In the past, the public administration of otherwise highly modernized countries have tended to a certain degree towards the establishment of technological silo structures. The most obvious consequence for a citizen is the occasional need to provide the same information to two different institutions.

National Data Management (NaDB) is a program launched by the Swiss Federal Council. The long-term goal is to align the federal data landscape in such a way that persons and businesses will no longer have to report any information more than once. This is the Swiss approach for establishing the Once Only Principle.