Wednesday, 04 May 2022

Berlin, May 4, 2022. The current study of the IT and consulting company msg on electronic administration work clearly shows: Processes without media and system disruptions remain an exception. Interfaces and connections, technological and organizational standards but also a professional, electronically documented process management and suitable digitalization platforms are still missing.

Lack of process understanding is the biggest hurdle for electronic files in public authorities

Although the electronic file is now at least planned or being introduced in almost all the public authorities surveyed, the cultural change to electronic administrative work is progressing only slowly. In addition to taking into account the functional requirements (89 percent) and implementing the process requirements (88 percent), 85 percent of the public authorities surveyed consider acceptance and training management to be a key challenge in introducing the electronic file.

 The advantages of the electronic file, e.g. easier retrieval of information or faster work, are clearly seen overall, but hardly any authorities also use the introduction of the electronic file as an opportunity for reorganization (5 percent). And while as many as 47 percent state that the introduction of the electronic file has a high added value for process optimization, only 10 percent of the authorities surveyed have so far developed comprehensive process documentation. In these cases, it should also form the basis for comprehensive process management that supports the digital transformation of the administration. However, the use of process management is a significant success factor for digitalization and requires unconditional support from the management level.

The implementation of interfaces for connecting specialist procedures to e-government basic components is still incomplete at a large number of German public authorities. It is therefore necessary to create both technical and organizational standards.

Platform solutions also create significant added value for digital administration work

One possible solution is offered by digitalization platforms, which have been increasingly used in the private sector for several years. These act as interface managers by flexibly integrating existing IT solutions and applications and also enabling complex processes to be automated. This is why they are an integral part of the specialist and IT architecture. This has been understood by public authorities to a very limited extent, as the analysis of the study shows. For example, only 8 percent of the surveyed public authorities plan the introduction of low code platforms. 4 percent are already implementing them and only one percent has completed this process.

By the way: 99 percent of the respondents are still planning to use paper files. The era of paperless administration is therefore still a long way off.

You can find all results of the survey and the recommendations for actions derived from them here: Studie: Zwischen E-Akte, Fachverfahren und Digitalisierungsplattform 2022 | msg (only available in German).