Estonia's data exchange lets you pay your taxes in five minutes

Estonia is saving more than 2.8 million hours of labour every year through a data exchange network that has helped digitise 99% of government services. The platform connects government agencies’ IT systems with the databases of other public bodies through a series of authentication codes contained in their secure servers, allowing users to instantly access information held by other agencies. The volume of data exchanged on the platform has increased by more than 1,300% since 2007, when the Estonian government ordered public agencies to refrain from asking citizens for the same information more than once.