Research
02.09.2020

Hertie School’s Centre for Digital Governance collaborates with GovTech start-up Polyteia to assess digitisation in local government

Study confirms that data is not yet fully explored in many areas of municipal administrations.

This week, the Centre for Digital Governance and GovTech start-up Polyteia, released a study entitled, “Gute Daten. Gute Verwaltung” (Good data. Good administration).

Based on expert interviews with 19 municipal decision-makers, the study identifies five approaches and recommendations for action to meet the current challenges in data use in municipal administration in Germany. Polyteia was launched in 2018 by Hertie School alum Faruk Tuncer, MPP 2016. The start-up aims to provide local authorities with solutions and ideas on how they can make their services available to citizens faster and more cost-efficiently by using their data.

The study's findings confirm that data is not yet fully explored in many areas of municipal administrations, and many local government employees remain unaware of its benefits.

According to Gerhard Hammerschmid, Professor of Public and Financial Management and Director of the Centre for Digital Governance, “the potential and importance of good data for the effective and successful digitalisation of administration is also increasingly recognised in Germany. However, the necessary steps towards professional data management and the strategic use of data are often taken too hesitantly. With this study, we want to direct our attention to this topic.”

The recommendations proposed by the report include: the development of interdepartmental strategies with clear objectives and responsibilities, the establishment of a digital administration academy with training courses on data management and support for the municipalities by municipal data centres and public IT service providers in coping with these tasks by providing their expertise.

The full study (in German) can be downloaded here.

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