The Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) is offering a further service in accordance with the Online Access Act (OZG), following on from the flag certificate: applications for the survey of recreational craft can now be submitted digitally. The application form is available on the BSH website. To use the service, private individuals can authenticate themselves via the ‘Bund’ user account, whilst organisations can do so via the ELSTER organisation account (‘My Business Account’).
Infora and Materna advised and supported the BSH in the initialisation, design and implementation of the project. Infora took charge of project management and developed the functional and technical concept. Materna developed the technical implementation of the online form, including an accessible and responsive design for the user interface. The OZG service is based on the Federal Government’s FMS.
“As the Materna Group, we have successfully initiated, designed and implemented another OZG service in collaboration with the BSH. Our consultants have many years of practical experience and expertise in a wide range of areas: project management; as process experts with specialist knowledge of FIM; change and acceptance management; content management and portals; form management; and also user experience and accessibility,” says Johannes Rosenboom, Head of Sales, Marketing and Business Development in the Public Sector division at Materna.
Germany is a country with a rich tradition of water sports, boasting a variety of rivers, lakes and canals, as well as the Wadden Sea and the open sea. There are a total of around 30,000 km of navigable waterways, whilst the North Sea and the Baltic Sea offer a coastline of approximately 2,400 kilometres. The BSH issues internationally recognised vessel measurement certificates for recreational craft, including sailing and motor yachts. This enables recreational craft to apply for entry into a register of seagoing vessels.
Applications for pleasure craft under 24 metres can be submitted digitally. This OZG service covers the application for a simplified measurement and is limited to determining the length of the boat. Once the application has been successfully submitted, the BSH issues a bilingual tonnage certificate in German and English. This tonnage certificate is generally sufficient for the registration of the pleasure craft in a maritime register (an exception is commercial use, provided this is not for training purposes).
As part of the application, users can enter all the necessary information digitally, pause the application process and resume it at a later date, and upload or submit supporting documents. They can authenticate themselves in two ways: either via the ‘Bund’ user account or via ELSTER’s ‘My Business Account’. This enables both private individuals and organisations, such as clubs, to use the service. Furthermore, data can be imported automatically and does not need to be entered manually. During the process, the BSH requests any additional information and supporting documents relevant to the application.
The OZG requires the federal government, the Länder and local authorities to offer their administrative services digitally via administrative portals by the end of 2022. In addition to the digital application for the survey of recreational craft and for a flag certificate, the BSH is working continuously with Infora and Materna to prepare further administrative services, which are also to be made available online.
About Materna
The Materna Group implements sustainable IT and digitalisation projects for clients from large corporations, SMEs and public authorities. With more than 3,500 employees worldwide, Materna generated a turnover of 433 million euros (2021). Its expertise and capabilities are organised across nine focus areas. Materna has held a market-leading position for many years in the focus areas of Digital Administration, Enterprise Service Management and Passenger Journey. Through its focus areas of SAP Transformation, Journey2Cloud™ and Cyber Security, Materna offers solutions to the most pressing challenges currently facing almost every sector. In the focus areas of Digital Experience, Sustainability & Resilience, and the Data Economy, Materna provides solutions that enable clients to position themselves for the long term in a sustainable and value-generating manner.
