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17/11/2021

Munich/ Berlin, November 17, 2021. The digitalization of the public administration is making significant progress. This is shown by the results of msg’s study “IT consolidation in public administration”. The study is based on questionnaire-based interviews with public authorities at federal, state and local level, as well as statements made by executives in background discussions. For 2021, the fourth study provides an up-to-date overview of the landscape of IT service centers in Germany, the progress in IT consolidation projects and relocation of IT tasks to IT service centers. The driver of digitalization is the Online Access Act (Onlinezugangsgesetz). It requires cross-process use of data and proof and centrally operated systems for electronic file management and transaction handling.  At the same time, more digitally available administration services increase the security risk. Therefore, IT consolidation makes an important contribution to digitalization. However, in terms of speed, there is still room for improvement.

High functional and technical requirements for end-to-end digitalization

The greatest functional challenges for public authorities continue to lie in the digitalization of administrative processes without media discontinuity. More than 60 percent of respondents regard electronic file management and transaction handling as a major to medium challenge in 2021. Especially the implementation of the maturity levels three and four of the Online Access Act places high demands on end-to-end digitalization and the cross-process use of data and proof.

44 percent of the authorities surveyed at federal, state and large cities consider IT security to be a top technical challenge. More than 70 percent of those surveyed hope for a higher level of security by combining technical and personal capacities in IT service centers.

Unlike in previous years, the respondents regard the question of staff recruitment as less critical. According to the interviews, reinforced HR marketing and attractive training offers in cooperation with universities and higher education institutes in the recruitment of new staff are obviously paying off.

Study provides solution approaches for IT service centers

For IT service centers to recognize their role as enablers for digitalization of the public administration, they have to increase their innovative strength. This can be achieved by modern concepts such as think tanks, innovation laboratories or design-thinking approaches.

Overall, the study shows that IT consolidation is on the right track. In order to achieve the ambitious goals within the targeted deadlines, a number of success factors are crucial: Customer-orientation must be at the heart of a reliable service portfolio. Detached from single projects, IT service centers need leeway for technical decisions, setting standards and long-term investments.

You can read or order the study 2021 “IT consolidation in public administration” at https://www.msg.group/public-sector/studie.