by Nortal HQ, May 31, 2018
“Many of the same challenges that Germany now faces in taking public services into the digital age have already been solved in Estonia,” says Hendrik Lume, Nortal’s senior consultant focusing on the German market. “It makes sense to look at that experience and take cues from it wherever possible.”
Despite marked differences in the two countries’ sizes and public administration structures, Lume says that several of the innovations that earned the Baltic country its “e-Estonia” label could easily be applied in its larger western neighbor. It’s only a matter of adapting, scaling and proper management of change.
This is well known at Nortal, Estonia’s largest strategic change and technology company. Nortal has played an important role in more than third Estonia’s e-transformation initiatives and is now bringing their expertise to CEBIT.
“Nortal has had success implementing Estonian e-government systems in countries where the administrative setup couldn’t be more different from the European model,” Lume says. “Relative to that, making things work in Germany isn’t too much of a stretch.”
Taking the experience of e-Estonia to CEBIT. We’ll be talking about how we can contribute to digitizing Germany @cebit. Come join us!
Nortal is responsible for more than one-third of the Estonian e-government disruption and has worked with various government projects. At the moment, Nortal is working on several large-scale projects for the Estonian Tax and Customs Board, Ministry of Social Affairs, Ministry of Finance and Unemployment Insurance Fund.
Nortal is also one of the main developers of Estonian ID card software and has been closely involved with Smart-ID. Launched in 2017, Smart-ID is a mobile app that ticks all the boxes for users: it’s free, it’s secure, it’s simple to use, it works anywhere, and it doesn’t require users to change their SIM cards.
DataRadar, Nortal’s data governance tool, would also be helpful in protecting personal data and providing better data governance, Lume says.
At CEBIT, Nortal will be presenting a white paper, as well as several case studies, highlighting specific Estonian solutions that the company believes would work well in the German context.
Lume will also cover the topic in a CEBIT presentation on June 13. Titled “Estonia again — What German municipalities can really learn,” the 40-minute talk in German language will be aimed at local officials and related stakeholders.
CEBIT visitors interested in how Nortal can help them build seamless e-government are welcome to visit our shared booth, Hall 14, Stand L35.
Interested in topics related to electronic identity? Read Lume’s article on how Estonia has already cracked Germany’s eID puzzle.
