Determine the potential for digitization and harmonization of administrative processes 

The Commission supports the Hamburg administration in designing a system for the processing of non-structured interactions with citizens. Now, the system will be used to support other administrative processes of the city of Hamburg. 

Context 

The Hamburg administration designed a system, in cooperation with the European Commission, to support the processing of non-structured interactions with citizens. The system addressed all essential processes and elements required, in particular: 

1. User interface supporting different formats (e-mail, PDF, etc.), 
2. Central database for civil letters including response letters, 
3. Case management workflow, including the sequence of activities and associated roles and responsibilities (it will be supported by artificial intelligence technologies), 
4. Editing functionalities for creating a reply letter, 
5. A configurable workflow for the hierarchical approval of the replies. 

While the listed features were specifically defined for the processing of so-called citizen letters (which have a rather informal character and a high degree of individuality), the system can also be used to support other administrative processes of the city of Hamburg, which are currently managed mostly using standard office software. 

The objective of this project is to identify other administrative processes to which the newly developed approach could be applied to, and to support this transition. 

The project is linked to the digital pillar of the European Commission strategy. 

Support delivered 

1. To produce an As-is process model and requirements catalogue in order to identity the business objectives and relevant processes to achieve them. 
2. To produce a gap analysis between the already designed solution and its technical implementation and the identified requirements. 
3. To define a solution able to close the gaps and satisfy the requirements identified. 
4. This solution should apply to the entire administration of the City of Hamburg.

Results achieved 

The support will provide a blueprint alongside specific instructions on how to cope with the considered administrative processes. 

The blueprint and instructions will clearly indicate, where processes should be customized or adjusted but also, where technology (e.g. custom software that is used by the City of Hamburg) would have to adapt. 

In the long run, these blueprints should be used to build and implement reusable and customizable systems. These systems should then enable the administration to realize the potential gains in efficiency process reengineering methodologies and state-of-the-art technologies allow.