ABSTRACT
Germany's federal system makes standardising the digitalisation of administrative services difficult. However, the introduction of the Online Access Act should change this, with the aim of providing over 575 digital administrative services by 2022. This study uses the example of digital building permits to analyse the implementation of the ‘One for All’ strategy. For this analysis, 36 documents and one expert interview were qualitatively evaluated. The study is guided by four theses on federal complexity, dependence on cooperation and financing, the importance of technical standards, and the role of user-centred development. While user acceptance is high, technical barriers and federal heterogeneity remain key challenges, and standard utilisation is insufficient overall. Despite federal fragmentation, the ‘One for All’ solution has been successfully rolled out in several federal states. The success factors were political backing, central funding, a modular architecture with a user-centred design, and inter-organisational cooperation. The case study recommends comparative multiple case analyses and international comparisons for future research.
