Offenbach reaches the final of the Digital Award with "eGovSAD"
15.10.2024 – Fulda, Giessen, Limburg, Marburg, Offenbach and Wetzlar are in the final of this year's DIGITAL Award. The municipalities were nominated for the joint digitalization project "eGovSAD - eGovernment Service and Analysis Dashboard".
"My experts know that I support digitalization above all where it benefits citizens," says Lord Mayor Dr Felix Schwenke. The number of online services is increasing - and local authorities are no exception. More and more can be done from home or on the move. "Of course, we continue to think about those who cannot use online services. But the trend is clear and it is therefore important that we at least continue to significantly expand the ability to do things online," says Mayor Schwenke. The city of Offenbach, for example, currently provides around 70 online services on the www.offenbach.de platform. "But offering something online does not automatically mean that it is also user-friendly," Schwenke is aware. "The question of whether you find something user-friendly is of course very subjective in some cases. The decisive factor for a city's offering is that it is user-friendly for as many people as possible. We can measure this with objective data. We can measure whether the completion of certain forms is frequently aborted and if so, we can also measure at what point. And we can also do this anonymously while ensuring data protection. This helps us a lot in improving our services," explains Mayor Schwenke.
"eGovSAD" - Everything at a glance
Over the past two years, the municipalities of Fulda, Giessen, Limburg, Marburg, Offenbach and Wetzlar have developed an eGovernment Service and Analysis Dashboard (eGovSAD) to make this and much more information available in a centralized and clear manner. An important focus here is on ensuring anonymity and data protection. Personal data is not stored and the presentation of usage data is completely anonymous. This ensures that citizens' privacy is protected and the applicable data protection regulations are complied with.
The project was funded by the Hessian Ministry for Digitalization and Innovation with 868,320 euros from the "Starke Heimat Hessen" programme. ekom21 supported the project as an implementation partner. This innovative project has now been nominated for the DIGITAL Award as one of the three finalists in the "Districts, Ministries and Authorities" category. The award recognizes projects that promote the digitalization of public administration.
"Our goal is to be able to visit public authorities virtually from the sofa. But they also need to be convenient and easy to use. It therefore makes a lot of sense to have a tool that allows conclusions to be drawn about usage figures and canceled processes or payment methods, for example, or enables feedback from users. This is the only way to improve processes and turn administrative digitization into a truly successful project," said Digital Minister Prof. Dr. Kristina Sinemus.
"For us as a municipal administration, the tool is a great asset. Just as easily as citizens use our online services, we can now track how they are being accepted and, more importantly, what still needs to be improved. We are delighted to have been nominated for the DIGITAL Award with this major joint project and look forward to every vote for the project in the online voting," says Mayor Schwenke.
Public voting is crucial: Vote online and support the project
This year's DIGITAL Award will be presented as part of the KommDIGITALE trade fair, which will take place in Bielefeld from November 19 to 21, 2024. There are three finalists per category. However, the actual winners of the DIGITAL Award in each category will be determined by a public vote.
Until the award ceremony on November 19, citizens were able to cast their vote for one of the nominated projects.
Further information:
Note: The page was updated on November 26, 2024, as the vote has ended.