Digitalization has become indispensable in today's world and the city of Bonn is also working on digitalizing and networking the services it offers. An important driver of digitalization is the Online Access Act (OZG). This law obliges all cities and municipalities to make selected services available to citizens online in a service portal by December 31, 2022.

An OZG team has been set up to drive forward implementation at the City of Bonn and is tasked with prioritizing the individual services through to integrating the online service into the service portal. In the following, the OZG team gives you an insight behind the scenes and explains what needs to be done internally so that an online service can be integrated into the service portal of the City of Bonn.

"On the way from an analog process to an online service in the service portal, the OZG team has to consider various steps: After researching and comparing the services, we always start by recording the actual process, so that we not only look at the application, but also analyze the internal processes. As soon as we have recorded this process and visualized it with our process management platform "PICTURE", we turn our attention to the target concept. This is developed after thorough research and consultation with the IT department and the specialist department and is also modeled in PICTURE. As we always try to create a target process without media discontinuity, various departments, such as specialist departments, IT service providers and other external companies, must be involved in the implementation. The implementation options include Online forms with and without online payment function, interfaces to specialist procedures, integration of external online assistants and, of course, in-house programming of workflows.

This phase is very time-consuming, as the basic framework for the online service is created here. As soon as all agreements have been made, the necessary contracts concluded and the editorial topics worked through, the test and training phase begins with the employees. As part of this phase, we import test applications so that the receipt of applications and the general handling of the case processing portal can be tested. As soon as all employees feel comfortable with the portal, the service is put online in the service portal. As process management is not a snapshot in time, but needs to be constantly adapted, we evaluate our online services after a certain period of time."

For applications/services that have to be signed by the person making the application, authentication with the ID card (eID) is required. To be able to use this function, you need an activated online ID function and your PIN. You can request both free of charge via the PIN reset and activation service in the beta version online at  www.pin-ruecksetzbrief-bestellen.de (opens in a new tab). You do not need a separate reader for authentication, but can simply scan your ID card with an NFC-enabled smartphone.

If you need help with authentication with the new ID card, you can find step-by-step instructions in the FAQs on the City of Bonn's  service portal (opens in a new tab) service portal (opens in a new tab).