Using the possibilities of digitalization in a way that benefits citizens - this has a long tradition at the City of Offenbach. This first became noticeable for citizens on a larger scale with the major reform of the citizens' office to online appointment allocation in 2015. Using digitalization to provide the best possible citizen service has also been a strategic goal of Lord Mayor Dr Felix Schwenke since he took office. This was one of the reasons for the introduction of the Digitalization Stabsstelle in 2021. For about a year now, the administration has been working intensively on the question of how a municipality can benefit from the use of artificial intelligence. The first fundamental progress has now been made.
"We are introducing a software solution called EMMA. It was tested from October 2023 to January 2024 as a pilot project in the Citizens' Office under the direction of the Information and Communication Technology Department of the Main Office and is now being used permanently. Firstly, it is very important to me that the city administration provides the best possible service for citizens. From day one, I have supported all managers in using all existing technical possibilities to achieve this goal. Secondly, the birth rate clearly shows that there are fewer and fewer workers available in Germany every year, and this also applies to skilled workers. We are already feeling this today: we can no longer find employees for a number of jobs. In the long term, however, the quality of service for our citizens naturally suffers. My demand on our administration is therefore: we also want to achieve what insurance companies and banks can. Recurring routine tasks must be technically automated. We don't need to create more and more jobs that we can't fill anyway," said Lord Mayor Dr. Felix Schwenke on the introduction of EMMA. The department heads have also explained this at several staff events in the building and digitalization will be a topic at the next management retreat.
"The clear goal is to use technology to make work less stressful for our employees. Then, even with fewer employees, we will have the time to take care of the high-quality tasks that are important for our citizens," says Lord Mayor Schwenke, making it clear that the city is now working on a far-reaching change to its internal administrative processes step by step and with a great deal of patience.
"I am very grateful to my colleagues on the City Council that we are tackling this major task of administrative reform in close unity," added the Lord Mayor. "In our intensive search for tools to use the latest technology, including AI, to modernize administration, we have succeeded in making very valuable progress for citizens in the long term with robot-controlled software for process automation," said Mayor Schwenke.
"Thanks to the commitment of our employees, we have succeeded in achieving large parts of the desired goal: recurring routine work can now be carried out digitally to a significant extent." Schwenke therefore announces: "We will now transfer this step by step to the entire administration and also the city group in the coming years."
"Digitalization and automation draw attention to workflows, tasks, processes and structures, which are then optimized by software," says Martin Wilhelm. As city treasurer, he has his eye on rising personnel costs, but also on previously unrecognized potential or opportunities for synergies. "After the test phase, we can now see how software-supported solutions work in the citizens' office."
The consistent use of EMMA alongside numerous other digital processes and procedures has made it possible to take on naturalization as a new task with a high number of expected applications. "Of course, we are investing capacity in the development of such procedures. This may temporarily lead to restrictions in other areas, but ultimately benefits all citizens," says Wilhelm, promoting this approach. It is an important investment in the efficiency of public administration. This requires courage and a willingness to take risks on the part of everyone involved. "In our citizens' office, I see that such changes create a new dynamic and that exciting and challenging tasks release a lot of motivation and energy," says Wilhelm.
EMMA is suitable for recurring processes that need to be handled in large numbers: the more clicks, the more potential for automation. However, less time-consuming processes are also considered if the use of AI and intelligent automation can achieve reliability and reduce the workload of employees. The prerequisite for use is a certain level of digital maturity - for example the use of eFiles - as well as digital incoming and outgoing mail.
A particular advantage of using EMMA is that you don't necessarily need a specialist IT background to develop a handover process; employees with administrative or commercial training can also qualify for this in a reasonable amount of time. The important thing is that suitable processes are identified, structured, optimized and documented in advance.
What is intelligent about EMMA?
It is a cognitive AI, which means that EMMA imitates human cognitive abilities. It recognizes, sorts and processes information after appropriate training. Unlike a generative AI such as ChatGPT, EMMA does not generate new content through continuous learning. This is very important in a municipality for transparency, control and data security.
"We will now start a survey on the digital maturity of processes in specialist departments in order to strategically plan fields of action and challenges," says the Lord Mayor, looking to the near future. The fact that technical solutions such as EMMA cannot simply solve all problems is not a new insight for the city council. "And yet we need progress and success, even if we look at how many of our experienced and highly qualified employees will retire in the coming years," Schwenke continues.
City Treasurer Wilhelm is convinced that employees will also benefit from better digitalization and can be motivated with new tasks. He sees it as the task of the city council and the entire management team to ensure good change management and thus allay employees' fears of losing their jobs, among other things.
Over the course of the year, further areas of deployment are planned in other offices, which will be tackled in order of priority. Mayor Sabine Groß, who is responsible for the Housing Office: "I also support digitalization and working with automated processes for future use in processing housing benefit applications. This will allow our employees to gain valuable time to look after citizens more intensively."
The Housing Office has been working with the Hessian Central Office for Data Processing to optimize the digital housing benefit application since 2023. In future, automated processes will be used to check directly whether the application meets all requirements. In the next step, data relevant to the application will be extracted from the submitted documents. The housing office is also examining where technology such as EMMA can be used outside of the specialist procedure. A working group is currently investigating the automated filing of housing benefit notices in the electronic file. It is planned that all procedures will be implemented by summer 2024.
The introduction of the digital building application process in Offenbach is another digitalization project that is nearing completion. Paul-Gerhard Weiß, Head of Planning and Building, explains: "We will start the test phase in live operation in April. The first real building applications will then be processed using this new digital process. The aim of the test phase is to check the software and technology with real building applications in order to eliminate any errors and weaknesses. We are also checking how the processes and communication between the building inspectorate, building portal, client, drafters and participating authorities work during the ongoing process. These test procedures will then lead to actual building permits."
EMMA will also play a role in inter-municipal cooperation and the city will continue to work on networking with other municipalities and, ideally, exchanging developed processes with each other. To this end, the city is using existing networks and the expertise and experience of its software partner companies.
Figures - Data - Facts
- 63 percent of offices in the city of Offenbach am Main currently use electronic files
- 25 percent of offices use digital incoming and/or outgoing mail
- 38 services currently available online
- IT employees: central IT department in the main office (24 employees plus 6 trainees); decentralized IT specialist administrations (22 employees plus hourly quotas in other positions); Stabsstelle Digitalisierung: 6 employees; City Education Office is currently building up capacity to support schools
- Around 4.1 million euros annual budget for IT expenditure in the main office, demand increasing (IT expenditure decentralized and specialist procedures, etc. at the OU and not centrally recorded)