‘Administration doesn't have to wait - it can also be proactive’

Dr Martin Hagen is State Councillor for Budget, Personnel and IT at the Senator for Finance in Bremen, member of the IT Planning Council and topic sponsor for the focus topic ‘Digital Applications’. In this interview, he reports on how Bremen is advancing digital solutions through short paths and a great willingness to innovate - and why proactive administration is the future.

Dr Hagen, what current progress and challenges do you see with regard to the digital transformation in Bremen?

"We have made great progress in Bremen in recent years, particularly in the digitalisation of our administrative processes. It is a personal concern of mine to always make things easier for citizens and companies in the context of digitalisation and to make processes more efficient. Thanks to the short distances in Bremen, we are always able to successfully realise innovative solutions. A prime example of this is ELFEConnect (Einfach Leistungen für Eltern), which enables us to offer parents in Bremen a greatly simplified application process for parental allowance. Hamburg, Bavaria and Bremen are also taking part in the pilot programme. We are in talks with many other federal states about subsequent utilisation.

Bremen has also realised a number of important ‘one-for-all services’ from which all federal states and municipalities in Germany benefit, such as the ‘Maintenance Advance Online’. However, in order to implement simple services, we are always dependent on adjustments to the law at federal level and in the specialised legislation. In some cases, this significantly hampers the speed and level of innovation achieved. We need to become faster at a national level in order not to overstretch the patience of citizens and the economy.

An important framework for our activities in Bremen is the ‘Federal Digital Strategy’, which we have jointly developed and adopted as members of the IT Planning Council. Our progress is in line with the future vision of the Federal Digital Strategy: we are creating a user-centred administration that is both efficient and resilient.

Particularly in the area of the strategic priority topic of ‘digital application’, which is a pillar of the Federal Digital Strategy and which I am responsible for as a topic sponsor, we have succeeded in anchoring important topics such as strengthening user-centric and simple solutions that use the once-only principle, are digitised end-to-end and are offered as proactively as possible."

Are there any lighthouse projects in your region? If so, which ones?

‘Our ELFEConnect project is an example of how the target image of the strategic focus topic ’Digital Applications" can be implemented - by realising Once Only today. ELFEConnect makes it possible for the data required for an application to be compiled by the administration with the consent of citizens. Applicants no longer have to deal with the often complicated forms and try to understand what the administration is asking for. ELFEConnect can already provide salary data today - we have laid the foundations for this throughout Germany. ELFEConnect is already in practical use for parental allowance, but the application possibilities go far beyond this because salary data is required for a large number of other administrative procedures. We are currently in talks with various authorities across Germany who want to use ELFEConnect. However, in order to be able to use it in real-life operations, specialist legal requirements first have to be created in federal law. This must happen faster in future!

Once Only is one of the core aspects of the target image for ‘digital applications’. The National Once Only Technical System (NOOTS) is intended to make this even simpler and more scalable in future. Furthermore, it is a personal concern of mine that we as an administration go one step further and create not only simple, but also proactive offers. Why should the administration always wait for citizens or companies to realise themselves that they are entitled to services? It is precisely when we as the state know that the eligibility requirements are met or at least know the reason for the application that the administration should take proactive action. The common example of this is child benefit, which has long been realised in other countries and has been discussed and announced in Germany from time to time for years. It is important to me that we finally move beyond announcements. As a sponsor, I want to work to ensure that proactive offers are given a higher priority and that concrete implementation moves forward."

Which future technologies are you using to create a smart infrastructure (e.g. in the area of mobility or energy)?

In principle, we use all technologies that enable us as an administration to realise user-centric and simple offerings and become more efficient, whether in IT operations through cloud technologies or in various areas through artificial intelligence. As a rule, however, it is not the lack of technologies that is the problem, but rather the legal possibilities for using them profitably and the lack of standards to avoid uncontrolled growth and incompatibilities.

Bremen has long been involved in various areas here, including standardisation through the Coordination Office for IT Standards (KoSIT) and the development of joint applications by the IT Planning Council. We also use LLMoin, for example, an AI assistant with the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and the state of Lower Saxony. The wheel does not have to be reinvented every time.

When it comes to innovative technologies, we also need to better integrate the private IT sector in order to strengthen competition for the best solutions. This is why Bremen, as a priority topic sponsor, is in favour of the administration opening up much more comprehensive interfaces to which third parties outside the administration can also develop applications, as we know from Elster, for example. However, this also requires overarching standards so that scalable business models can be created.

The administration API as a standard is therefore an important aspect of the German architecture announced in the federal digital strategy of the IT Planning Council. Of course, this is primarily about the architecture in the administration, across administrative levels and departmental boundaries. What exactly this involves and how we approach implementation will be developed in a joint project as a first step. In this context, it will of course be interesting to see what the federal government is planning for the Germany stack, and we are also in talks about this."

What excites you about the Smart Country Convention? What are you particularly looking forward to?

"The Smart Country Convention is always a great forum for exchanging ideas with interesting dialogue partners from the community. I'm particularly looking forward to the joint panel with the other topic sponsors, where we will show how the strategic focus topics interact.

We will also be providing very specific insights into the activities at the IT Planning Council's stand and the focus topic. There, we invite interested parties to exchange ideas and network with our teams."