Business Process Reference Models for Reorganizing Public Administrations - A Case Study

During the last years the optimisation of business processes has gained more and more importance in the context of modernizing public administrations. In line with the concept of electronic government (eGovernment) one demands not only the representation oriented design of internet sites, but also the creation of real added value. In dimensions of benefits (on citizens side) and in dimensions of cost reduction (on administrations side) the added value can be generated by providing fully transactional processes. The approximately 13,000 German municipalities mainly have to deal with the same spectrum of tasks. The administration processes that are necessary to fulfil those tasks share strong analogies in structure. In the framework of process oriented reorganisation projects reference models, as reusable generic models with a normative character, can render a decisive contribution to cost reduction in the phase of to-be modelling. The project Regio@KomM picks up these aims. In this paper the process of issuing a general debit note authorisation exemplifies the practical applicability and the value potential of reference modelling. 1. Process-oriented Reorganization in Public Administrations The number of tasks accompanied by strong cost pressure on public administrations increased enormously during the last years. Tax revenues in many places stagnated or even dropped behind, which necessitates massive reduction of expenses. On the other hand public administration is confronted with increasing requirements from citizens and companies. The internet based spatial and temporal availableness of services is already common in other areas, e. g. in the banking or retailing sector. The increased requirements and tasks on the one hand and the decreased revenues on the other hand confronted public administrations with a modernisation and performance gap [7]. Public administrations recently try to close this modernisation and performance gap [11] by applying the concept of electronic government. However the prospects linked with this concept can only be fulfilled, if internet based public services in the form of electronic citizen services feature significant advantages in costs and benefits adverse pure offline solutions [3]. Besides information and communication services especially full transactional services matter. But only by the process oriented analysis of administrational processes a potential for optimisation of the public services can be revealed and implemented [15]. eGovernment initiatives can be found on all federal levels in Germany. Especially on the local level nearly all of the approximately 13,000 German municipalities deal with this topic in different levels of intensity. The results can range from a simple representation oriented design of a website to an internet based fully transactional provision of complex services. Many