For the first time, the North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) Tax Authority has become the first IT service provider in the public sector to receive ISO 20000 certification for its internal IT service processes. ISO 20000 is the international standard for IT service management. This also demonstrates to external parties that the IT organisation delivers its services to a standardised and consistently high standard. In this flagship project, the IT consultancy firm Materna Information & Communications SE supported the Tax Administration right through to final certification, helping it to gradually reorganise its IT service management processes and implement the IT solutions required to digitise these processes. The ISO 20000 certification demonstrates that the IT department of the North Rhine-Westphalia Finance Administration has its IT processes firmly under control and is therefore well positioned for the ongoing digitalisation of its specialist tasks.
“By introducing a modern service management system, the administration is not only responding to the growing need for professional and cost-effective IT support for the business processes of the Finance Administration for North Rhine-Westphalia. Rather, this represents a significant step towards further advancing the department’s digitalisation strategy internally as well,” explains Andreas Hedderich, Head of Division and Project Manager for itPlus at the Finance Administration’s Data Centre (RZF). As a result of this certification, the RZF is the first government data centre in Germany to be certified to ISO 20000. This is a major advantage for all customers. Where development and operations are recognised by a quality mark awarded by an independent auditing body, services become comparable. “This means we can now demonstrate the quality of our work to the outside world,” says RZF Director Andrea Kampmann with satisfaction.
The foundations for ISO 20000 certification were laid back in 2009, when the ‘itPlus’ project was launched. The aim was to ensure that the services required by users to carry out their tasks were made available in an appropriate, consistent and trouble-free manner. The entire lifecycle was taken into account, from business requirements through application development to operations. Above all, the aim was to resolve user issues more quickly and to be able to implement change requests to IT systems swiftly and efficiently.
The results at a glance
This large-scale, multi-year project was carried out in several phases, during which the various ITSM processes were implemented. The processes were improved, workflows standardised and automated, enabling the Finance Department to deliver clearly defined IT services of consistent quality more efficiently. Among other things, a new service desk organisation was introduced and its quality was sustainably improved. Today, the organisation is able to deliver a significantly improved service with the same number of staff. After all, the IT experts process around 300,000 tickets annually. Knowledge transfer and collaboration within the IT organisation have also improved. The approval process for new IT services and changes to the existing IT landscape is transparent at all times. Service Level Agreements with measurable key performance indicators provide management, amongst others, with transparent information on the quality of the IT services provided.
Materna’s expertise and experience
As part of the project, Materna provided consultancy services for process and service management at both strategic and operational levels. It was important for Materna’s experts to support the public sector staff through a coaching approach. Wherever possible, the public sector staff took on more extensive development and design tasks. At a strategic level, Materna supported those responsible for IT service management within the tax authority. This involved establishing a governance structure geared towards service management and a reporting system for the strategic management of IT within the tax authority.
About the Tax Administration
The North Rhine-Westphalia Tax Administration comprises 129 tax offices, three training and further education centres, a data centre, the Regional Finance Directorate, the State Office for Salaries and Pensions, and the Ministry of Finance itself. A total of 28,000 staff work here. The approximately 1,200 IT specialists are based at various locations, such as the Finance Administration’s central data centre (RZF), the IT departments of the Ministry of Finance and the Regional Finance Directorate, and the IT units of the affiliated tax offices.
About the Finance Administration Data Centre (RZF)
The Finance Administration Data Centre of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (RZF) is the IT authority within the remit of the Ministry of Finance.
- The automated processing of tax data, the printing and dispatch of tax assessment notices in North Rhine-Westphalia,
- the programming of tax software and
- the provision of software and hardware for all workstations within the state tax administration
are among its most important tasks.
Together with IT specialists from other federal states, Germany’s digital tax office is currently being developed (www.ELSTER.de).
Further information
Data Centre of the North Rhine-Westphalia
State Finance Administration Public Relations
Jörg Würz
Roßstraße 131, 40476 Düsseldorf
Tel.: +49 211/ 4572-2815
Email: [email protected]
http://www.rzf.de
About Materna
The Materna Group currently employs more than 2,300 staff worldwide and generated turnover of 323.8 million euros in 2019. Materna covers the entire range of services offered by a full-service provider in the premium segment: from consultancy through to implementation and operation. Materna advises and supports companies and public authorities on all aspects of digitalisation and delivers bespoke technologies for agile, flexible and secure IT. Its clients include IT organisations as well as specialist departments within companies and the public sector. The group also comprises various subsidiaries.
