Digital administration? HN shows the way!

Heilbronn is developing into an AI Mecca. That has an impact. Even on the city administration: five years ago, it was one of the first municipalities in Baden-Württemberg to adopt a comprehensive digital strategy with a view to 2030. Since then, an entire administrative division has been driving the topic forward, with automation and AI playing a key role. An interview with Thomas Laue, the city's digitalization officer and open data coordinator, on the hurdles of German administrative digitalization and the courage to embrace cultural change.

Germany's administration is lagging behind when it comes to digital administration - why?

It's true, countries like Estonia, Austria and Denmark are certainly a decade ahead of us. This shows that we need to pick up the pace. That we need to learn from others. At the same time, however, the German administration operates in a complex federal structure. There is no simple top-down approach, as we know it from the business world. On the contrary: an incredible number of stakeholders across Germany want to have their say and contribute their ideas - and ultimately often slow down progress. Whether intentionally or unintentionally. We local authorities are quite far down the food chain.

Can you elaborate on that?

In Heilbronn, we are often driving forward new software solutions for digital services. It can always happen that standards at state or federal level are only adapted later and our interfaces suddenly no longer work. We therefore urgently need more planning security and uniform standards nationwide - otherwise the best programming work will be in vain. But I don't just want to complain. For Heilbronn, I can say that we are making good progress under the given circumstances. Especially as we have also learned from past mishaps and react much more quickly to changes.

What is different in Heilbronn?

There is an enormous openness to digital change and innovation in the city. Starting with Lord Mayor Harry Mergel right down to the authorities. The same applies to the economy and the city community. The fact that over 7,000 people attended the AI Festival last year is a fitting picture for me. Where else can you find that in Germany? Then there are also many universities and a lively start-up scene. We benefit considerably from this.

What does the exchange look like in concrete terms?

For example, we have a workplace in the Artificial Intelligence Innovation Park (Ipai) and therefore have a direct line to the start-ups and companies there. Their knowledge is incredibly valuable to us - but so is their way of working. Start-ups have an enormous pace and are bursting with innovative power and new ideas. As an administration, we are much slower. Which is a good thing, as we are responsible for providing services of general interest for an entire city and have to offer reliable solutions. But if you bring both ways of working together, great projects can emerge!

Have there already been joint projects?

Several, actually! For example, we started developing a fully digital inbox with our partner thingsThinking in 2021. The system scans incoming letters, recognizes the responsible administrative authority from the context of the respective letter - even if this is not explicitly mentioned - and forwards them digitally. You need to know that we receive four to five carloads of mail per day. These have to be distributed to over a hundred different locations such as administrative buildings, schools and kindergartens. This adds up to several hundred kilometers of travel per week. The potential for faster, more ecological and, in case of doubt, more reliable deliveries is therefore enormous. We are a pioneer nationwide with this project. This topic is too hot for many local authorities. But thanks to the support from the community, we dared to tackle the project and even integrated AI - and in a very short space of time.

How did this come about?

It may sound crazy to many: at the first AI festival, which was co-organized by thingsThinking at the time, we built the first AI-based prototype for the software in three days. Of course, this could not be implemented one-to-one and had to go through internal administrative processes until now. But this initial impetus has shown that it is possible at all. And the software is now about to be used.

And the 42 Heilbronn?

We have been in close contact with 42 Heilbronn since it opened and the school has now become a really valuable sparring partner: they often give us feedback on current projects and we benefit greatly from their wealth of ideas. Thanks to 42, we also took part in our first hackathon - at the time on the topic of open data. The 42 students immediately uncovered gaps and identified problems with our data quality. During the hackathon, they developed a catalog of requirements that we still refer to regularly today. It would be brilliant to have this technical expertise from 42 in-house. We are therefore currently trying to recruit a trainee for the Heilbronn administration.

What makes the students at 42 stand out for you?

You can tell that the students have learned to ask the right questions: They know exactly what they need for their projects and can name it. They first try to understand what makes us tick as an administration and how they can work with us. This makes it much easier for us to implement the ideas - and leads to greater acceptance within the administration. Because one thing is clear: if we want to attract 42 students, we need a cultural change towards more agile working methods. There is a long way to go until then. But we are prepared to risk this experiment!