Norbert Ahrend , Konrad Walser and Henrik Leopold
tion , Austria continuously builds up competence centers for maintaining , and also modeling support processes . Consequently , these centers are in charge of process management and also of the roll out of specific support processes as for instance IT services .
3.4 Tools
All three countries maintain different tools for supporting the BPM initiatives . Germany has introduced a socalled National Process Library ( NPB ). It is the first attempt at implementing a comprehensive crossinstitutional and cross‐level approach . A conscious decision was made not to enforce ( standardized ) restrictions with regard to tools or methods , in order to make sure that at least this aspect does not restrict the exchange of process expertise . The initiators of this endeavor are aware of the fact that standardization is unavoidable in the medium or long term . However , the intention is to let this standard take shape in an open process in which suitable methods and tools for the different aspects of the process management can establish themselves . In this context the xProzess interface of XÖV ( project for standardization of XML in public administration ) deserves special mention . This interface makes it possible to integrate existing and future registers ( for example , there are plans for connecting the federal state of Saxony and its process library to the NPB ). Furthermore , all BPM tool manufacturers in the German‐speaking region will implement this standard and integrate it into their tools . Through the bidirectional usage options for tools and manufacturers that this offers , the establishment of the BPM approach in public administration is supported significantly .
Now , after the first wave of standardization , Switzerland is following a logically consistent path by setting up and providing a process exchange platform to allow exchange of process expertise across all institutions and levels . The platform http :// www . ech‐bpm . ch / de ( in addition to www . ech . ch ) already makes some content available ( project guidelines for BPM implementation , BPM starter kit , etc .). The focus lies on the distribution of the eGov BPM starter kit .
The development of eGovernment in Austria began in the nineties with the creation of portals and the introduction of business process management for finance . The initial purpose of eGovernment was the reduction of costs and the efficiency enhancement of the Austrian administration . As a result from introducing forms for administrative services , the first process repositories were build up . Today , Austria maintains portals for enterprises and citizens , so‐called One‐stop‐Portals . These portals play an important role in facilitating process integration . They implement the previously discussed input variable concept and thus help to avoid media disruptions .
3.5 Challenges
The main challenge in all three countries is to increase the interlocking of business and IT . For Germany , it can be said that BPM is currently still , to a large extent , initiated either by the business or the IT departments of the individual administrations and , on the other hand , the support provided by the executive personnel is not adequate . The initiatives mentioned in this article do not change this basic finding in any way . Thus , Germany needs to integrate the IT and business perspective accordingly . In Switzerland the continuous harmonization with the corporate architecture management , which falls in the area of responsibility of the Federal IT Steering Unit ( FITSU ), is of central importance . The current initiatives in the fields of BPM and architecture are mainly technology‐driven and are only inadequately being supported by the management of the administrations . This is one of the possible reasons for the slow progress of BPM in public administration , as many executives do not give full commitment to such initiatives and BPM thus does not become a strategic initiative of the respective administrations . Furthermore , the BPM and architecture initiatives are being pushed by the Federal IT Steering Unit ( FITSU ), which is associated more with informatics than with management in the public administration . Especially , for Austria the interlocking of business and IT represents a significant challenge .
A further common challenge is given by the externalization of process expertise . As described in the process management system from Section 2.2 , the employees of the administrative unit are actually both , affected parties and participating parties . Accordingly , they play a significant role . They provide expertise and are users of the respective systems . In the field of knowledge management in general and in process management in particular , the externalization of process expertise can be seen as a huge challenge .
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