Working smarter with data at BZ

Every day, BZ’s Data Competence Centre (DCBZ) – part of the Information and Digital Innovation Department (IDI) – works on solutions that help us make smarter use of data. If you aren’t using the Missions Dashboard, the Trade & Economic Database (TED) or the Parliamentary Papers Dashboard yet, take a look and get inspired by the various dashboards and tools BZ has to offer. And there’s more to come: in 2026 DCBZ will be looking to the future and zooming in on the opportunities and responsibilities that come with artificial intelligence (AI) and BZChat.

One dashboard to replace 15 systems

The Missions Dashboard provides missions and departments in The Hague with a clear overview of operational management information and other information for each mission. Where previously you may have needed to consult up to 15 different systems to find everything there is to know about a mission, you can now find it all on a single dashboard. The dashboard contains not only core data for each mission, but also practical information such as names of contacts in The Hague and at the missions, and administrative data like the end dates of postings. It also provides links to the underlying systems for more detailed information.

The Inspection, Risk Analysis and Advisory Unit (ISB) asked DCBZ to develop a dashboard that contains most data as standard. This means that all inspectors have access to the same data, and don’t need to request as much information from the missions. The dashboard contains information on finances, human resources, consular affairs, real estate, policy frameworks, archiving and data breaches. The Mission Dashboard is accessible via the ‘Apps, quick links and contact details’ page on Rijksportaal or via BZelf.

TED Dashboard

The TED Dashboard is part of the Country Dashboard and clearly visualises key economic indicators for each country, such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), GDP per capita, GDP growth, inflation, unemployment rate and account balance. It also shows bilateral import and export flows between the Netherlands and the selected country or region. Countries and economic indicators can be compared easily, which facilitates the planning of trade missions and decision-making on activities, for instance.

Easy access to parliamentary papers

The Parliamentary Papers Dashboard is a fast and efficient way of finding and analysing parliamentary papers of the House of Representatives. In its original form the dashboard was an internal tool for the North Africa and Middle East Department (DAM) that used AI to establish which countries were mentioned in each parliamentary question. Country officers were able to see at a glance whether and how often their country had come up. On the website of the House of Representatives this still requires a lot of digging, so the dashboard saves a lot of time. DCBZ created BZ’s Parliamentary Papers Dashboard with extensive filter options that offer an optimised search experience. Filter options include the ministry to which the question is addressed, whether the question has been answered, and the number of votes a motion received. This makes it easier to find relevant parliamentary papers.

DCBZ’s priorities in 2026

Last year it became clear that staff don’t always know about all the tools and applications that have been developed for BZ. That’s a shame, because at the end of the day we all want to work as efficiently as possible. In 2026 DCBZ will be focusing on helping all BZ staff work more effectively. It will do so by raising awareness of our products among staff and further future-proofing our data.

The BZChat pilot project is also under way, a responsible way of exploring how generative AI can support our work. When BZChat is ready to be rolled out, it will enable the whole organisation to make responsible use of AI. Initially it will only be used with unclassified data and public-domain documents. In order to safeguard responsible use, staff members’ digital skills will be further honed through various training courses and workshops. DCBZ also plans to use AI with classified information eventually, but certain security requirements must be met before this becomes a reality. Given the added value for BZ, DCBZ will actively work to make this happen.