Following its decision in favor of SAP, the Ministry of Finance and Europe (MdFE) sought an experienced partner for its SAP application management – one that could provide continuous, reliable support for the systems and take on the continually increasing efforts needed to manage a variety of SAP applications in the integrated entities. The partner was also expected to provide system integration services and support system customizing. The MdFE entities expected professional advice for their questions. Another important requirement: application management should take place in Germany, ideally nearby, securely and with absolute compliance.
The federal state’s SAP systems have to support the functional procedures reliably, with high, targeted performance. In this regard, T-Systems has more than satisfied the customer’s demands, with outstanding service for application management for nearly 15 years.
T-Systems prevailed over other external applicants after a tender process and has since confirmed its status as a reliable application management partner in multiple follow-on tenders – the Ministry reviews the rendered services and issues a new call for tenders every four years.
“Shortly after taking on the SAP operation, we also took on the application management. As a result, the MdFE has a single point of contact and receives end-to-end support for SAP,” explains Timo Czajka, Service Delivery Manager at T-Systems. The major advantage: close links between application operation and application management. When changes are needed or if any disturbances occur, the expertise is practically sitting at the same table – which means the MdFE gets solutions quickly, along with consulting expertise.
Within the application management framework, T-Systems supports the MdFE with a variety of ITIL processes, including service management, incident management (operation of the ticketing system and first/second level support), and change management. “The SAP systems at the MdFE not only need the typical regular patches, such as for security, but also require other modifications. Changes to tax rates or funding programs have to be mapped in the systems at short notice,” says Czajka.
As such, application management represents the bridge between the processes at the MdFE and the technology. Most recently, in its role as applications manager, T-Systems answered questions and supported the technical and functional implementations of changes due to the state funding programs associated with the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine. “As a public sector entity, the MdFE is primarily a service provider to the citizens,” explains René Albert, the responsible sales manager at T-Systems. “As a result, our services have to be available to the employees – and thus indirectly to citizens and the political decision-makers as well – reliably at all times.” Application management does its part to achieve this goal.
In T-Systems, the Ministry has found a partner at eye level – including proximity to the customer, regular interchange, and local support by German staff. The MdFE gains access to the SAP expertise, as well as to contact persons to make sure that all the developments in the extensive SAP landscape are mapped and supported cleanly above platform operation as well. “The most important factor for the federal state is that the SAP systems support the functional procedures reliably at all times. In this regard, T-Systems has more than satisfied the customer’s demands, with outstanding service for application management for nearly 15 years,” summarizes Timo Czajka.
14.7 billion euros: that’s the amount of the budget available to the State of Brandenburg in 2022. This money goes toward the federal state’s many different activities – and it needs to be funded, too. The body primarily responsible for all financial flows of the federal state’s public administration, including the income and expenditures, is the Ministry of Finance and Europe (MdFE). This Ministry must ensure that political decision-makers have transparency over the funds, their distribution, and their utilization at all times in order to coordinate the federal state’s development.
The Ministry also encompasses subordinate agencies, such as the state central treasury (Landeshauptkasse) with its sites in Potsdam, Frankfurt (Oder), and Brandenburg (Havel), the federal state’s 13 tax offices, the technical tax office, the University of Applied Sciences for Finance, the state school of finance (Landesfinanzschule), the state training center (Fortbildungszentrum), the central salary office (Zentrale Bezügestelle), and the state company for property and construction (Landesbetrieb für Liegenschaften und Bauen).
The Ministry is based in Potsdam and has around 4,800 employees: just under 390 in the Ministry itself, about 3,500 in the tax offices, and around 530 in the Brandenburg state company for property and construction.
