The Federal Employment Agency, as one of the largest German authorities, is reaching legal limits on its way to significantly more digitization and automation. Almost all customer services are now available online, said Stefan Latuski from the Federal Agency of the German Press Agency.
However, numerous internal processes would then still have to be carried out in the same way because legal hurdles would stand in the way. “Today we have administrative regulations that simply do not allow for strict automation,” he said. The aim, however, is digitization from the customer to the service.
Own server instead of cloud products
Latuski heads the system house of the BA and will initially take on the role of Chief Information Officer of the Federal Agency on an interim basis on August 1st. “So far we have not always been able to process things at the appropriate speed. In many applications we still have to work very manually. Many employees have to move data from left to right,” he complained.
In order to be able to conduct consultations with customers via video link, for example, the BA cannot use cloud products. So far, she has managed with her own server, which connects her to the Skype platform. “We operate the world’s largest Skype platform known to Microsoft,” said Latuski.
According to Latuski, a higher degree of automation is key for the BA and its efficiency as a public authority – if only because of the imminent shortage of staff. In the next few years, 37,000 of the 100,000 or so employees retired. “We’re losing a lot of people to retirement.”
It’s not about downsizing, it’s about securing performance. It is also not the goal that computers ultimately decide on the payment of services.
