ITSG GmbH

Together with the Information Technology Service Center of the Statutory Health Insurance (ITSG GmbH), MR.KNOW won first place at the Process Solution Award 2020 with the project “Information Portal for Employers.” The Information Portal for Employers was developed on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and has been available since 2017 to all employers and interested parties via www.informationsportal.de. During the award ceremony, Thorsten Lube and Monika Niedermeier from ITSG, together with Dr. Michael Otte from MR.KNOW, presented the project.

You can watch the video here.

Launch of the Information Portal for Social Security Reporting Obligations

MR.KNOW’s No-Code BPM Solution Drives Digitalization in the Public Sector

The complex regulations of the social security system often pose significant challenges for companies and private individuals. To provide a centralized, easy-to-understand point of access for all relevant information, the Information Portal for Employers was developed. Using MR.KNOW’s No-Code BPM solution, a user-friendly platform was created that helps millions of users across Germany fulfill their reporting obligations efficiently.

Registering a new employee, for example, can be a major challenge—especially for small businesses. Start-ups and private individuals who employ household or care staff are often unfamiliar with the applicable regulations: Who needs to be notified, and of what? The many laws, guidelines, and social security regulations are difficult for non-experts to navigate.

In 2014, the Federal Cabinet therefore decided to create a central portal where employers could find all essential information about social security and reporting procedures—simply, clearly, and without bureaucracy. The portal was designed to serve approximately 3.5 million businesses and private individuals in Germany, helping to reduce errors in contribution, reporting, and certification processes. The Information Technology Service Center of the Statutory Health Insurance (ITSG GmbH) was commissioned to carry out the project. The goal was to enable employers to find all necessary information about social security in one place online.

Project Requirements

A key requirement for implementation was that the portal could be seamlessly integrated into the existing services of the social security institutions. Accessibility and ease of use were also essential. The main challenge lay in presenting legal regulations in a way that remained compliant with the law but was still understandable for employers. It was therefore crucial that this task could be carried out independently by subject matter experts who were not IT specialists.

Solution Selection and Decision for MR.KNOW

To efficiently and intelligently model legal texts and requirements, the decision was made to use process-based modeling. Working closely with staff from various social security institutions, the content was created as BPMN models. The next step was to find a provider capable of converting these models into executable code.

For the technical implementation, ITSG ultimately chose the No-Code BPM solution from MR.KNOW by Inspire Technologies. The decision process included a thorough analysis of the requirements and available software options to ensure a user-friendly solution that could be flexibly adapted to future legal changes. “With Inspire Technologies, we found a partner who truly understood our vision and was able to realize it with us,” said Thorsten Lube of ITSG GmbH.

With the MR.KNOW BPM Engine, it became possible to automatically convert models into code and seamlessly integrate them into the content management system. “Throughout the entire process, we didn’t have to write a single line of code. We moved from BPMN modeling to on-screen display without any programming effort. This allows us to react quickly to legislative changes,” Lube added.

Project Progress and Challenges

The project began with the goal of launching the platform by early 2017, and the first modules of the information portal went live as planned. One of the main tasks was to present the regulations in a way that was understandable to non-experts.

Thanks to Zero-Coding technology, process models could be automatically transformed into executable assistants. Integration with the existing systems of the social security institutions required a stable and secure platform. The architecture, based on Microsoft servers, utilizes a service-oriented architecture (SOA) that enables connections to external systems such as Microsoft SQL databases.

User-friendliness was a central focus: the system provides a responsive interface that adapts to the user’s device and context. Decision tables and the ability to integrate data directly into processes further contributed to rapid user acceptance.

Results and Outlook

Since its launch in 2017, the Information Portal for Employers has been continuously expanded and now records a steadily increasing number of users. It not only reduces bureaucratic effort but also improves transparency in the reporting process.

The Information Portal for Social Security Reporting Obligations stands as a successful example of digital transformation in the public sector—offering a user-friendly, legally compliant solution that guides employers safely through complex regulations.