Using research findings from fortiss as a foundation, over the past several years numerous concepts, in which user-friendly government administrative services can be successfully implemented in Germany, have already been created. Drawing on this experience, the AKDB awarded the Research Institute of the Free State of Bavaria for Software-intensive Systems the contract for a joint project referred to as Administrative Butler.
A total of 14 project ideas, which were previously submitted as part of a so-called innovation round, were available to the AKDB innovation department. The joint project will now be worked on for six months in the AKDB innovation lab. The research results will then be directly integrated into the AKDB portfolio as products. “The collaboration with fortiss is a groundbreaking effort for us in light of increasingly faster innovation cycles. Close proximity to science is therefore a major advantage for us and our customers,” says Dr. Markus Ludwig, head of the University Cooperation Unit at AKDB.
Directly transferring proactive government services into the application
The Administrative Butler is a joint research project involving the development of proactive, user-friendly public administration services. Current examples include services in which users are not required to submit an application or take any other action, such as family benefits in Austria which, unlike in Germany, are already paid without having to submit an application.
Heading up the project is Peter Kuhn, a research associate in the fortiss Open Data and Information Management field of competence, who sees great benefits in the collaboration with AKDB. “As an applied research institute, fortiss has a keen interest in the direct and sustainable publication of research results, which is precisely what the collaboration with AKDB achieves.”
The aim of the joint project is to illustrate how application-free public administration services can already be technically implemented. The digital assistant is designed to fulfill tasks that users previously had to complete on their own. In the future, the Administrative Butler will automatically take over internal administrative processes, obtain the required documentation and ultimately apply for services such as registering a place of residence and a vehicle after a move. Users can follow the progress of the “Butler” in real-time with a dashboard for full transparency.
The advantage of the concept developed by fortiss, which is based on current research results in the field of so-called proactive public administration services, is that automation of the respective service remains under the control of the user. That means the necessary data and documents are not exchanged directly between the authorities, but like in analog environments, via the user. The difference is that the user tasks are assumed by the Butler.
