Collaboration as the key to a digital future
Bremen, December 2017
Around 350 participants attended this year's Governikus annual conference at the dbb forum in Berlin on 7 and 8 November and were able to find out about current topics relating to the digitalization of administration and justice. In his keynote speech, Federal CIO and State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of the Interior Klaus Vitt highlighted the challenges that urgently need to be solved in the digitization of administration. The potential of digitalization in the federal structure can only be achieved through close and good cooperation between the (German) Federal Government, the federal states and local authorities. The networking of administrative systems is essential in order to be able to offer appropriate services for citizens and businesses in the future. The implementation of the Online Access Act with the help of a joint digitalization platform for all administrative levels is just one example of how the backlog in international comparison of e-government can be made up.
During the two days of the congress, several panel discussions and interviews made it clear how important consolidation, intelligent networking of systems, the use of basic services and web services are.
Register landscape in Germany
"After the election is before the new government program" was the title of the panel discussion, which, with guests Federal CIO Klaus Vitt, Franz-Reinhard Habbel (DStGB), former State Secretary and Saxony CIO Prof. Dr. Wilfried Bernhardt and Malte Spitz (network politician B90/The Greens), quickly turned to this year's report by the Standards Control Council. The report entitled "More services for citizens and companies: Digitize administration. Modernize registers." It claims that there is enormous potential, whereby the networking of the more than 200 existing registers in Germany urgently needs to be addressed. With the potential annual savings of €8 billion p.a. for administration, citizens and companies mentioned in the report and one-off investments estimated at €2.5 billion p.a., the costs would be amortized in less than six months. This really begs the question: why not? Prof. Dr. Wilfried Bernhardt and Franz-Reinhard Habbel did not only argue at this point in the lively discussion that "you should just do it". Klaus Vitt also sees the modernization of the register landscape as an important point. It is not about the registers themselves, but about intelligent networking. The technical prerequisites for this networking are already in place, such as the OSCI/XTA infrastructures.
From IT consolidation to government mailboxes
The federal government's IT consolidation, the IT Planning Council's e-invoicing project, new challenges relating to the eIDAS Regulation and in the area of e-justice and the EU General Data Protection Regulation were further topics that were discussed and debated at the event. Developments relating to electronic identities and service accounts played just as important a role as signatures/seals etc. In parallel to the panel discussions, Governikus partners provided information on joint best practice approaches and solutions both in the accompanying exhibition and in presentations.
In open space workshops, Governikus experts were available to discuss the topics requested by the participants. In particular, the topic of the "special public authority mailbox", which will come into effect in electronic legal transactions from January 1, 2018 in accordance with the current legal situation, is currently occupying many administrative employees. In a 1 ½-hour workshop, questions were answered and options for implementation based on existing components, for example from the IT Planning Council's Governikus and Governikus MultiMessenger applications, were presented. The workshops also focused on information about the portal network and the need for service orientation.
The Governikus partners Administration Intelligence, Bechtle, bol Systemhaus, Ceyoniq, codia Software, Computacenter, Deutsche Post, Fabasoft, Form-Solutions, inoovo, Kodak alaris, Lava, Materna, Microsoft, NetApp, Optimal Systems, PDV-Systeme, Red Hat, rubicon, sitepark, Software AG and WMD Group were represented as exhibitors and sponsors at the Governikus annual conference. The partners presented their solutions in combination with Governikus components.
"We are delighted that we were able to bring together so many participants and partners. Only together is it possible to overcome the challenges ahead," says Dr. Stephan Klein, Managing Director of Governikus GmbH & Co. KG.
Presentations, impressions and a video of the Governikus Annual Conference 2017 are available at www.jahrestagung.governikus.de.
Press contact
Governikus GmbH & Co. KG
Silke Heitmann
Phone: +49 421 204 95-0
E-mail: redaktion@governikus.de