Digital management with standards

DSAG on the status quo of the Online Access Act (OZG)

The federal and state governments abandoned this plan as early as mid-2022 and prioritized 35 projects, 33 of which have been implemented to date. From DSAG's point of view, this is no surprise, but it is an indictment of the digitization of public administration, according to Hermann-Josef Haag, DSAG Board Member for Human Resources and Public Sector of the German-speaking SAP User Group.

“Measures such as the Online Access Act, the Register Modernization Act and the digital strategy are important. There needs to be a profound understanding of digitization by public authorities.“

Hermann-Josef Haag,
Head of Public Sector, DSAG

"The digitization of public authorities in Germany is and remains a permanent construction site. It is not surprising that the OZG schedule has not been met. Even when the federal government cut the requirement of 575 administrative services to be digitized to 35 prioritized projects in May of last year, it became clear what a mammoth task the OZG represents for public administrations. The fact that in the end only 33 were implemented by the end of the year more than clearly shows how ambitious the original goal actually was. From DSAG's point of view, it is clear that implementation was unrealistic from the outset - particularly in view of the fact that there are too few requirements under the OZG. Greater use should have been made here of expertise from public administration, then perhaps such a misjudgement would not have occurred. Many administrative processes cannot be fully digitized, and implementation in the administrations is hardly possible with the existing staff and given the numerous heterogeneous system landscapes."

From DSAG's point of view, it is necessary for the amendment of the law to make more specifications for standardization and to take into account the digitization process right into the administration. A digital form that citizens fill out and which is then transferred to an analog process in the administration is not end-to-end digitization!