STCC (Stabilimenti Tipografici Carlo Colombo)

Drafting, amending, correcting and publishing of Italian law.

Context

Intense document management processes

STCC (Stabilimenti Tipografici Carlo Colombo), based in Rome, is the long-standing partner for the Italian Parliament (Camera dei Deputati), responsible for the management of official documents. STCC supports large parts of the process of drafting, amending, correcting and publishing Italian law – and has been doing so since 1880. STCC’s role in this relationship has evolved from a high-volume printer to a strategic service provider in the Parliament’s intense document management processes.

These processes are highly sensitive. Precision, understanding of the law-making details, speed and a consistent high level of service are key to this relationship. Legal documents in the drafting, amending as well as the published stage have high demands on their exact content and form.

Challenge

Multi channel publishing of law​

The need for modernization of this process was recognized after the Parliament expressed the will to publish its laws to multiple channels including print, as formatted PDF, and online, in HTML. Initially, this form of publishing was done by extracting an HTML version from print versions of the document. A very labor-intensive process, involving many semi-manual conversions and elaboration steps. Staff needed specialized skills that increased the costs of training while making the process dependent on specialists.

Digital first

This is why the Parliament and STCC have engaged in a journey to modernize the way they collaborate and publish laws. This meant that they have completely re-thought and re-designed the supportive processes in law making. All of course within the legal and formative boundaries and requirements that exist in the process.

The stakeholders agreed that the traditional work processes were not sustainable in the future meaning change needed to be fundamental. A ‘digital first’ approach was required and to get the commitment of the extensive group of stakeholders, it was essential that a new solution was easy to adopt.

“The team at Fonto has been instrumental in the success of GAAP. From the earliest design stages to the post-launch improvement releases, the team is extremely responsive and committed.”

Solution

Fonto Editor & Fonto Document History

STCC designed and realised GAAP, a web-based software suite that covers the entire process. From the first drafting of a law-proposal, to its eventual approval by the Parliament.

Online system

This is not a linear process, and GAAP supports all possible variants of the reviewing, amending, commenting, withdrawing and revision of laws. Both editors at STCC and drafting officers in the Parliament use the system.

XML Editor & Audit Trail

Fonto Editor as well as the complementary Fonto Document History product are key parts of the GAAP system. The user-friendliness of Fonto Editor was defined as one of the key-factors needed for success. After a short period of training, editors are able to create and review the XML content that makes multi-channel publishing possible.

Delta

In addition, Fonto Document History provides the editors at STCC and the drafting officers at the Parliament with a comprehensive audit trail. This product combines the intuitive design of Fonto with the unique XML-based comparison and merge technology from DeltaXML.

A comprehensive change history of the documents is available for all users, even after a law has passed the approval stage in Parliament. The process has become completely auditable in terms of ‘who changes what and when’ ensuring the integrity of the documents produced.

LegalDocML

Next to providing these solutions, the team cooperated intensively with STCC to implement a variant of the LegalDocML XML schema.

“It is clear that their unique mix of in-depth experience of dealing with legally intense content combined with a modern ‘UX first’ approach that is essential to build a web solution, is really working. Fonto Editor and Fonto Document History are unique and essential at the same time.”

More channels, better collaboration, and less publishing time

Today the web-based GAAP system is used on a daily (and nightly) basis. All major document types (35 in total) are now created ‘digital first’, making it easy to collaborate online and publish to multiple channels.

As a result of this much more efficient process, the publishing time has decreased dramatically. The need for specific XML knowledge is significantly reduced because of the user-friendliness of the system. Nowadays STCC is far more agile in its ability to manage staffing.

Takeaways

  • Decreased publishing time
  • Multichannel publishing of Italian laws
  • Increased online collaboration
  • Comprehensive change history
  • Use of the LegalDocML standard

Try Fonto For Free

We can spend a 1000 words on how intuitive Fonto is
but why don’t you find out for yourself!

Scroll to Top