North Rhine-Westphalia Tax Authority First Public Body Certified ISO 20000

The North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) Tax Authority has achieved ISO 20000 certification for its IT service management processes, marking a first for public IT service providers in Germany. The international standard confirms that the authority's IT services are delivered to a consistent and high standard.

Materna Information & Communications SE, an IT consultancy firm, assisted the tax administration throughout the certification project. Materna helped reorganize internal IT service management processes and implement the necessary IT solutions for digitization. This certification demonstrates that the NRW Finance Administration's IT department has its processes under control and is prepared for ongoing digitalization.

"Implementing a modern service management system represents a significant step forward in advancing the department's digitalization strategy internally," stated Andreas Hedderich, Division Head and Project Manager for itPlus at the Finance Administration's Data Centre (RZF). The RZF is now the first government data center in Germany to be ISO 20000 certified, enhancing service transparency and comparability for its users.

The project, initiated in 2009 as the 'itPlus' project, aimed to ensure users received IT services appropriately, consistently, and without disruption. Materna's experts provided strategic and operational consultancy, coaching public sector staff to take on development and design tasks. By improving processes, standardizing workflows, and automating tasks, the tax authority now delivers defined IT services more efficiently and with consistent quality, managing approximately 300,000 tickets annually with the same staffing levels.