The Municipality of Watermael-Boitsfort supports citizens every day with a wide range of administrative procedures, including those managed by its Population and Civil Status, and Foreigners’ Office. This department handles sensitive files containing many supporting documents, administrative exchanges, and information that must be stored, shared, updated, and tracked with accuracy.
To improve day-to-day operations, the municipality wanted to modernize the way documents and case files were managed, making information easier to access for agents and ensuring better follow-up of each request.
The municipality wanted to:
Challenges
The Foreigners’ Office manages administrative files that require precision, traceability, and easy access to information. Each file may contain several types of documents, sometimes connected through specific relationships defined by the municipality.
Agents needed a reliable way to find the right information quickly, add new documents to the correct file, and follow each step of the administrative process without losing time. The municipality also wanted the solution to support document sharing, storage, and digitalization across other municipal services, not only the Foreigners’ Office.

The solution
IRIS started with on-site workshops to understand the municipality’s operational needs, user profiles, document volumes, team structure, and specific requirements of the Foreigners’ Office. Based on this analysis, IRIS adapted the BAE solution to the municipality’s context, defined the required configuration, and provided templates to help prepare the project before launch.
The solution was then installed, verified, and deployed through practical workshops with administrators and agents. These sessions helped users create key project elements, learn how to classify and search documents, and integrate the tool into their daily work. A go-live support period was also planned to assist teams during the first weeks of use.
The final configuration was tailored to the municipality’s needs, including file structure, links between files, centralized storage, Saphir synchronization, and traceability of document submissions to the Immigration Office.
Results
With the BAE solution, the Municipality of Watermael-Boitsfort now benefits from a centralized, better-structured, and easier-to-use document management environment.
Key benefits include:
- Improved efficiency by placing documents directly in the right case files;
- Centralized access to documents for all services involved;
- Faster access to case file information;
- Time savings when sending information to the Immigration Office;
- Improved traceability of exchanges;
- Full-text search within stored documents;
- Easier case file creation through synchronization with Saphir;
- A shared document base that can be extended to other municipal services.
Beyond the immediate operational improvements, the solution gives the municipality a strong foundation for further digital transformation.
New functionalities can be added progressively to respond to evolving municipal needs and further simplify the daily work of agents. This makes the solution more than a document storage tool: it becomes a scalable working environment that can continue to support the municipality over time.
“The team behind the IRISNext solution demonstrates genuine professionalism and supports its clients with responsiveness and expertise. The support team is responsive and attentive to clients’ needs too. Overall, the software meets expectations, and we’re investigating the enhancement of features and usability to further optimize the users’ experience.”

Cesika Karaoglan
Head of the Civil Status and Population Department
Conclusion
By implementing the BAE solution, the Municipality of Watermael-Boitsfort took an important step in the digitalization of its Foreigners’ Office.
The project helped centralize documents, simplify case file creation and follow-up, improve information retrieval, and make exchanges with the Immigration Office more traceable. Through a detailed analysis of business needs, practical workshops, and a configuration adapted to the municipality’s way of working, IRIS supported Watermael-Boitsfort in deploying a useful, concrete, and scalable solution.
Today, the BAE solution addresses the essential needs of municipalities for document digitalization and centralized case management, while opening the door to future improvements that can further simplify administrative work.

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