Sovereign digitalization for public administration

In this article you can read

• how the city of Kirchheim unter Teck is using its digitalization potential,
• how the public administration is implementing modern real-time communication with a high user experience for its employees,
• and which role the Open Telekom Cloud plays in the sovereign solution.
   

The large district town of Kirchheim unter Teck in the foothills of the Swabian Alb is part of the European metropolitan region of Stuttgart, with a population of over 40,000. It acts as a medium-sized center for the surrounding communities. Kirchheim has recognized the value of digitalization in order to overcome the challenges facing the city, adopting a digitalization strategy that is being continuously updated. The strategy focuses on three areas: Smart City, Digital Administration and Digital Education.

As part of the “Digital Administration” field of action, digital opportunities are to be used to make the city as a whole and the city administration fit for the future. On the one hand, this means expanding the technical infrastructure in order to offer municipal products and services online (e-government). On the other hand, the topic area deals with technical and internal administrative structures, municipal tasks, services, processes and deployed programs.

The aspect of digital sovereignty, as defined by the central IT strategy for the public sector, also plays a decisive role here. The public sector in Germany is leading the world with its vision of digital sovereignty. Digital sovereignty provides public institutions with digital freedom of action and minimizes dependence on IT providers, aiming to achieve the greatest possible control of data and infrastructures without dependence on big tech. Public administration should be able to carry out its tasks independently, self-determinedly and securely in the digital world.

With its strong focus on sovereign IT solutions, Deutsche Telekom proved to be a suitable partner for advancing the digitalization of administrative processes in Kirchheim unter Teck.

“Specifically, our first project was to introduce a messenger for employees of the administration,” explains Björn Eitelbuss, Deputy Head of Information and Communication Technology. “Messengers such as WhatsApp have become established in our private lives. Their advantages are undisputed”, he adds. Emergency services such as the fire department, police and disaster control can also benefit significantly from fast communication. However, the use of a messenger system must meet the strict requirements for security and sovereignty in public administration. “We needed a solution that offers the ease and performance of modern digitalization, but at the same time gives us full digital sovereignty.”, says Eitelbuss.

“Full digital sovereignty must take all components of a solution into account," says Daniel Schellhase, Open Telekom Cloud Chief Product Manager. Open source application software is an important component. Such established software exists on the European market for messaging services: The service by element uses the secure matrix communication protocol. This open standard for decentralized, secure, and sovereign real-time communication is already used by over 100 million people worldwide.

Element served as the basis for BWI, the IT service provider of the German Armed Forces, to create the Bundeswehr-Messenger. The development team hardened the applications, increased security, and derived from this the BundesMessenger. Since the end of 2023, the BWI has made the open code available to other public institutions via Gitlab in a community approach and is responsible for its ongoing development. The app can be used on any device (smartphone, tablet).

However, a service is only sovereign if all components are sovereign. This also includes the operating platform. This is where the Open Telekom Cloud came into play to round off full sovereignty. The portfolio managers decided to develop the service on the basis of the Open Telekom Cloud standard portfolio. As part of the development process, they contacted the team that provided the client for the solution. The "Managed Service for the BundesMessenger" was the perfect solution for Kirchheim.

The BundesMessenger offers fast real-time communication, the creation of groups or rooms and the sharing of files. Thanks to its federal approach, the spheres of individual organizations can be connected with those of other organizations within the public community. “With the Managed BundesMessenger, we get a complete package from a single source,” explains Eitelbuss. “We can start with a relatively small number of 50 users and then scale up as required, i.e., gradually add more”.

Kirchheim uses the sovereign messenger service in a software-as-a-service mode – scalable, cost-effective and simple. T-Systems provides additional managed services to ensure that updates and new releases are available promptly. The service is also enhanced with integration services – allowing public institutions to manage users via an existing identity and account management system, for example.

The provision of the BundesMessenger from the Open Telekom Cloud also offers other public sector units the opportunity to simply introduce a messenger. All they have to do is book a client with the Open Telekom Cloud and download the app free of charge from the Apple or Android app stores onto their end devices. And that's it. “The Managed BundesMessenger meets all the requirements we have for a digital solution: It is contemporary, offers a good user experience, and is sovereign,” summarizes Eitelbuss.