Digital administration: the municipality of Zollikon relies on Calenso

Challenges in administration: When analog processes reach their limits

As in many other administrations, digital appointment booking for municipal services in Zollikon was a traditional process - manual and time-consuming. The increasing demand for digital services made it clear that it was time for a change. Like many other municipalities, Zollikon was looking for an efficient solution to reduce the effort involved in appointment management and modernize its citizen service.

The typical challenges that many administrations are confronted with on a daily basis came to the fore:

• Additional administrative work due to manual appointment arrangements: Appointments had to be coordinated by phone or email. Several points of contact were often necessary until a suitable time was found - a process that cost both citizens and employees a lot of time.
• Limited booking options: Appointments were tied to counter hours. Citizens who work had little opportunity to book an appointment outside of these hours - in contrast to many other areas of life where bookings can now be made easily via app or online.
• Spontaneous waiting times: Without structured scheduling, there were often unpredictable waiting times at the counter - a burden for both employees and visitors.
• Unpredictable streams of visitors: Some days were very busy, others hardly at all. These fluctuations made planning difficult and led to an uneven workload for staff.

Digital administrative goals of the municipality of Zollikon

Based on these challenges, the municipality of Zollikon has defined specific goals - with a clear focus on simplifying administrative processes, reducing the workload of employees and offering citizens a modern service:

• More structure in day-to-day work: by scheduling appointments, employees can organize their tasks better and prepare more specifically for meetings or concerns. At the same time, citizens benefit from clearly regulated processes - waiting times are reduced and inquiries are processed more efficiently.
• More flexible working methods: Digital processes create new opportunities to complete tasks regardless of location and to make consultations more efficient - for example in the area of naturalization or taxes. This makes work more modern, more agile and more compatible with today's requirements.

• Citizen-friendly and modern service: Citizens should be able to interact with the administration easily and independently - book appointments online around the clock, prepare requests digitally and benefit from transparent processes.

Zollikon is thus taking an important step towards digital appointment booking in the municipality and has opted for a test phase with Calenso.

"We didn't want to wait for others when it came to digitalization. There is enormous potential in the area of appointment scheduling in particular - Calenso helps us to exploit this. It was important for us to have a partner who really understands the needs of municipalities."
- Nyle-Sven Werner, Project Manager Digitalization

Why Zollikon opted for a test phase with Calenso

After analyzing the existing processes, it quickly became clear that digital appointment booking offered great potential. However, before a comprehensive rollout was to take place, Zollikon decided to test Calenso in practice first. The test phase was intended to show how the municipality's digital appointment booking system actually works in everyday life and how employees and citizens benefit from it.

The advantages of a test phase with Calenso:

• Low risk: The municipality can test the system under real conditions without making an immediate long-term commitment.
• Fast results: Measurable improvements become visible after just a few weeks - such as shorter waiting times and more structured processes.
• Practical findings: Feedback from employees and citizens flows directly into further optimization.
• Individual support: The Calenso team provides personal support during setup, training and fine-tuning of the scheduling logic.
• Sound basis for decision-making: At the end of the test phase, the municipality can build on real empirical values before expanding use.

This structured approach creates trust, ensures acceptance by all parties involved and lays the foundation for the successful, long-term use of online appointment booking with Calenso.

The solution: Calenso as a digital appointment platform for municipalities

During the test phase, Calenso was introduced in Zollikon in three offices - the residents' registration office, the tax office and the debt collection office - with several bookable resources. The goal was clear from the outset: more structure in day-to-day work, more flexible administrative processes and a citizen-friendly, modern service.

Thanks to Calenso's online appointment booking, many requests can be planned in advance, which reduces spontaneous visitor flows, shortens waiting times and noticeably relieves staff. At the same time, citizens can book appointments themselves around the clock - regardless of opening hours or location. In this way, the administration and the public benefit equally from clear processes, better planning and modern digital interaction.

With Calenso, Zollikon relies on a digital appointment booking system for the municipality that standardizes processes across several offices.

Online appointment booking at the municipal administration

Zollikon already offers these services online

• Relocation/registration within Switzerland
• Address changes
• Extension of foreigner's identity cards
• Tax return
• Topics relating to taxes
• Notarizations and general information
• Creation of identity card
• Inventory

How Zollikon uses Calenso in everyday life

Since the start of the test phase, Calenso has become an integral part of the daily routine in the municipality of Zollikon. Citizens can book their appointments conveniently via the website or the QR code on the outdoor screens - around the clock, regardless of opening hours.

Whether it's a foreigner's identity card, change of address or notarization - citizens can use Calenso to find the right time slot directly with the responsible employee. In the background, Calenso ensures that each appointment is automatically assigned to the right contact person. Everyday life clearly shows how much a digital appointment booking system relieves the municipality's counter operations and at the same time creates more transparency for citizens.

Employees receive the appointment directly in their Outlook or Office 365 calendar, without manual maintenance or double bookings. Automatic reminders by e-mail or text message ensure that appointments are less likely to be forgotten or canceled at short notice. This takes the pressure off administration and ensures smoother processes at the counter.

"The employees and citizens are delighted with the ease of use and technical implementation. The system is intuitive, stable and easy to understand on a day-to-day basis - even for less digitally savvy users."
- Nyle-Sven Werner, Project Manager Digitalization

Data protection was also particularly important to the municipality. With its secure "Swiss Made" data processing and GDPR compliance, Calenso meets the high requirements of public institutions in Switzerland. This is a decisive factor for the trust of all parties involved.

This turns a once manual process into a modern, efficient and citizen-friendly service that noticeably simplifies everyday life for the administration and the population.

A look into the future

Even after the first few weeks of the test phase, it is clear that digital appointment booking has been well received by employees and citizens. The ease of use and stability are impressive - both technically and in day-to-day use. This confirms that the municipality's digital appointment booking system has considerable potential to structure processes in the long term and improve service.

The municipality of Zollikon sees great potential in Calenso for the sustainable structuring of its appointment processes. Initial feedback shows that the digital solution makes everyday life noticeably easier and opens up new possibilities - such as booking appointments regardless of time and place.

This is demonstrated particularly impressively by a practical example: in the first few weeks, an appointment booking was received in the middle of the night. This event illustrates how strong the demand is for flexible services that can be accessed at any time.

"If opening hours are adjusted in the future, a tool like Calenso will become even more important. That's exactly the structure we need - and the potential is there."
- Nyle-Sven Werner, Project Manager Digitalization

The successful start of the test phase shows that there is potential in digital appointment booking. If the test phase continues to go well, Zollikon will examine the use of Calenso in other offices - with the aim of making citizen services even more efficient, plannable and digital. The test phase will run until the end of 2025.

From test phase to role model: Zollikon is shaping the future of administration

With the current test phase, the municipality of Zollikon is impressively demonstrating that digital administration works when technology and people work together towards the same goal - for greater efficiency, proximity to citizens and service quality.

The results so far show the potential of digital appointment booking. We look forward to supporting the municipality in the next steps and working together to find out in which other areas Calenso can provide support and create added value in the future. Zollikon is already showing what modern citizen services will look like in the future.

Digital appointment booking in municipalities and authorities: More insights

Curious to find out how other authorities are making terminal management more efficient? Here you can find out everything about Calenso in use at public authorities.