The newly merged municipality of Pajottegem faces the challenge of integrating three distinct ICT environments into a unified system by January 2025, requiring a complete overhaul of its digital infrastructure, including tenant migration to a new Microsoft 365 tenant and the implementation of Microsoft Teams for improved communication and efficiency.
Three ICT environments, three data centers, three policy visions, and the task of turning them into one unified whole in a short time. That was the challenge facing the newly merged municipality of Pajottegem at the beginning of 2024. A merger is a major administrative reform with significant impact, not just on paper or in the streetscape, but also behind the digital scenes. “We had to build an entirely new, shared ICT infrastructure in a very short time.”
The new municipality of Pajottegem was formed through the merger of three towns in the Pajottenland region: Galmaarden, Gooik, and Herne. Since January 1, 2025, they have operated as a single administrative entity, which also brought significant changes in terms of ICT. Until then, each municipality managed its own digital environment in its own way.
“We are no longer three separate local ICT teams but now form one unified team,” says Jolien Herregods, head of ICT and information management. The team consists of four staff members. They currently support around 250 employees from municipal services, the public welfare center, libraries, and schools who actively use laptops. In total, the organization has about 350 employees. By the end of this year, it is expected that all of them will have access to a Teams license.
Digital integration
At the heart of the ICT aspect of the merger was the tenant to tenant migration. Before the merger, each of the former municipalities had its own isolated digital environment within Microsoft 365, with applications such as Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams. Each environment had its own users, settings, storage, and security, all tied to the domain name of the respective municipality. “That setup would have made efficient collaboration after the merger very difficult,” says Michaël Seps, one of the members of the new ICT team. “We wanted an approach that would also reflect our new identity, which is Pajottegem.”
Together with Inetum, the merged municipality chose a scenario that involved creating an entirely new tenant and migrating all users and data from the old tenants into the new one. “In principle, the ICT structures of the three former municipalities still exist, but a fourth overarching layer has been added,” explains Jolien Herregods. This choice offered the opportunity to start fresh from a policy perspective and bring all users together under the same rules.
Roadmap leading to big bang
Preparation began in the fall of 2023, when the municipalities, together with Inetum, mapped out a detailed roadmap for their digital merger. It included milestones, budget estimates, and priorities, while also allowing room to make adjustments along the way. Michaël Seps explains, “The collaboration with Inetum was very close, with weekly coordination meetings, a clear division of tasks, and an iterative process in which we migrated the data step by step.”
At the very end came the planned big bang, when the merged municipality fully transitioned to the new tenant. “At a certain point, we just had to flip the switch,” says ICT team member Arnold Uyttersprot. “It was intense, especially because the migration coincided with the physical relocation of the municipality’s support services.” Despite the challenges, the transition was successful, although not entirely without bumps in the road. “Which is understandable, given the scale of the migration,” adds Michaël Seps. Still, he remains optimistic: “We are now more than six months down the line. The biggest changes are behind us.”
What started as a merger on paper is now clearly visible in the digital work environment. “Together with Inetum, we completed the full digital integration in just one year. That is no small achievement.”
— Jolien Herregods, Head of ICT and Information Management Pajottegem
Cloud as the backbone
In addition to a new domain name and a new tenant, the merged municipality also received a new ICT core. Pajottegem opted for a hybrid setup, combining a few on-premises servers with a cloud component. Choosing rCloud, Inetum’s private cloud, was a logical step. “One of the three municipalities was already using rCloud,” says Michaël Seps. “We’re now building on that foundation.”
At first, this was mainly a practical decision, but it has also proven to be highly efficient. “Most of our shared applications are SaaS solutions that we run on rCloud or access through the vendor’s cloud environment. What we still manage on-premises is limited and is being phased out gradually. For us, it was important to have a stable foundation in rCloud for the new tenant and the new domain.”
One team, one Teams
Working together as one municipality requires a shared communication platform for all employees. Pajottegem chose to roll out Microsoft Teams across the board. “Before the merger, each municipality had its own way of working,” explains Jolien Herregods. “Gooik, for example, had already switched to Teams telephony, while others were still using VOIP phones. Teams offered the best solution to bring communication and file management together in one accessible environment.”
Inetum also supported this transition with workshops and the necessary guidance. “We linked Teams to SharePoint, with folder structures that we developed together with the departments,” says Arnold Uyttersprot. “In addition, we fully integrated telephony into Teams.” This brings a very tangible benefit for citizens: there is now one central phone number for anyone wishing to contact the municipality of Pajottegem. Behind that number is a reception service that helps or redirects citizens and businesses efficiently. “That central reception did not exist in all municipalities before,” says Jolien Herregods. “It is a great step toward more customer-friendly service.”
Flexible partner
From tenant migration to rCloud to Teams, Pajottegem could count on Inetum’s expertise and support at every stage of the merger. “Without that guidance, we probably would not have met the tight 1 January 2025 deadline,” admits Jolien Herregods. “Inetum provided technical support, but also brought structure, follow-up, and project management.” The experts at Inetum had a strong sense of what Pajottegem, as a local government, needed and what was or was not feasible. “The Inetum team was very flexible,” confirms ICT team member Rik Walravens. “Even when we had to make adjustments along the way, Inetum continued to think along with us.”
The coming months at Pajottegem will focus on consolidation. “There are still a few old servers we plan to phase out,” says Michaël Seps. “Our goal is to end up with a single physical server environment.” Pajottegem also plans to simplify its network architecture and further strengthen its cybersecurity, partly in preparation for NIS2. “That will be another major challenge,” concludes Jolien Herregods, “but we can build on the solid foundation we have already put in place.”
What started as a merger on paper is now clearly visible in the digital work environment. “Together with Inetum, we completed the full digital integration in just one year. That is no small achievement.”
