What challenges is public administration currently facing with regard to digitalization?
Public administration is currently undergoing significant changes. Citizens now also expect digital services from public authorities that are simple, fast and efficient. However, this requires investment in new technologies and the adaptation of work processes. Artificial intelligence is a particularly hot topic at the moment. With the launch of ChatGPT, for example, AI became accessible to the masses for the first time. This quickly led to a discussion on how intelligent technologies can be used in public administration.
The IT security of systems has also always been a key factor for public authorities. Nevertheless, cyberattacks are increasingly targeting the public sector. Comprehensive measures are therefore necessary to ensure the protection of sensitive data.
Added to this is the shortage of skilled workers, which is also clearly noticeable in the public sector. Due to demographic change and competition from the private sector, there is a lack of qualified personnel with the necessary IT skills and experience. Public administration must present itself as an attractive employer in order to attract well-trained specialists in times of staff shortages. A digitally transformed public authority shows that there are numerous interesting specialist jobs.
How is Fabasoft responding to these challenges?
With the eGov-Suite as a leading product for digital file management, Fabasoft creates the ideal basis for digitally managing all files and documents within a public authority and handling public authority processes fully electronically. With innovative solutions in the Fabasoft eGov ecosystem, we address additional use cases in public administration in order to make the everyday work of employees easier and to digitalize public administration across the board. This has resulted in "Done! on Fabasoft eGov". The product enables intelligent automation that takes over manual, repetitive tasks. This includes, for example, the classification of documents, intelligent text extraction and the generation of suggestions for processing, as well as support for or the fully automated execution of the respective process steps. This gives employees more time to focus on essential content-related work that requires their technical expertise. In addition to reducing the workload for employees, such working methods also increase the attractiveness of the public sector as an employer.
Keyword automation and AI: doesn't the use of this technology mean an extreme amount of work for authorities? Doesn't that conflict with reducing the workload on staff?
On the contrary - at Fabasoft we have set ourselves the goal of making automation with Done! on Fabasoft eGov quick and easy to implement, because public administration needs clever solutions that deliver rapid benefits. A public authority that already has an electronic document management system based on the Fabasoft eGov-Suite in operation can, in principle, implement Done! on Fabasoft eGov from one day to the next. As the current system already contains a huge amount of data, an extensive preliminary project is not necessary. The technology learns automatically from this data. It was particularly important to us that the model offers very low-threshold access, which can be implemented with little personnel and time expenditure and thus relieves the burden on administrative staff.
What about IT security and data protection when using automation?
Our automation solution meets the same security criteria as all other Fabasoft products. As the intelligent technology is used directly in the authority and works with the documents in the Fabasoft eGov-Suite, the administration does not have to disclose any data to third parties. The system constantly learns from user feedback and thus continuously improves the quality of the automation suggestions. The authority can determine the desired level of automation itself and adapt it to its individual needs.
How can authorities deal with the increasing danger of cyber threats?
A cloud-native architecture enables a flexible response to current threat scenarios, such as cyberattacks. This ensures security through clearly demarcated network activations for services and their storage in multiple instances. In addition, their distribution across different data centers increases resistance to attacks. This allows authorities to replace or update individual modules very quickly and thus implement new functions or solutions for users much faster. This is why our systems in the Fabasoft eGov ecosystem also follow the cloud-native architecture, which we offer in our Fabasoft PROCECO Cloud (formerly Fabasoft Cloud) and as on-premises or private cloud installations directly at the customer's premises.
You talk about the Fabasoft eGov ecosystem - how can authorities imagine this?
Over the past 20 to 25 years, the Fabasoft eGov-Suite has established itself as a cross-sectional application for electronic file management and document control in numerous public authorities, particularly in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Due to this positive development, we were keen to find out where we could provide further support to public administration in the digital transformation. We realized that we could create added value by providing our customers with additional, intuitive solutions based on the Fabasoft eGov-Suite. This gave rise to the Fabasoft eGov ecosystem: Our "one shared government reality" consists of coordinated solutions "on eGov", with which we specifically meet the specific technical requirements of public administration and enable rapid project planning.
In addition to the automation solutions already mentioned, we offer a digital personnel file that is used in the Free State of Bavaria. We also provide an online service portal for the rapid, bidirectional exchange of information between the public, companies and authorities, which uses low-code/no-code to simplify the day-to-day work of employees and improve service quality at the same time.
Can public authorities master the challenges mentioned at the beginning with Fabasoft solutions?
By using the Fabasoft eGov ecosystem, the public administration maximizes the success of the digital transformation and achieves goals even faster. If a public authority has the Fabasoft eGov-Suite in use, it can easily introduce additional solutions without an extensive project. It has the certainty that the products meet the high quality standards of the Fabasoft eGov-Suite, are optimally coordinated and are able to interact with each other. In addition, it is no longer necessary to create new security procedures, operating, data protection, rights and role concepts, etc., and users do not have to get used to a new interface. They are already familiar with the work paradigms from the Fabasoft eGov-Suite and therefore no extensive training is required. The interface meets the high standards of accessibility and is intuitively designed. This helps public administration to operate efficiently and sustainably. An effective transfer of know-how and the use of existing knowledge supports administrative staff, which, in addition to the use of automation, also counteracts the shortage of skilled workers. With its cloud-native strategy, Fabasoft is also taking an active approach to IT security and preventing cyber attacks. The Fabasoft eGov ecosystem specifically addresses the current and future challenges of public administration and attempts to master them with numerous different solutions. Authorities can therefore be confident that Fabasoft products are constantly evolving, actively responding to new requirements and meeting their needs.
How will the digital transformation in public administration develop and what role will artificial intelligence play in this?
Many authorities have already come a long way in their digital transformation. Nevertheless, this is an ongoing process. Particularly with regard to automation and artificial intelligence, there are more and more opportunities to further support public administration. On the one hand, these technologies bring many new opportunities, but on the other hand, we must also consider them in terms of risk and cost-effectiveness. As a result, they can have a significant impact on the future of digital administration. In addition to increasing the quality of service for the population and the economy, one key point is to reduce the workload on employees. In view of the crisis situations in recent years and demographic change, automation and artificial intelligence are essential to ensure that public authorities remain resilient and capable of acting and that we can maintain the prosperity of our society. This is why Fabasoft is also constantly driving progress and actively developing new functions and products for an innovative administration of the future.
