Let the Data Move, Not the People

A Digital Record Alone Does Not Fix the Process

In the public sector, cloud technology is often seen as the answer to a long-standing promise: records, data, and information about ongoing service requests should be available anytime and anywhere. For citizens. For businesses. For frontline staff, agency leaders, and policymakers.

This promise matters because it goes to the heart of what effective government should deliver. Public services should be efficient and reliable. Decisions should be understandable and traceable, while people and businesses should be able to access services without unnecessary friction. Yet this goal is still too often treated primarily as a technology issue.

An administrative record can exist electronically and still fail to reach the point in the process where it is needed. An application can be submitted online and still require manual sorting. A service request can begin digitally and later be delayed by unclear responsibilities, disconnected systems, or missing information.

The record may be digital, but the underlying administrative work still follows paper-era logic.

For agency leaders, CIOs, CDOs, and digital transformation leaders, this is more than an IT detail. They are expected to deliver digital government while staffing shortages deepen, expectations rise, and legacy systems must continue to operate. This is where cloud transformation either creates real relief or simply carries existing detours into a new technical environment. 

Cloud will not make public administration faster if the way a record moves through the organization is still rooted in the paper era.

Records become available anytime and anywhere only when the workflows behind them can be managed effectively. The first step is to clarify how a record should move through the organization. Cloud technology can then support that workflow.

An effective cloud strategy must therefore begin with how the record moves through the process, rather than focusing on storage alone.

Too Much Still Gets Lost Between Filing Online and Reaching a Decision

Public administration has digitized many parts of its work in recent years. More services are available online. Electronic records are being introduced, and specialized administrative systems are being connected. The changes are visible.

In day-to-day operations, however, many government agencies still face a wide gap between digital access and end-to-end processing.

Incoming requests and documents arrive by mail, as email attachments, in emails themselves, or through online portals. They must be sorted, scanned, converted into usable formats, linked to the correct administrative record, and transferred into specialized systems. Relevant metadata is often not fully extracted. This creates rework, duplicate recordkeeping, and additional coordination. The records may be digital, but staff still maintain parallel versions. In some cases, documents are even transported in rolling suitcases so employees can work from home.

Germany’s Online Access Act (Onlinezugangsgesetz, OZG) provides a clear measure of the gap between policy ambition and nationwide implementation. Of the 7,509 individual public services included in the current OZG implementation catalog, only 823 were available online throughout Germany in January 2026. (1)  End-to-end processing has yet to catch up with the continued expansion of online access.

Before administrative staff can apply their expertise and make decisions, they often begin the day with extensive preparatory work: checking documents, searching for information, transferring data, and determining where each item belongs.

For citizens and businesses, this means longer processing times, even when an application was submitted online from the outset. Government agencies, meanwhile, use scarce capacity for tasks that modern public administration should be reducing.

This is how the availability gap becomes visible in day-to-day operations: requests arrive digitally, but the information they contain does not reliably reach the staff and systems responsible for preparing and making decisions. 

Now Is the Time to Make Digital Government Work

Cloud transformation matters now because expectations for digital government are rising while government agencies have less room to maneuver. The pressure is coming from both directions at once.

Under OZG 2.0, individuals and businesses will have a legal right, beginning in 2029, to access federal administrative services electronically. Digital government will therefore become a more binding measure of the state’s ability to deliver. (2)

Cloud adoption in the public sector is also becoming more concrete. The German Administrative Cloud Strategy, shared standards, and interoperable architectures are shifting the debate. Cloud is moving from a future concept into the infrastructure on which public administration will operate.

At the same time, the conditions for implementation are becoming more difficult. Funding for OZG implementation is under pressure, public-sector IT service providers in many parts of Germany are operating at or near capacity, and staffing shortages are worsening.

According to dbb beamtenbund und tarifunion, a German federation representing public-sector employees, Germany’s public sector needs around 600,000 additional employees. At least another 1.39 million employees are expected to leave through retirement over the next ten years. (3)  

These figures make cloud transformation a leadership issue: How can public administration remain operational as expectations rise and resources become scarcer?

The generational transition also creates an opportunity to redesign how work gets done. As positions turn over and responsibilities change, government agencies can redesign administrative processes alongside the technology. They can rethink how requests and records move through the organization.

The real test is whether digitization also improves public administration’s ability to deliver.

Cloud Does Not Fix Problems That Already Exist

Many cloud initiatives understandably begin with technical questions. Which applications can be migrated? What data spaces are required? Which operating models meet security requirements? What standards apply?

These questions are necessary, but they do not address the full challenge.

Cloud technology transfers an organization’s existing operating logic into a new environment. If that logic relies on switching between digital and paper channels, workarounds, and manual handoffs, those patterns move with it. Responsibilities do not become clearer simply because the work takes place on a different platform. Fragmented data does not become interoperable merely because it is easier to access. Manual handoffs remain manual, even when the underlying infrastructure is more modern.

A common misconception is that placing records in the cloud will automatically make public administration more agile.

In practice, cloud programs reveal whether the organization behind the technology is already set up to work effectively. Government agencies therefore face a clear choice: they can migrate existing friction or use cloud transformation to create meaningful operational relief.

This leads to a strategic decision: Is cloud treated primarily as an infrastructure migration, or as a way to improve the process behind public services, from initial submission through decision?

Only once process transparency has been established can cloud technology deliver its full value in the public sector.

“For the public sector, cloud has to be understood as more than a technology shift. What matters is whether government services are organized in a way that enables decisions to be made quickly, transparently, and reliably, even as expectations continue to rise. The real lever is process clarity, usable data, and governance that leaders can trust.” -John Eisenhauer, Sector Lead and Partner, Public & Defense, MHP

How Records Move Determines How Well Government Works

A record is truly available only when the relevant information reaches the right point in the workflow at the right time. Digital storage alone cannot provide that. True availability depends on the process behind the record.

The key is to understand how a record moves through the organization from the moment it is received to the point at which a decision can be made.

The visual should make this shift in perspective clear. Digital storage is no longer the end goal. The goal is a continuous workflow in which information, responsibilities, and next steps are connected so that a request can reach the decision stage without unnecessary delay.

This is where standards and target systems gain strategic importance. They provide the foundation for workflow automation, AI-assisted processing, and collaboration across government agencies.

Germany’s E-Akte Bund, the federal government’s central electronic records service, also fits into this context. It delivers the greatest value when government agencies have defined which information is needed at each stage of the process. Cloud technology can then provide an environment in which well-structured workflows can be used across organizational boundaries.

The intended workflow sets the direction. It determines which infrastructure and interfaces are needed, as well as which target systems should receive and use the information.

This is the strategic contribution of process management.

It translates the goal of making records available anytime and anywhere into clear workflows, usable data, and connected systems. Cloud technology then becomes a tool for keeping public administration operational under real-world conditions.

Four Leadership Questions for Cloud That Delivers Real Relief

For agency leaders, CIOs, CDOs, and digital transformation leaders, this does not translate into a detailed operational checklist. It changes how cloud initiatives should be directed. The central question is: Which public service needs to work better first?

First: Which public services have the greatest impact on processing times and backlogs, and on the quality of service people receive?

Cloud initiatives should begin where citizens, businesses, and employees will feel the difference directly. The system that is easiest to migrate is not automatically the right starting point. Leaders should identify where current processes consume the most time and where an improvement would have the greatest practical effect.

Second: Which data must be reliably available throughout the process?

An electronic record provides limited relief when information required for the next step is missing, incomplete, or must be checked again. For decision-makers, this means data quality must be part of how the initiative is governed from the outset. It cannot be treated solely as a technical implementation issue.

Third: How can the organization strengthen digital sovereignty within its own area of responsibility?

Digital sovereignty depends on knowing where information is used, who is accountable for it, and how decisions are prepared. It is therefore shaped by process design as much as by the choice of platform.

Fourth: How can public services remain operational under pressure?

Services must continue to function when staffing is limited, employees work from different locations, or systems need to interact more closely. A cloud strategy should go beyond technical availability and ensure that the entire service remains operational from beginning to end.

Taken together, these questions establish a simple standard: Cloud investments should reduce preparatory work, accelerate decisions, and give leaders greater control over service delivery.

The visual should present the four leadership questions as a strategic sequence. It begins by identifying the public services where improvement would have the greatest effect. It then addresses the data and responsibilities required to support them. Cloud deployment appears only after the underlying workflows have been clarified. 

Clear Processes Put Public Administration Back in Control

Transformation in the public sector takes place under distinct constraints. Government agencies must comply with legal requirements, protect sensitive data, operate within tight budgets, and work under close political scrutiny. Skepticism toward promises of quick technological fixes is therefore justified.

Particularly in this environment, process clarity is valuable. It shows which workflows are truly critical, where manual work consumes scarce resources, and which data flows require additional safeguards.

Common concerns then become easier to address. Complexity becomes more manageable, costs become more transparent, and risks become easier to contain.

Process management creates the foundation for managing cloud transformation in the public sector with greater control.

It shows what must be resolved before technical implementation begins and where cloud technology genuinely reduces the burden on staff. 

How Government Becomes Faster, More Resilient, and More Responsive to Citizens

The goal is a public administration in which data moves, rather than citizens or administrative staff.

Administrative staff should be able to begin their day by reviewing requests and making decisions, rather than sorting and scanning documents or searching for missing information. Artificial intelligence can identify relevant content, extract metadata, and automatically route incoming documents and messages to the right team. Stacks of paper files, manual data entry, and saving the same documents multiple times then become far less common.

For citizens and businesses, this means faster decisions, fewer requests for additional information, and more reliable public services.

Cloud technology can make records available anytime and anywhere. Its real value emerges when that availability improves the way public services are delivered.

Digital infrastructure then strengthens the state’s ability to perform. Staff spend less time on preparatory work, decisions are made faster, and public administration gains greater control over service delivery.

This is the value of a cloud strategy built around the administrative process and the way records move through it. 

Start Where Public Administration Will Feel the Relief

The next step is to identify a public service where digital records can quickly make a noticeable difference: shorter processing times, less manual preparation, and better service quality.

A practical starting point is a specific administrative process that currently consumes significant resources or is especially visible to citizens and businesses. This is where it becomes clear whether records, data, responsibilities, and target systems already work together well enough for cloud transformation to deliver results.

The goal of making records available anytime and anywhere can then become a concrete and measurable starting point for change. Rather than launching a large-scale transformation program, public administration can begin with a focused review of the service that needs to work better first.

Let’s discuss where that starting point lies within your government agency and how process management can make cloud transformation effective in the public sector.

Sources:

1. INSM, Behörden-Digimeter 2026, March 2026, p. 23. Calculation by the German Economic Institute (IW) based on data from BMDS and BMI.  
2. Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI), „Upgrade für ein Digitales Deutschland ist da: Das OZG-Änderungsgesetz tritt in Kraft“, 24.07.2024
3. dbb beamtenbund und tarifunion: „Personalmangel im öffentlichen Dienst. Dem Staat fehlen 600.000 Beschäftigte“, current as of July 2025