Minister Kaweh Mansoori finds out about the status of digitization at the Citizens' Office

On 30 August 2024, the Deputy Prime Minister and Hessian Minister for Economic Affairs, Energy, Transport, Housing and Rural Areas, Kaweh Mansoori, visited the Offenbach Citizens' Office to find out about the status of digitalization and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and automated processes (robotic process automation) in the city administration.

At the invitation of City Treasurer Martin Wilhelm, the IT experts presented the minister with fully automated processes that are handled by the EMMA software and thus relieve employees of recurring routine tasks. "We no longer need to talk about eFiles, digital incoming and outgoing mail and almost completely paperless processing procedures in the Citizens' Office. We are now working with AI and intelligent automation and have implemented this as a pilot project for the city administration as a whole," said Martin Wilhelm, the city treasurer and department head responsible for the Citizens' Office.

Many other services are also available online for customers at the Offenbach Citizens' Office. A total of 17 services in the areas of registration and passports, vehicle registration, driving license applications and naturalization can be accessed online (see info box). The number of users has been rising for years and stood at 44,955 in the first half of 2024. By comparison, online services were used a total of 79,874 times in 2023. If the figures for 2024 continue to develop as they did in the first half of the year, an increase of almost 13% can be expected by the end of the year.

City Treasurer Martin Wilhelm emphasized how important the consistent further development of digitalization is, especially for the municipal budget.

"Automation does not mean that jobs are cut, but rather that employees are relieved of routine tasks and can devote themselves to more demanding tasks instead. I am therefore proud of the developments in the Citizens' Office and the team's willingness to change and innovate," said Wilhelm.

Transport Minister Kaweh Mansoori was impressed by the developments at the Offenbach Citizens' Bureau. "It's great to see that the entire team in the organizational unit is open to new topics and is developing solutions as a digital pioneer. The Ministry of Transport is developing the so-called EfA service (One for All) for applying for a driving license online. Hesse is thus in the lead for nationwide use," explained Minister Mansoori on the occasion of his visit. He particularly welcomed the use of artificial intelligence in administration. "The automation of time-consuming standard tasks through AI leads to a reduction in the workload for employees and the best possible service for citizens in times of a shortage of skilled workers."

At the moment, the exchange of driving licenses in accordance with the current deadline regulations is at the top of the wish list in Offenbach. In this area alone, there is potential to shift around 2,000 to 3,000 cases per year from personal customer contacts to online applications. "This example also shows how complex and time-consuming the coordination of different software partners and integration into the existing IT infrastructure still is today," said Alexander Witzel, Head of IT at the citizens' office. He and his two IT systems specialists are networked both regionally and nationally beyond the city of Offenbach and are key drivers of digital progress in the Citizens' Office. One of the team's current priorities is to go live with additional online services relating to driving licenses. Implementation is planned for the fall.