With 6,985 seagoing and inland waterway vessels registered, the Hamburg Amtsgericht is responsible for the largest register of ships in Germany. However, anyone wishing to register a new ship or have the registered ownership changed has to do a lot of paperwork so far: Not only must the necessary applications be submitted in hard copy. Also the entries and changes themselves are done in laborious manual work so far. In view of 420 new registrations and around 3,500 applications in 2018 alone, this creates an enormous workload which requires a lot of time for both the employees of the local court and the applicants.

In order to modernise the register of ships and increase its efficiency and ease of use, the Amtsgericht, the Hamburg Justice Authority and the Hamburg Authority for Economic Affairs, Transport and Innovation intend to offer the public a user-friendly online portal as of 1 January 2020. “The use of technology will relieve the burden on the judiciary and facilitate the work of colleagues at the Amtsgericht”, said Hamburg Senator of Justice Dr. Till Steffen at a press conference last Wednesday.

Together with colleagues from the public IT service provider Dataport, mgm supports the Hanseatic city in this project. “With the digital register of ships, we’re developing something really new. The register will be fully geared to the way users work and their processes,” promised Ute Kleinschirkes, project manager at Dataport. According to mgm project manager Christian Thomsen, the processing time, which can be up to one week for a new entry, for example, could be reduced by up to 50 percent. The main task of the Amtsgericht – the review of applications by the judicature – remains unchanged.

The future users are to be closely integrated into the portal development. Thus, the employees of the Amtsgericht will have access to the current status of the application at any time and will be actively involved in the user and acceptance tests. “Such an approach is only possible within the framework of professional and goal-oriented cooperation. Our colleagues at Dataport and in the authorities of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg were able to create the necessary working environment very quickly,” reports Thomsen. “We at mgm are therefore delighted to realize this innovation project together with our colleagues.”

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