What exactly do you develop for public administrations?

Custom software development: online portals, resident self-service applications, business software, internal tools, integrations between existing systems, official websites, task automation, and legacy application modernization. You pay for what is custom-built for you, and you retain complete ownership.

Do you develop online portals for resident administration services?

Yes. Resident identification, document submission, online payment, e-signatures, automated receipts, resident status tracking, and back-office processing workflows for municipal staff are core parts of our work. You specify the required services, and we estimate and build them.

How can the contract be awarded to you?

Depending on the estimated budget and cantonal procurement law, procedures may involve direct awarding, invited tenders, or open public tenders published on simap.ch. We participate in all three. If you are still defining the scope, an initial free consultation can provide cost estimates to help determine the applicable procurement procedure before drafting RFPs.

How much does a project cost?

Costs depend on scope, required integrations, identity verification needs, and security standards. Following a brief discovery phase, we deliver a free, detailed fixed-price proposal including long-term evolution pricing. Phasing the project allows public authorities to commit a limited initial budget while planning subsequent phases in future budget cycles.

What is the delivery timeline?

An initial functional release is typically online within two to four months following contract award, depending on required software integrations. The project timeline is contractual, and your team can monitor progress continuously on a dedicated test environment.

Who owns the source code and data?

Your public authority owns everything. Contracts include full source code assignment, a complete Git repository handover with technical documentation, and non-proprietary data exports at any time. None of these require special requests; they are standard deliverables. We retain the right to reuse general code components for other projects without restricting your usage or freedom to change service providers.

How do you handle data protection compliance?

Municipal administrations fall under cantonal data protection acts. We deliver required compliance documentation for your Data Protection Officer: processing registries, access rights specifications, data retention schedules, technical and organizational measures (TOMs), and subcontractor lists. User access is named, logged, and revokable-including our administrative access.

Are your applications accessible to people with disabilities?

We develop to WCAG 2.1 Level AA accessibility standards, referencing Swiss eCH-0059 guidelines: proper contrast, resizable text, keyboard navigation, screen reader compatibility, and labeled forms. We also draft official accessibility declarations when required by cantonal rules.

Can you take over software built by another developer?

Yes, this is a frequent request. We start with a code, dependency, and data audit to determine what can be safely modernized versus what would be more cost-effective to rebuild. You can then make an informed decision with transparent estimates for both options.

Will our staff receive training?

Yes, training is included in the project scope. Hands-on staff training sessions and written user manuals are standard deliverables. We also schedule a follow-up session a few weeks post-launch to address practical questions arising from real-world usage.

Can software be multilingual?

Yes. German, Italian, and English can be added seamlessly whenever demographic requirements warrant it. The primary effort lies in content translation and ongoing maintenance, which should be budgeted from the start.

Custom Software & Web Development for Municipalities and Public Administrations

We build your digital tools

Leader Web develops custom software from Lausanne for municipalities, cantonal departments, and semi-public organizations across French-speaking Switzerland.

Tell us what keeps your departments busy, and we will build it. The tool fits your procedures, delegations of authority, and regulations because it is built specifically for them. It connects to your existing software, is hosted in Switzerland, and you own the code.

What public administrations ask us for

An online portal for resident administration services
An internal tool to replace an unmanageable shared spreadsheet
An interface between two business software systems that do not communicate
Taking over an application built ten years ago without its original developer
Redesigning an official website that your own staff can easily maintain
Automating repetitive data entry or verification tasks

What we develop

Custom business applications

Software tailored to track your files, decisions, and deadlines, built around your organization's roles and approval workflows rather than standard off-the-shelf software.

Interfaces & data migration

Connect separate software systems, migrate complete historic data, and eliminate duplicate entries across departments.

Official websites

News, council meetings, regulations, and department contact info structured so your staff can update content independently.

Online municipal portals

End-to-end digital services: attachments, e-ID, payments, receipts, resident portal tracking, and administrative workflows for staff.

Legacy system modernization

Take over, secure, and upgrade aging software when modernizing it is more cost-effective than rebuilding from scratch.

Process automation

Automate repetitive data entry, verification, or export tasks with full, auditable logs.

Digital accessibility

WCAG 2.1 Level AA compliance based on Swiss eCH-0059 standards, including official accessibility statements when required by your canton.

Hosting & operations

Swiss hosting with Infomaniak or on your cantonal infrastructure. The application deploys seamlessly to either environment.

Training & documentation

Hands-on staff training, user guides, and complete operational technical documentation delivered with the source code.

Participating in your public procurement process

We submit tenders for direct awards, invited tenders, and open public tenders published on simap.ch or requested directly. Our proposals include all required tender documentation: service specifications, project timeline, cost breakdown, social security and tax certificates, and compliance declarations regarding working conditions and equal pay. Our proposals are quoted in Swiss francs and remain binding for the specified validity period.

Two critical points deserve explicit mention in tender requirements because they dictate long-term costs for public authorities. First, reversibility and vendor lock-in prevention must be verifiable: source code handover, open-format data exportability, and operational documentation. A vague commitment to reversibility is useless in practice. Second, post-implementation enhancement costs should be clearly structured as hourly rates or fixed fees per service type. We systematically include transparent pricing for both aspects, whether explicitly requested in the RFP or not.

What your public administration receives

Preventing vendor lock-in is the most critical question a public administration should ask. Software where the vendor retains exclusive control over code and data binds public authorities far beyond the contract term. Everything required to migrate or maintain the application independently is handed over upon delivery, backed by explicit contractual guarantees.

Full source code, which you are free to use, modify, and transfer to any provider

The complete Git repository, including full revision history

Technical documentation: architecture, deployment, and operational procedures

Data exportable at any time in an open, non-proprietary format

Hosting infrastructure credentials created directly in the authority's name

Staff training sessions and a comprehensive user guide

Data location and access control

Hosting is based in Switzerland with Infomaniak in ISO 27001 and ISO 14001 certified data centers powered by renewable energy. No personal data is transferred outside Swiss territory. If your canton or municipality requires deployment on internal infrastructure, the application deploys seamlessly without rewriting code, as it avoids vendor-specific proprietary cloud services.

Municipal administrations are subject to cantonal data protection legislation. We adapt all delivered documentation to your canton's legal framework and provide everything your Data Protection Officer requires: processing registries, access definitions, data retention schedules, technical and organizational measures (TOMs), and subcontractor listings. User access is named, logged, and revokable-including our administrative access, which your municipal secretary can revoke the moment the mandate ends.

Accessible to all citizens

Public digital tools must serve visually impaired residents, keyboard-only users, and citizens accessing services from older smartphones or slow connections. We build on the foundation of WCAG 2.1 Level AA, which underpins the Swiss eCH-0059 accessibility standard.

In practice, this means sufficient color contrast, resizable text, complete keyboard navigation, screen-reader-friendly heading hierarchies, properly labeled form inputs, and alt text for images. When your canton requires an official accessibility statement, we draft it for you.

However, technical compliance alone cannot solve unclear wording. We review field labels and instructions to ensure they are clear without complex administrative jargon. This directly impacts how many residents complete online forms independently and reduces unnecessary phone calls to municipal desks.

How a project works

01

Scoping & requirements

We work with your departments to identify time-consuming manual workflows and define how automation can help.

02

Detailed tender proposal

Scope, schedule, fixed price, and long-term evolution costs, formatted for your procurement procedure.

03

Phased development

Deploying an initial core scope quickly, validated in practice by your team before expanding features.

04

Deployment & handover

Production launch, staff training, code handover, documentation, and infrastructure ownership transfer.

Systems we integrate with

Software that forces staff to manually re-enter data into another tool only shifts the workload. Here are the integrations we set up most frequently.

Resident registry

Municipal management software

Electronic identification (e-ID)

Online payment gateways

Electronic signatures

GIS & geodata platforms

Municipal accounting software

Document management & archiving (EDMS)

Planning a project for your administration?

Tell us about the challenges your departments face today. An initial, free consultation is all it takes to define the scope, followed by a formal tender proposal formatted to your procurement requirements.

Book a free consultation