 50 external systems.

Image: Kitsoft team at Diia Summit

In order for high-quality digital services to become possible, a legal prerequisite was necessary, legislative changes which are implemented by the Ministry of Digital Transformation.

To enter the electronic account, a citizen confirms his identity with an electronic signature. The account is a single point of entry to all services on the portal:

• the display of documents and personal information: about business, property, land plots, taxes, etc., contained in state registers;
• access to online services;
• notifications about the results of the provided services and about ordered documents.

Today, there are already more than 100 public services on the Diia platform.

Online documents and certificates

The application displays personal documents from state registries, such as identity cards, passports, children's birth certificates, driver's licenses, etc. During the outbreak of Covid-19, electronic certificates of vaccination were added, which were recognized at the international level.

On the portal, you can order an extract from the Register of Criminal Records, information from the register of property rights to real estate, an extract from the Unified State Register, an extract from the register of insured persons, a certificate of income and other certificates; as well as ordering duplicate certificates and extracts from legal records: regarding birth, death, name change, marriage and divorce.

eBaby

This is a comprehensive service for parents of newborns. Via one online application, you can register the birth of a child and receive up to 9 public services from various authorities, which are required when a child is born.

eRegistration

Previously, in order to register at a new address, one had to go from one service to another at both addresses, and citizens liable for military service also had to go and make changes in the military register. In Diia, you can change your registration in a few clicks using one online application. If a person registers in someone else's real estate, all co-owners must sign the application. A multi-signature mechanism is provided for this purpose.

Other available services: Registration change of the place of residence, Removal from the place of registration, Statement of the place of residence.

For job-seekers

These services include Obtaining the status of unemployed and Removal from the status of unemployed. We launched these services for the first time during the Covid-19 pandemic, which, on top of other issues, caused a lot of layoffs. People were supposed to register when all the institutions and state offices were closed. Thanks to our technologies, we launched these services within two weeks. Afterwards, some changes were made to them in accordance with the conditions in the country, including the conditions brought about by the beginning of the war.

Social benefits

Services in this category are aimed at supporting the population under certain life conditions, for example, Application for a subsidy, Child support for single mothers/fathers, Adoption support, Support for a person with a disability from childhood and children with a disability, Support for the care of a sick child, etc. 

Business Registration

Initially, we digitalized the processes of opening and closing a business, as well as the process of making changes about the business, and then we managed to fully automate them. The provision of these services takes place without the participation of any officials. The system automatically checks the data and records them in the register. 

The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine emphasizes that now Ukraine has the fastest business registration in the world.

The services include: Opening and Closing a business, Making changes, including classification of economic activity certificates — for individual entrepreneurs, Opening and Closing LLCs, as well as obtaining specific documents for a certain type of activity; for example, The Registration of the capacities of a food market operator.

Grants for business

We have created the functionality on the platform that allows you to quickly create contests, collect applications, and transparently process them together with donors, banks and other related institutions. For this, there was developed a tool that converts data from the application into such formats that can be processed by one or the other IT system.

The following business grants are available in Diia: Grant for a garden, Grant for a greenhouse, Grant for a processing plant, Grant for veterans and their family members.

For Construction

This category covers a large number of online services for the construction of structures of various classes — from the construction of fences to the construction of residential complexes and industrial facilities at various stages of construction — from permits at the start to commissioning. Each service requires comprehensive logic and involves dozens of scenario options.

Anti-crisis

Due to the russian invasion of Ukraine, citizens and businesses suffered a lot. The ability to quickly launch services on the platform helps the government to provide the necessary services to the population in a timely manner: Obtaining and Cancellation of IDP status, Notice of Damage to Property, Compensation of businesses for employment of IDPs, participation in the eRecovery program, and others.

We are also working with other services:

eResident

A comprehensive service that allows foreigners to become residents of Ukraine online, register a business, register with the tax office, and open a bank account in order to conduct business.

eEntrepreneur

This is a comprehensive service for business, for the implementation of which we have developed a special technology. You can order several services via one application, and the system automatically builds the process of data processing, sending them to the next organization, etc.

For Reference

The portal was developed by order of the Ministry of Digital Transformation with the support of international donors and partners: USAID/UK aid "Transparency and Accountability in Public Administration and Services/TAPAS", the EGAP Program, financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and implemented by the Eastern Europe Foundation and Innovabridge, the USAID project "Support of leading organizations in combating corruption in Ukraine "VzayemoDiya" and the EGOV4UKRAINE project of the U-LEAD program with Europe.