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Client story

Digitalization improves taxation treatment processes for customs authorities and thousands of business users across Germany

Client: Federal Information Technology Centre (ITZBund) and Customs Administration
Region: Germany
Industry: Public Sector

In the first major shoring project in the German public sector, the Federal Information Technology Centre (ITZBund) and Capgemini transform consumption, transport, and energy tax enforcement for the digital age

Client Challenge: ITZBund wanted to consolidate a heterogeneous landscape of different processes, IT procedures, and legacy systems into a central IT platform with uniform tax processing.

Solution: Working with Capgemini, ITZBund implemented an IT platform based on a specific software component and introduced web portals for all tax specialists and economic agents while developing additional components for the connection of further interface systems.

Benefits:

  • Simplified processes for 70,000 taxpayers and 3,800 tax specialists
  • Increased efficiency through digitalization of key processes
  • Flexibility to adapt the platform for other tax areas

ITZBund as the central IT service provider of the German government

The Federal Information Technology Centre (ITZBund) supports the entire German federal administration across all departments by fulfilling a political mandate to provide modern IT support and ensure that the government is ready for the digital future. The spectrum of services is diverse and includes promoting digitalization, consulting, and implementing specific software developments, all while also providing infrastructure and operating key IT systems. Around 3,800 employees perform these tasks at 12 locations across Germany.

ITZBund plays a central role in the modernization of excise and transport tax enforcement within the customs authorities – MoeVe for short – by developing and managing of new, modern software that transforms tax enforcement for both economic agents and the customs authorities.

Development of a modern, platform-based IT solution

The Customs Administration – a customer of ITZBund – had to redefine the complex matter of tax enforcement. A heterogeneous ecosystem of different business processes, interfaces, and numerous IT procedures had developed over time. Simplifying this structure meant consolidating workflows as well as functional and technical architectures and transferring all of it into a target concept, which became part of an overall program to renew tax enforcement.

ITZBund needed to provide the customs authorities with a comprehensive and modern IT solution that introduced as much uniformity as possible to support various areas of responsibility. Additionally, any new platform had to meet both the requirements of the economy and those of the administration for end-to-end process digitalization. In line with the Federal Finance Administration’s IT strategy, the new solution was implemented based on a modern, platform-oriented IT architecture using the same basic Federal Finance Administration services.

Success with distributed teams

After being selected as a project partner by ITZBund, Capgemini began with an initial vulnerability analysis, the creation of a target concept, and the implementation of the first specifications at the customs authorities, all of which took place before beginning the software development project. Building on existing basic IT services, the partners implemented more than 11,000 requirements in approximately 200 use cases ahead of the first major release, which was tested internally with more than 2,000 test cases.

A multinational group worked together to develop the software. While a team in Cologne was responsible for direct customer contact, creation of the specifications, and the final integration tests, the entire development and system testing was carried out by an Indian team located in Mumbai and Bangalore. To ensure the success of this model, all documents were translated internally into English. Complex technical aspects were communicated via numerous knowledge transfers and accompanied by far-reaching quality assurance measures.

The closely coordinated teams created an IT solution that supports the customs authorities’ tax-specific business processes and its users via browser-based software connected to numerous interfaces.

Digitalized interaction between business and administration

Following the go-live of the IT solution in various stages, previously paper-based energy tax processes have now been digitalized. As a result, the customs authorities have established a modern way of working with faster and easier transaction processing and better methods for exchanging information. Supported by the modern, platform-based IT architecture at ITZBund, it will be possible to reuse existing functionalities and ensure further rapid development. This also enables business stakeholders to submit applications and tax returns faster, more conveniently, and completely digitally.

The reliable delivery approach used by ITZBund and Capgemini ensured a professional, customer-focused, and results-oriented service with an optimal, budget-friendly use of resources. The chosen team set-up ensured German communication while maintaining transparency regarding the Indian team’s involvement.

A solid basis for further digitalization

Based on the experience gained from the first major offshore project in the public sector, ITZBund and Capgemini will now collaborate on the development of an IT solution for other types of taxes based on the platform developed for customs authorities. While the functional scope is being expanded for energy tax, work has already started on electricity tax. Going forward, ITZBund will continue to expand its partnership with Capgemini to support the implementation of further building blocks and completely new IT solutions.