Germany’s Föderales Informationsmanagement project (FIM) is a concerted effort to unify information technology (IT) projects in Germany at the local, state and federal levels. The project aims to contribute towards the modernisation of governments, helping to achieve the Digital Government 2020 goals. Specifically, the project aims to overhaul the transaction processes between politicians, administrators, citizens and businesses by implementing a common, coordinated approach, networked work-sharing processes, and harmonised, standardised and interoperable IT systems.
From an administrative standpoint, IT service centres often operate across organisational boundaries. Indeed, with the trend towards electronic submissions, a lack of harmonisation and standardisation of submitted information becomes ever more worrying.
FIM will continue to increase IT support across boundaries and ease the electronic submission processes to ensure synergy and efficiency for the creation, presentation and processing of information on administrative procedures. As a result, business will be able to be done from anywhere, at any time and with any media in a fast, easy, secure and cost-effective way.
Policy Context
Due to the increasing digitisation of public administration services, the rising complexity of IT, and the growing importance of IT security, Germany’s IT planning recommended the pooling of its IT projects and IT development. The unification was proposed in December 2014, and was adopted at a meeting of the IT planning board on 17 June 2015.
The project is charged with creating a sustainable infrastructure on the technical, editorial and organisational levels. This includes such information on administrative procedures as service descriptions, forms and process information. LeiKa, the current catalogue of public administration services, and the National Process Library will cooperate with the project.
The IT planning board foresees a system that encourages IT projects to work together and agree on IT standards. An example of this happening already occurred at the board’s June meeting, when it approved the XVergabe eProcurement standard, making it mandatory in Germany. The standard allows information to be exchanged and submitted from procurement agencies and companies. It also allows procurement agencies and companies to receive and manage bids for government contracts. The XVergabe standard can be used in the new European large-scale pilot project eSENS, which aims to consolidate eGovernment services and standards across the European Union (EU).
Description of target users and groups
The project targets a wide spectrum of users, including citizens, civil administrators, internal administrators and legislators.
Description of the way to implement the initiative
Pooling IT projects at a local, state and federal level will be done step-by step, beginning with IT projects in the judiciary and at decentralised agencies.
FIM is comprised of three strands that act as building blocks. The first block is tender specifications, where citizens and businesses are to be informed of public administration details. LeiKa plays an important role in this area, as each performance is assigned a certain LeiKa number.
The second block is a form that citizens complete and submit before receiving certain services. Different citizen benefits have different forms. In an unfinished FIM-form system, this strand provides the opportunity to bring these forms into question.
The final block involves processes that require a performance, typically filling out a form.
Using this three-block approach, the federal government will create the validated master information repository based on a modular system with standardised individual elements, including process activities and form fields. Based on this master information, nationwide legal specifics can be replaced or supplemented to provide a concrete form, a local process description and the full terms of reference.
FIM will coordinate this standardisation process, resulting in the efficient creation and operation of eGovernment applications across all federal levels.
Technology solution
In 2013, the technical standardisation concepts were analysed, with implementation occurring in 2014 and 2015. FIM methodology was first successfully tested in 2014, under a cooperation agreement with Arms Management. Currently, more applications are being designed in collaboration with other projects. Completion of the project and transition into an operational phase is expected in 2016.
To create a standardised landscape, four steps must pass through the three building blocks of FIM. Classification is the first step. Classified objects can be named as desired, and the terms of reference are classified in LeiKa, where each performance is assigned a unique number. For example, housing applications and registrations are all assigned the same LeiKa number, as they are members of the same class.
The second stage involves structuring the three blocks. This includes the harmonisation of form fields, bringing them in line with other fields that are defined by law.
Once the blocks are classified and structured, the next step is standardisation. The federal government created a template that meets all legal requirements, and forms go through a standardisation to adhere to these requirements. They are then specified and sent to their respective municipalities.
Finally, after classification, structure and editorial standardisation, the forms go through a technical standardisation using XÖV frameworks. As the processing is created by the public administration of the federal government, forms and process flow models can be exchanged in standardised file formats using special software, and can be optimised and used across departments.
Main results, benefits and impacts
The project has several goals, which will significantly change the way information is received, collected and distributed. For starters, it will create a standardised translation of legal language, as well as connect legislators, organisers, IT experts and professionals. It will support the processing of public administration information by providing access to channels across disciplines. It will also reduce editorial efforts through scale and synergy via the creation and maintenance of information, thus easing the workload of administrators.
At the moment, every municipality has its own forms and workflow processes. Standardisation across government levels will create a more efficient process that works across municipalities and levels.
The use of a portal allows for standardised forms, citizen identification and the ability to issue notices electronically. It also enables efficient sharing processes in a simple, harmonised manner while maintaining quality. Forms and notices are not printed, and long waits in government offices are eliminated.
In summary, the FIM project is a step toward paperless, faster processes and more satisfied citizens and officials.
