Sharing responsibility
Our employees have proven their skills in more than 60 projects and procedures for public administration. From the concept of a project to the ongoing operation, we are responsible for successful e-Government on a daily basis.
Examples of our services across various projects
- Development of customer-centric, high-traffic online portals that provide citizens with a wide range of offers and services.
- Development of landing pages for public administration customers with interactive links to procedures
- Digitization of application processes for social benefits and their connection to a variety of essential services of relevant online procedures
- Development of cross-agency core data systems for the coordination of various institutions and partners for joint case processing
- Establishment of interface management for region-specific solutions and integration of any remaining analog information exchanges into digital processes
- Migration, provision and IT security for master data management, in compliance with strict data protection regulations
- Replacement of C++ backend by a modern Java backend for the recording, approval and payment of various benefits
The e-Government Challenge
Digital services designed with the citizen in mind
One of the key strategic challenges facing the German public sector in the coming years is the sustainable digitization of its services. In the process, the citizen moves to the center of the digital strategy. Using the potential of digital communication and actively establishing a citizen-centric public administration is common sense.
The German public sector is consistently pursuing this path and is gradually realizing customer-centric service with a series of IT projects. Citizens become partners who work with consultants to embrace potential capabilities. New standards are being set in IT development, such as the virtual job market, ePortals for individual application processing, single sign-on access, or accessibility.
The customer, their understanding, thinking, and actions must be the focus of digitization. For this reason, the public sector is also consistently breaking new ground in IT development. Agile development teams work on implementation independently of ongoing operations and benefit from the freedom to be creative, flexible, and to utilize testing options. The result is customer-centric applications that ensure high-performance solutions for citizens and users of the German Federal Agency and can be gradually integrated into the security-based public administration system.
Our IT experts are part of this progression and work daily in the German public administration's development teams to implement this vision. We contribute at all levels of IT service delivery, from Agile development teams, test management, deployment, or maintenance, to make the promise of citizen-centric public administration a tangible reality for the people of Germany.
Giving young people a perspective
With the Core Data System of the German Youth Employment Agencies
What job interests me? What do I want to do with my life? Where do I see myself in five or ten years? These are questions that every young person considers, and the answers will have great significance for their entire lives. In the German Youth Employment Agencies, the importance of giving young people every option, opportunity, and support is understood. All too often, the critical time window between school and starting a career determines whether a young person has a successful or bumpy start to their professional life.
In the Youth Employment Agencies, this understanding leads to the setting of ambitious goals for the public sector. The aim is to highlight opportunities available to young people and actively help them get off to a good start in their work lives. It is also clear that young people with vocational training are less likely to be unemployed and more likely to thrive and lead a fulfilling life. The challenge is that often adolescents who are eligible for support and benefits have no idea about these possibilities – or where and how to access this support.
The Core Data System takes full advantage of the power of digital networking. From schools to the relevant institutions, everyone gradually pulls together to give young people the best possible prospects. The cross-institutional IT system facilitates the exchange of data between social service providers according to SGB II, III and VIII and enables cross-institutional casework.
In a second step, schools and other partners are included in the overall process. ISO Public Services is part of this development, and our team is proud to advance this project. After all, it is about young people's future, employment perspectives, and equal opportunities. The Core Data System helps young people across Germany, and we are delighted to be involved in it.
eService portals – customer-oriented and barrier-free
Moving toward the future with the digital application portal
The public sector developed one of the most powerful eService portals for citizens and companies in Germany with the creation of a digital application portal. Applicants can apply for, process, and digitally track various services such as unemployment benefits, short-time work and insolvency benefits, vocational training subsidies, and integration grants.
The digital gateway was designed so that the user does not have to switch between multiple channels and formats. Annoying format requirements for documents have been eliminated, and accessibility has been consistently implemented to provide equal access for all people. For the consultants in public administration, the system ensures a direct, digital link to the applicants. Thanks to the connection to all relevant backend systems, it enables them to process cases quickly in a citizen-oriented and business-friendly manner. Agile teams, in which IT experts from the ISO-Gruppe played a decisive role, developed the digital application portal.
UI & User Experience
Thinking from the people's point of view
As part of general digitization, public administration is increasingly making its services available to customers in digitally integrated web applications. Naturally, the focus of development strategies must be people's feelings and behavior around technology, their perceptions, expectations, and needs.
What may seem simple for homogeneous target groups becomes a real challenge for heterogeneous target groups. Nevertheless, precisely these broad, highly diverse target groups are the rule rather than the exception for public administration. After all, the German public sector has the mandate to be there for every German citizen. So how can maximum customer relevance be achieved in the digitization of online services?
The tools for this are readily available: user experience design, user interface design, accessibility, usability, customer centricity, and agile development. Tools are only as good as the craftsmen who use them. What's needed are experienced frontend experts who understand the demands of digital web use, who can grasp customer behavior, especially of heterogeneous target groups, and anticipate it in their solutions.
To this end, the German public administration decided on a paradigm shift and now consistently relies on agility. This is not always easy, because it is precisely the monolithic background systems that guarantee smooth administration. The advantages, however, are convincing. Agile development environments can significantly accelerate the pace of development, enable a change of perspective, awaken the necessary creative joy of experimentation, and turn the fear of mistakes into positive energy. Errors are not seen as a problem in the development process but as opportunities to learn to improve continuously.
To better understand customer behavior and determine the common ground, especially in heterogeneous target groups, customers are systematically included in agile development processes. Developers receive essential feedback throughout the entire development cycle and can continuously test and adjust for customer-relevant factors.
The resulting software products fit into customers' lives, are as simple as possible for each individual, and as close as possible to the individual challenge. ISO Public Services bears an integral part of this responsibility with its experts in numerous public administration projects. For this purpose, we develop strategies in our internal think tanks, certify employees in our ISO Academy and prepare them for day-to-day operations in our ISO boot camps.
Understand motivation
Finding your path
Choosing the right career is a fundamental question that is particularly difficult for teenagers and young adults to keep track of in the digital world. Therefore, for German public administration, this question is a top priority because nothing is more important than the prospects of young people.
As part of the Digital Agenda, we supported the agile development team for career orientation in building a self-exploration tool. The tool enables teenagers and young adults to quickly and easily receive individual suggestions for suitable higher education or training opportunities based on psychologically sound test procedures.
The software solution was developed with the user experience and media usage of the target group in mind. Usability, design, and language were tailored to the expectations and needs of young people. Of course, the German employment agency does not leave the users alone with the results. Every young person who uses the tool is offered an intensive personal consultation. The self-help tool extends the services of the employment agency, provides effective guidance, and further improves the quality of counseling.
