The history of OSiP
The OSiP system for online security checks came about as a result of the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001. The goal of the system is to conduct a security check on relevant individuals before issuing an airport identity card for entering security areas and no-public areas. The decision whether to issue the identity document is made only after feedback has been received from the entities to whom the request for information is sent, e.g. the Landeskriminalamt (LKA) (criminal investigation office) and the Landesamt für Verfassungsschutz (LfV) (Office for the Protection of the Constitution) in every Federal state, and the Bundeszentralregister (BZR) (the Federal Central Criminal Register).
As the information authorities are also needed in other fields and the authorities prefer to receive requests in the same format and via the same method, OSiP was gradually extended to other areas of application subsequently.
OSiP was originally developed for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, but “cross-border” collaboration was instituted when the Federal state of Baden-Württemberg started applying the solution. In 2012, collaboration was extended still further by re-developing the method for use across more states.
OSiP is based on the cooperation with some other States of Germany, coordinated by the German "IT-Planungsrat", the state offices of criminal investigation. The cooperation is based on a framework for continuous consultation and exchange of experience. The lead partner is the CIO of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
How OSiP works
OSiP makes it possible to integrate the various stakeholders and user groups (companies, administration) into automated and largely media-free processes. The application areas of airport security, naturalization, issuance of residence permits (through the Federal Office of Administration), accreditations at major events, atomic reliability test and the connection of the German weapon offices can already be carried out using the IT procedure OSiP. Further fields of application are possible.
Through the avoidance of media breaks, process chains are optimized and digitized over the course of several layers. Employees in administration are thus considerably relieved. The cooperation between the Federal Government (eg Federal Central Register), Police (eg the state offices of criminal investigation ) and municipalities (eg citizenship authorities) are carried out on a regular basis.
The use of OSiP provides users with easy access to administration in companies (eg air transport companies). Requests by citizens (eg in the case of naturalizations) can be handled faster by the administration and, in the normal case, can be granted more quickly.
Future Plans
The usage of OSiP started in the state North Rhine-Westphalia; the cooperation was extended by Baden-Wurttemberg, Hamburg and Hesse. At the moment Thuringia will join the cooperation. More than 200 administrations use OSiP.
A steering committee has been set up to improve the coordination of the solution. It is led by the CIO of North Rhine-Westphalia. The members of the steering committee finance the maintenance and development according to a coordinated financial plan.
North Rhine-Westphalia provides the support. The setup of an OSiP Competence Center to improve the support is planned.
Join the cooperation!
The other 11 federal states in Germany or other states of the EU are welcome to join the cooperation. Due to the highly innovative character of the IT architecture, in particular, it would be perfectly feasible to provide the solution to other EU Member States.
Technology:
OSiP uses the following technologies: SOAP, XML, JBOSS, Databases (Oracle, MySQL, mariaDB), PHP, JAVA, Client-Server, Web-Application, SOAP-WebServices.