Altinn's new look
Among other things, the front page has a separate news carousel, and 'Start and Run a Business' is clearly visible.
At the conference, which is a collaboration between the Brønnøysund Register Centre, Innovation Norway and the City of Oslo’s Agency for Business Development Services, the new information portal was presented to business mentors from all over Norway. More than 150 start-up mentors who are professional users of 'Start and Run a Business' in Altinn attended the conference in November.
New look
On 31 October 2011, Altinn's information portal launched its new look. The front page of altinn.no was given a facelift, the information from the business and industry portals bedin.no and bedriftshjelp.no became part of Altinn under 'Start and Run a Business', and the Forms Catalogue's search function was launched in a new and improved version.
Altinn's front page still displays the list of relevant forms and services as the most important content. By clicking the list, users are directed to the Forms Catalogue, where it is easy to find the relevant service. The catalogue's list has been expanded to include the option of searching directly for the name or number of a form.
The new information portal focuses even more on information, for example though the news carousel on the side, more information in English to help English-speaking users, and emphasis on support schemes for business and industry. Information relating to starting and running a business is now gathered under a separate tab, 'Start and Run a Business'. There is also an instruction video on the front page on how to start using Altinn.
Starting and running a business
Many public agency websites provide an overview of how businesses must and can act in relation to public agencies. As with 'Spør oss' (Ask us), which was moved to Altinn in 2007 where it was renamed 'Help with regulations', these websites explained the enterprises' legal obligations. Bedriftshjelp, which was established in 2008, was the authorities' guide to public support schemes, and Bedin provided information about regulations and national and international support schemes as early as 1998. These websites were all good information portals with enthusiastic editorial staff that preferred to cooperate on creating an easily understood joint portal rather than focusing on details under their own logos. In 2007, preparations began to gather all this information in Altinn.
The work was finally completed in 2011. Bedin and Bedriftshjelp were phased out, and the users were directed to Altinn for more information. The result is a collaboration between several agencies, and each of the agencies that 'own' the regulations and support schemes are responsible for quality assuring the information posted at 'Start and Run a Business'.
More visitors on the joint websites
The transition to a joint information portal in altinn.no has been well received by users, and surveys show that more people visit the site for information than before.
Statistics for selected pages that were previously at Bedin show an increase of 48% in the number of visitors in the first two months. Pages moved from the relatively unknown site Bedriftshjelp to Altinn show an even more marked increase. Traffic here increased by as much as 1,315%. Even information pages that have been in Altinn for years are benefiting from the cooperation. Visits to these pages have increased considerably since 31 October.