2019 acting for 12 pension schemes reliable over generations

 
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2019 acting for 12 pension schemes reliable over generations
2019

acting for 12 pension schemes
reliable over generations
2019 acting for 12 pension schemes reliable over generations
2019 acting for 12 pension schemes reliable over generations
2019

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2019 acting for 12 pension schemes reliable over generations
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2019 acting for 12 pension schemes reliable over generations
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                        4 | Preface

                6 | List of contents

  8 | Review of the year in pictures

10 | Bayerische Versorgungskammer
                          in figures

                                       3
2019 acting for 12 pension schemes reliable over generations
01

          (from left to right) Axel Uttenreuther
                   (Executive Board Bayerische
                 Ärzteversorgung, Information
                 Processing and Mathematics),
      André Heimrich (Executive Board Capital
           Investments), Daniel Just (Executive
          Board Chair), Ulrich Böger (Executive
     Board Vice Chair), Stefan Müller (Executive
                    Board Municipal Pensions).

                                                   Dear Readers,
                                                   The digital transformation is also apparent          The topic of sustainability is integral to every
                                                   here with us: we want to make the best pos-          one of our disciplines: from the commitment
                                                   sible use of the chances and challenges that         we made to sustainable capital investment by
                                                   digitalisation and automation offer for Bay-         signing the Principles for Responsible Invest-
                                                   erische Versorgungskammer or BVK, for the            ment (PRI) in 2011 to responsible corporate
                                                   pension institutions and for their members           governance with fair use of resources and our
                                                   and participants. 2019 was characterised by          implementation of sustainability principles in
                                                   numerous digital projects (pg. 32) which have        construction projects. Our overall real estate
                                                   prepared us for the demands of the future and        strategy (pg. 40) pursues a clear goal: to im-
                                                   ensure that we – as Germany’s largest public         prove the intrinsic value of the properties in
                                                   pension group – are foremost in providing in-        the individual pension funds. Increasingly for
                                                   novations for our members and participants.          us, alternative investments in e. g. infrastruc-
                                                                                                        ture (pg. 42) are also gaining importance.
                                                   In our future premises at Richard-Strauss-
                                                   Straße 76, BVK is establishing the precondi-         Our investments are made out of responsibili-
                                                   tions for a digital world of work – the structural   ty to our core business: the provision of secu-
                                                   framework for our future work collaboration          re, profitable and reliable retirement pensions
                                                   was created by the winner of the architects’         for around 2.3 million people.
                                                   competition. Sir David Chipperfield and his
                                                   team of architects impressed the eminent             After a difficult year in 2018, although 2019
                                                   jury with their design for developing the for-       was again challenging for us as an investor
                                                   mer Siemens site. In an interview (pg. 44) the       on the capital markets and with the associa-
                                                   star architect explains his motivations for the      ted increasing volatility of investments, it was
                                                   simple and classic design and the role sustai-       in the end a successful year. Even in difficult
                                                   nability plays in his work.                          times we have a solid foundation thanks to

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2019 acting for 12 pension schemes reliable over generations
Reinhard Graf retired after many successful
                                                  years and passed the baton to Stefan Müller
                                                  as new Executive Board Member of BVK (pg.
                                                  66).

                                                  At this juncture we wish to convey our heart-           01
                                                  felt thanks to all our employees for their excel-
                                                  lent performance and collaboration in 2019.
                                                  Thanks are also due to the self-governing bo-
                                                  dies and our supervisory organ, without whose
                                                  commitment to Bayerische Versorgungskam-
                                                  mer and the pension schemes we would not
                                                  be able to work so successfully in the long
                                                  term. So here’s to continued good and trustful
                                                  collaboration next year and beyond – we look
                                                  forward to it!

                                                  We now wish you an informative and inspi-
                                                  ring read with our Annual Report 2019.

                                                  Kind regards,

our far-sighted capital investment strategy
                                                       Daniel Just                Ulrich Böger
and have been able to achieve a very respec-         Executive Board            Executive Board
table result for our members and participants.            Chair                    Vice Chair

Besides promising financial investments,
individual service is also a decisive criterion
for the satisfaction of our members and parti-
                                                      André Heimrich            Axel Uttenreuther
cipants. We are working constantly to further
                                                  Executive Board Member     Executive Board Member
improve our customer care (pg. 50) by develo-
ping or optimising portals for our participants
and members, opening up new digital chan-
nels and expanding our advisory services. The
extent of the service mentality evident within
                                                       Stefan Müller
this administrative group of pension institu-     Executive Board Member
tions for the individual professions is made
clear by John Höpfner, Member of the Council
and Advisory Committee as well as the Re-
gional Committee of the Bavarian Architects’
Pension Scheme or BArchV (pg. 56).

In 2019 the reconstitution of BVK’s Council
was also accompanied by a change of chair:
long-term Chair Johannes Metzger was suc-
ceeded by Dr. Lothar Wittek. There were also
changes for us on the Executive board as

                                                                                                      5
2019 acting for 12 pension schemes reliable over generations
01            Contents

                                                                                           Page

              Preface                                                                        4
              List of contents                                                               6
              Our 2019 – an overview                                                         8
              Bayerische Versorgungskammer in figures                                        10

         01
              Overall Economic Framework Conditions
              Who we are                                                                     16
              The financial year 2019                                                       20
              Prognosis report for 2020                                                     22
         02   Sustainability at BVK                                                         24
              Digitalisation: chances and challenges                                        29
              Current digital projects at BVK                                               32

              Our Asset and Financial Situation
              Investment in a low-interest environment: investment in tangible assets       38
              The asset class real estate at BVK: an insight into our strategic approach    40
              An alternative: infrastructure investments                                     42
         03   Our new premises: interview on the design with Sir David Chipperfield         44

              Our Services for our Participants and Members
              Service mentality: the customer is key                                        50
              John Höpfner in conversation: protecting interests in the association          55
              Reconstitution of BVK Council                                                 57
         04   Nothing is as certain as change: change in the committees                      59
              Independent supervisory body: responsible actuary                             60
              Information for everyone: the new BVK group and career pages                   61
              Data protection is paramount at BVK                                           63

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2019 acting for 12 pension schemes reliable over generations
01

                                                                 Page

Our Employees
Executive Board changes at BVK                                    66
From theory to practice: the new BVK employer brand               68
Welcome week for new employees                                    69
A training culture in transition
Workplace health management at BVK
                                                                  70
                                                                  72
                                                                        05

An Overview of the Pension Schemes
Pension Scheme for Bavarian Physicians, Dentists
and Veterinarians (BÄV)                                           76
Bavarian Pharmacists’ Pension Scheme (BApV)                       77
Bavarian Architects’ Pension Scheme (BArchV)
Bavarian Pension Scheme for Construction Engineers
                                                                  78
                                                                        06
with Psychotherapists’ Pension Scheme (BIngPPV)                   79
Bavarian Lawyers’ and Tax Accountants’ Pension Scheme (BRAStV)    80
Bavarian Pension Scheme for Civil Servants (BayVV)                81
Pension Scheme for the Bavarian Parliament (VdBL)                 82
Supplementary Pension Scheme for Bavarian Local Authority
and Church Officials (ZKdbG)                                      83
Pension Fund for German Theatres (VddB)                           84
Pension Scheme for German Orchestras (VddKO)                      85
Pension Scheme for Journeymen Chimney Sweeps
with Pension Scheme for the Chimney Sweep Trade (VKg with PKS)    86
Pension Scheme of Certified Chimney Sweeps (VdBS)                 87

Annex
Reference figures of the pension schemes for 2019                 90
The organisational chart of BVK                                   92
Legal notice                                                      94

                                                                        07

                                                                             7
2019 acting for 12 pension schemes reliable over generations
01                                          Our 2019
                                            – an overview

                                            Here are a few highlights from the past year:

                 2019
                             FEBRUARY
     JANUARY

                                               MARCH

                                                                     APRIL

                                                                                                                        JUNE
                                                                                               MAY

          Acquired at the beginning of          29 March                                       1 April
          the year: mixed-use real estate       Architects’ Competition for                    Introduction of the Welcome
          »Zoom« – Berlin City West             Richard-Strauss-Straße 76                      Week for new employees
          –> Page 40                            decided: the winning design                    –> Page 69
                                                came from David Chipperfield
                                                Architects
                                                                                                     INFO
                                                –> Page 44                                           event

                                                                                Arbeits-                                                   Compliance
                                                                                                             Intranet
                                                                               sicherheit                                                  Management

                                                                                                 Skype for
                                                                                                 Business                      IT-Basics                 IT-S

                                                                               Zusammen-                      Alters-
                                                                               arbeitsportal                 vorsorge                      Datenschutz
                                                                                  (ZAP)

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26 June                            19 September                             28 November
BVK Council reconstituted          Winning of the FAZ Award                 Change to the Executive Board
–> Page 57                         “ESG Criteria Implementation             at BVK: Stefan Müller succeeds
                                   2019”                                    Reinhard Graf
                                   –> Page 26                               –> Page 66
                                           SEPTEMBER

                                                                                         NOVEMBER

                                                                                                             DECEMBER
                                                                  OCTOBER
                          AUGUST
 JULY

21 May                              7 October                                Beginning of November
The BÄV acquires the residen-       Celebratory event at Nymphen-            BVK’s new group and career
tial project »Charlie-Mills-        burg Palace to welcome the               pages went online
Quartier« in Hamburg                new chair of BVK Council                 –> Page 61
–> Page 40                          –> Page 57

                                                                                                                        9
01        Bayerische
          Versorgungskammer
          in figures
          The reference figures are preliminary values, partly rounded off
          (as at 31 December 2019).

            12                                 1,352
            pension schemes                     employees 1)

            1,935,095                           417,770
            participants                        pension recipients

                                            1) employees receiving wages,
                                               incl. janitors and trainees

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01

    13,298                            584,074
     homes                            m2 of commercial space

    3,569                             5,001
     expenditure for insured events   contributions and levies
     in million Euro 2)               in million Euro

2) without settlement costs

                                                                 11
01

           REFERENCE FIGURES OF THE
          INDIVIDUAL PENSION FUNDS
                       -> Page 90 + 91

                                             81,662
                                                                       1)

                                                                            The overall capital investment volume of
                                                                            BVK is made up of four sectors:
                                              capital investment volume
                                                                            interest-bearing securities, equities and in-
                                              in million Euro
                                                                            vestment fund units, overnight money and
                                                                            time deposits and direct real estate holdings.

                                             20,524                             57,867
                                              interest-bearing securities       equities/investment fund units
                                              in million Euro                   in million Euro

                                             133                                3,137
                                              overnight money and               direct real estate holdings
                                              time deposits                     in million Euro
                                              in million Euro

                                         1) rounding off differences

     12
We are Germany’s                                                                                                                                              01
Number 1 among
pension providers
In Bavaria around every fifth household is entitled to
benefits from BVK – highlighting our important social role
and responsibility.

BVK pays particular attention to maintaining                The surviving dependent pension element
sustainable financial systems i. e. effective               means that it even extends over several
over generations, and at the same time pur-                 generations and accordingly it must be
suing an investment policy with optimal                     designed to be farsighted and secure. With
profit and risk characteristics. The “product”              its capital investment volume BVK is among
retirement and occupational incapacity                      the leading pension institutions not only in
pension in the occupational and municipal                   Germany but also all over Europe.
                                                                                                               No. 1 in Germany
pension schemes is often invested for several
                                                                                                               with a capital investment
decades from the pay-in to the pay-out date.
                                                                                                               volume of around 85 billion
                                                                                                               Euro (market value).

           1. BVK (Bayerische Versorgungskammer)                                                               Europe
           84.5 billion Euro (market value)                                                                    In the ranking of world’s 300
                                                                                                               largest pension funds,
                                                                                                               BVK – as last year – achieved
                                                                                                               6th place in Europe. *

                                                                                                               World
                                                                                                               In the ranking of world’s 300
                                                                                                               largest pension funds, BVK
                                                            2. VBL (Versorgungsanstalt des Bundes
                                                               und der Länder) – 38.5 billion Euro             occupies 38th place in the

                                                            3. Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund                world. **
                                                               (German Pension Insurance Association) –
                                                               37.9 billion Euro
                                                            4. Daimler AG – 33.4 billion Euro                  * | ** source: Pensions & Investments /
                                                            5. BVV (Pension Fund for the Finance Industry) –   Willis Towers Watson 300 analysis,

  1           2           3          4           5             29.3 billion Euro                               year end 2018
                                                                                                               sources as at: September 2019

source: “Top 1000 Pension Funds 2019”, Investments & Pensions Europe 2019

                                                                                                                                                         13
14
02
    Overall Economic
Framework Conditions

                   16 | Who we are

         20 | The financial year 2019

     22 | Prognosis report for 2020

          24 | Sustainability at BVK

    29 | Digitalisation: chances and
                           challenges

 32 | Current digital projects at BVK

                                        15
02                                         Who we are – service
                                           and competence centre

                                           BVK – Germany’s largest public pension group – is unique in its
                                           form, strategic approach and versatility: it is a modern financial
                                           enterprise and solid supreme public authority rolled into one.

                                           As Germany’s largest public pension group,       Three years before, in 1916, the oldest pen-
                                           Bayerische Versorgungskammer is the service      sion institution was founded that still exists
                                           and competence centre for retirement pen-        today under the umbrella of Bayerische Ver-
                                           sion provision for the occupational, municipal   sorgungskammer, the Bayerische Versor-
                                           and church sectors. BVK jointly manages the      gungsverband (BayVV – Bavarian Pension
                                           business of twelve occupational and muni-        Scheme for Civil Servants). In 1923 came the
                                           cipal pension institutions. Our partners rely    Bayerische Ärzteversorgung (BÄV – Bava-
                                           on a high level of specialisation and detailed   rian Pension Scheme for Doctors, Dentists
                                           expert knowledge. BVK is a modern financial      and Veterinarians) as the first occupational
                                           enterprise and solid supreme public authority    pension scheme, then in 1925 followed the
                                           rolled into one.                                 Versorgungsanstalt der deutschen Bühnen
                                                                                            (VddB - Pension Scheme for German Theatres)
                                           From “general institution for the whole          and the Bayerische Apothekenversorgung
                                           monarchy” to “silent giant”                      (BApV - Bavarian Pension Scheme for Pharma-
          King Maximilian I. Joseph of
                                           BVK has over a hundred years’ experience         cists) and in 1938 the Versorgungsanstalt der
          Bavaria
                                           managing the broadest range of retirement        deutschen Kultororchester (VddKO – Pension
          had a really brilliant idea in
                                           pension institutions. Our roots stretch right    Scheme for German Orchestras).
          1811: an insurance “for the
                                           back to 1811 when, at the behest of King Max
          protection and well-being of
                                           Joseph, the fire insurance companies in Bava-    Over the next decades other pension institu-
          the Bavarian people”.
                                           ria were amalgamated into a “general insti-      tions followed. Since 1995 the private indus-
                                           tution for the whole monarchy”. In 1875 the      try and public service branches of the former
                                           “special public authority” was established as    Bayerische Versicherungskammer have gone
                                           the fire insurance institution of King Ludwig    their separate ways. The “splitting of the
                                           II. After the monarchy ended in Bavaria it was   chambers” in the course of privatisation led
                                           renamed Bayerische Versicherungskammer in        to creation of the Versicherungskammer Bay-
                                           1919.                                            ern out of the private industry portion of the
                                                                                            business, and from the public sector portion

     16
02

was created the Bayerische Versicherungs-
kammer-Versorgung, known for short as Bay-
erische Versorgungskammer or BVK.

Our social commitment:
designing the future
Retirement provision is a decades-long task
and requires an experienced service provider
who understands the needs of participants
and members in the future. BVK not only
has the necessary solidity, but is also already
today jointly designing the future of partici-
pants and pension recipients.

Versatility
Pension provision is not all the same. And thus
with BVK there are a number of very different
professional groups among the participants
with equally different pension requirements.

Pension provision for the professional,           • For employees of in the service of munici-     Bird’s eye view of the business premises
                                                                                                   of Bayerische Versorgungskammer at
municipal and church sectors                        palities and the church BVK’s supplemen-
                                                                                                   Arabellastraße 31 and 33 in the Munich
• With its professional pension schemes BVK         tary benefit fund provides a supplementary     district of Bogenhausen.
  offers a wide range of retirement, occupa-        occupational pension and state-sponsored
  tional incapacity and surviving dependent         supplementary retirement benefits in addi-
  pensions for the liberal professions in in-       tion to the state pension in the form of de-
  dependent pension institutions. These are         ferred compensation or the Riester subsidy.
  “full provision systems” for doctors, phar-     • And pensions are also provided for elected
  macists, architects, construction engineers,      representatives who retired from the Bava-
  psychotherapists, defence and patent              rian State Parliament up to 1978.
  lawyers and tax accountants.
• Supplementary benefits to the state pen-        Pension experts in Bavaria and throughout
  sion are provided for stage actors, orchest-    Germany
  ral musicians and chimney sweeps.               As a Bavarian institution BVK and its pension
• In the municipal sector the retirement          schemes are primarily responsible for mem-
  pensions of civil servants are ensured.         bers of the professions in Bavaria.

                                                                                                                                              17
02

                 REFERENCE FIGURES         Members of the professions from some other       Around 82 billion Euro in total capital invest-
                 OF BVK IN SUMMARY
                                           Federal States have affiliated to the pension    ments (book value), 5 billion Euro in contri-
                           –> Page 10
                                           schemes in Bavaria by way of state treaties      butions, 3.6 billion Euro in benefits paid out
           REFERENCE FIGURES OF THE        so that its scope extends to the states of       per annum and over 1.9 million active partici-
          INDIVIDUAL PENSION FUNDS
                                           Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Lower Saxo-      pants: these are figures which prove that the
                       –> Page 90 + 91
                                           ny, Hesse, Thuringia, Baden-Wuerttemberg,        1,352 employees at the heart of BVK obvious-
                                           Saxony, Berlin, Hamburg and North Rhine          ly understand their business well. A business
                                           Westphalia. BVK is even responsible for na-      that depends on solidarity and commitment
                                           tionwide pension provision for stage actors,     above all to enable trust to develop.
                                           orchestral musicians and chimney sweeps.
                                                                                            What is important to us is secure and sustai-
                                           Financially powerful and trustworthy             nable investment with broad diversification
                                           Behind the supreme public authority of BVK       and a mix of investment forms. We are happy
                                           is a modern and dynamic enterprise. Our core     to leave to others the pursuit of a quick profit
                                           tasks include not only looking after our par-    and hectic, aggressive behaviour on the mar-
                                           ticipants and pension recipients, but also the   ket. So in the course of its capital investments,
                                           secure and high-yield investment of our pen-     BVK invests not only in pure financial securi-
                                           sion fund assets. Our action has always been     ties, but also uses its professional construc-
                                           characterised by sustainable financial plan-     tion and real estate management to invest in
                                           ning, long-term thinking and reliability.        properties all over the world.

                 Employees of Bayerische
                   Versorgungskammer.

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02

In terms of sites, locations, architectural styles
and area, versatility is the name of the game
for Bayerische Versorgungskammer. It is this
strategy that makes our portfolio more resi-
lient to market trends.

Predictable
Ensuring our participants secure and compre-
hensive provision is the central task of BVK.
This responsibility falls not only to the Exe-
cutive Board but also to what is known as a
“Responsible Actuary” (insurance mathemati-
cian). To fulfil this task BVK has a comprehensi-
ve early risk detection system which identifies      grant of discharge to the executive. This me-       Twelve pension plans under one roof –
                                                                                                         including the Pension Scheme for German
risks at an early stage and restricts them. This     ans that pension provision is tailored to the
                                                                                                         Theatres (VddB) which was founded in
early detection system means that there is           needs of the individual professional groups.        1925.
enough time for a punctual and appropriate
reaction to changes. Controlling and internal        For executive matters of concern to all the
reviews round off our comprehensive internal         pension institutions, there is a central Council.
security measures. These are supplemented            This body is made up of representatives from
by a state obligation for legal and insurance        all pension institutions together and it is in-
supervision and an independent auditor.              volved in important joint decisions.

Partnership
The self-government of all the pension sche-
mes is an expression of the close partnership
between professional associations and Baye-
rische Versorgungskammer.

Whilst BVK assumes the tasks of executive di-
rector, there is also an Advisory Board (or Regi-
onal Committee, meeting of representatives)
for each pension scheme, made up of hono-
rary members from the body of members and
participants, which acts as a legislative and
supervisory organ. Among other things the
Advisory Board decides on the pension poli-
cy guidelines, the corporate charter and the

                                                                                                                                             19
02                                         The financial year 2019 –
                                           development of the
                                           financial markets
                                           The current situation on the financial markets and the market
                                           expectations (pg. 22–23) form the framework conditions for BVK’s
                                           capital investment. In 2019 BVK was able to build on its solid
                                           financial results from previous years.

                                           Business development                                threatened to sour between the USA and
                                           The pension schemes showed a rise in con-           China, both sides tried to smooth things over.
                                           tributions of around 5.0 billion Euro and net       The US President and China’s Special Envoy Liu
                                           returns on capital investment of around 2.8         He agreed on “Phase 1” of a ceasefire. Whether
                                           billion Euro. Thus the result of net yields again   this will ultimately turn out be just one step
                                           proved stable, which was also reflected in net      or lead to an actual agreement with decisive
          Contributions in billion Euro

            5.0
                                           income – for BVK this value was 3.52 percent        reductions of the demands for customs duties
                                           in 2019. Pension outlay (without settlement         is not yet clear. And so the effect of the trade
                                           expenses) increased by around 200 million           conflict on the economy remains dependent
                                           Euro to approx. 3.6 billion Euro. On the basis      on the results, whilst US customs duties on EU
                                           of book values, the portfolio of capital invest-    goods are also still not completely ruled out.
                                           ments increased by around 5 billion Euro to         However, the resulting volatility is by no means
                                           81.7 billion Euro.                                  as great as it was at the beginning of the trade
          Payments in billion Euro

            3.6
                                                                                               dispute.
                                           Situation report: development of financial
                                           and political framework conditions                  In Europe a decisive step was able to be taken
                                           2019 was also affected by the ups and downs         in the ongoing issue of Brexit after the House
                                           in the trade war between the USA and China.         of Commons passed the Brexit law with a
                                           In view of the impeachment trial in progress        withdrawal date of 31 January 2020. The reso-

          Expenditure for insured events   at the time, US President Trump was keen to         lution of the stalemate and “no deal scenario”

          (without settlement expenses)    present successes. The trade deal, in which         brought a sense of relief and an expectation
                                           the USA promised to remove customs duties           of normalisation in trade relations with Great
                                           already imposed, bowed to the wishes of the         Britain, even though complex contractual
                                           Peoples’ Republic of China. The financial mar-      negotiations will still need to be resolved in
                                           kets too were waiting for an alleviation of the     2020.
                                           trade conflict.
                                                                                               The European Central Bank (ECB) continued
                                           China was also a focus because of the violence      with its monetary policy in 2019 too. As alrea-
                                           during the unrest in Hong Kong. When relations      dy expected by many market participants, it

     20
02

announced a further liberalisation even be-
fore the US Federal Reserve. From November
2019 onwards corporate and government
bonds were being bought up again. And no
paradigm shift is to be expected under new
President Christine Lagarde either. The ECB
sees the Euro zone economy in a weak phase
for the time being and thus still considers it
necessary to pursue a monetary policy to
comprehensively support economic activity.
In the USA the Federal Reserve cut interest
rates for the third time in the year in October
2019. This step did not set prices uniformly on
the markets and indicates a faltering inflation
rate and raises concerns about all aspects of
economic activity. According to information
from Federal Reserve Chair Powell, the Board
first wants to see “a significant move up in
inflation that’s also persistent” before it will   activities on the previous year. The further re-
consider increasing the base interest rate.        duction of interest rates again offered no op-
                                                   portunities for more extensive investment in
Our investment year                                direct pension portfolios. The investments in
The burgeoning hopes on the international          master funds made in the year under review
bond markets at the beginning of the year          meant that the quotas of the current strategic
that interest rates might rise were not reali-     asset allocation planning for the individual
sed in the course of the year and were dashed      pension schemes were essentially achieved.
finally in autumn 2019 by the measures an-         In conjunction with this, investments in what
nounced by European and US central banks.          are known as risk assets and in real estates
Ten-year government bonds reached a new            were close to supervisory law limits.
low in August 2019 with a negative return
of -0.71 percent and remained consistently
negative until the end of the year.

In the year under review the reference interest
rate for European funded bonds with an AAA
rating and a ten-year term was between -0.26
percent and 1.02 percent. In these circumstan-
ces BVK made no changes to its investment

                                                                                                      21
02        Prognosis report
          for 2020

          For the financial markets, 2019 was another challenging year.
          In 2020 global political uncertainties and monetary policy will
          continue to dictate the equity market year.

                                                             The economic trough in Germany has proba-
                                                             bly already been passed since the car duties
                                                             which the USA threatened to impose will pro-
                                                             bably not materialise in the short term. The
                                                             normalisation of German-British trade rela-
                                                             tions is important for the German economy.
                                                             After the drastic drop in exports in 2019, there
                                                             should be more German goods crossing the
                                                             channel again in 2020.

                                                             The dark clouds looming for global economic
                                                             activity are causing the EU Commission to be
                                                             a little more doubtful about the Euro zone
                                                             economy. So for 2020 a rise in gross domes-
                                                             tic product of just 1.2 percent is expected (up
                                                             to now: 1.4 percent). Even less growth is ex-
                                                             pected in Germany; here the Commission ex-
          After the events surrounding Brexit, increa-       pects just 1.0 percent (up to now: 1.4 percent).
          sing geopolitical tensions around the globe        The German economy has narrowly avoided
          and disappointing overall economic data,           a technical recession. According to the ana-
          2019 actually came to a relatively pleasing        lyst company Sentix, the EU economic mood
          end. The support of the central banks also         improved in November 2019, the correspon-
          continues to make a significant contribution       ding index (calculated from 1,082 investors,
          to raising morale. In the core countries returns   of which 225 institutional investors) rose in
          on government bonds increased in the later         comparison to October 2019 by 12.3 points
          months, particularly in Europe, whilst high-       to minus 4.5 points. The reasons given were
          risk investments recovered and were predo-         the more liberal ECB monetary policy and the
          minantly in the black.                             expectation of fiscal support in the form of
                                                             higher government expenditure.

     22
02

The growth figures reported in the USA are        In the other markets the situation also varies:
showing solid growth for the last quarter. Ul-    whilst in Latin America economic recovery is
timately – after the long period of prevailing    somewhat at risk from political crises, in the
economic pessimism – there is talk of a slight-   USA and parts of Asia there are windows of
ly positive surprise. Although the US economy     opportunity on the real estate market due
is showing only sluggish growth, it is however    to the slightly lower interest rates and robust
robust. And so the USA is far from recession.     growth prospects.

The Chinese figures on industrial production      In its capital investments BVK will in the futu-
and retail returns improved a little in the au-   re continue its farsighted action and use the
tumn. And monetary growth also increased          chances and opportunities which present
again. But the state of the Chinese national      themselves within the defined framework in
economy certainly remains problematic. The        order to achieve its goals. On the basis of busi-
trade conflict between the USA and China          ness development up to now for the financial
continues to play an important role. In March     year 2020 we expect interest on capital invest-
2019 the Chinese National People’s Congress       ments to be slightly lower than the level last
announced a growth target for the year of 6       year. This estimate can however still go up or
to 6.5 percent, reflecting the uncertain econo-   down as the result of currently unforeseeable
mic situation which could unfold this year. In    developments on the capital markets.
2018 the same GDP prognosis was formulated
as “around 6.5 percent”, which left little room
for interpretation. And indeed in 2018 China’s
growth was 6.6 percent and 6.4 percent in the
first quarter of 2019.

The global real estate markets are in diffe-
rent cycles. The real estate markets in Ger-
many still appear robust, demand for space
remains consistently high. As yet there is no
end in sight to the compressed return on in-
vestment. In Europe however there are signs
given falling investment volumes all over
Europe, that the high prices, greater geopo-
litical risks and slightly subdued economic
prospects are causing real estate investors to
become more conservative.

                                                                                                      23
02                                         Sustainability at BVK –
                                           what we consider our duty

                                           As Germany’s number 1 pension provider we committed to
                                           sustainable capital investment when we signed the Principles for
                                           Responsible Investment (PRI) in 2011. But for us sustainability
                                           is far more than that.

                                           This requires close and trusting
      The Principles for Responsible
      Investment (PRI)                     collaboration with the self-go-
                                           verning bodies of our pension
      1   We will incorporate ESG issues
          (ESG= Environmental, Social
                                           schemes. But networking with
                                           other pension plans in joint as-
          and Corporate Governance)
          into investment analysis and     sociations, constant observation
          decision-making processes.       of political and economic frame-
                                           work conditions and above all
      2   We will be active owners and
          incorporate ESG issues into      competent and motivated staff
          our ownership policies and       are also basic requirements. But
          practices.                       above all else, the contributions
          We will seek appropriate         paid in by our participants must be invested     Sustainability for us means not least respon-
      3   disclosure on ESG issues         safely and profitably on the capital markets.    sible corporate governance, which treats its
          by the entities in which we                                                       most valuable resources – namely our em-
          invest.                          Upon becoming signatories, as the first          ployees – our participants and members and
          We will promote acceptance       retirement pension provider in Germany, to       our business partners fairly and far-sightedly.
      4   and implementation of the        the United Nations’ Principles for Responsible   We consider our most important areas of ac-
          Principles within the invest-    Investment (PRI) we also assumed a pionee-       tivity to be those areas where we can achieve
          ment industry.
                                           ring role in capital investment. We want to be   most:

      5
          We will work together to         a responsible investor; we want to get invol-     our products and services –
          enhance our effectiveness in     ved. This is a long-term process, but we are        for 2.4 million people
          implementing the Principles.
                                           convinced that it is the right way for us and     our responsibility as the largest investor

      6
          We will each report on           our social environment to achieve sound and         on the capital markets – worldwide
          our activities and progress      good added value in the literal sense of the      responsible corporate management
          towards implementing
                                           word.                                             our employees
          the Principles.

     24
02

                  Our products and services

The legal foundations for most of BVK pension     sion scheme. This is made possible by way of a
schemes state that they should be self-gover-     state treaty between the State of Bavaria and
ning public law institutions. Self-governance     the other state. So for instance architects from
means that the community of participants          Lower Saxony are obligatory members of the
itself decides on how their pension provision     Bavarian Architects’ Pension Scheme (BArchV)
should be organised. This means that the          on the basis of a corresponding treaty bet-
retirement provision is best tailored to the      ween the state of Lower Saxony and the Free
needs of the relevant community of partici-       State of Bavaria.
pants. The self-governing bodies are mostly
constituted equally – e. g. from self-employed      Active beyond the borders of Bavaria
persons and employees, active professionals         for our participants and members:

and pension recipients or employees and em-
ployers.

No sales commission or outflow of funds to
third parties
The pension schemes at BVK act on the basis
of reciprocity and are exclusively not-for-pro-
fit. What participants pay in as contributions
or the members in contributions and/or levies,
is passed on in full to the participants – less
administration and staff costs. There are no
sales commissions, expensive advertising
campaigns or publicity-based sponsoring             in Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Lower

deals for brand image.                              Saxony, Hesse, Thuringia, Baden-Wuert-
                                                    temberg, Saxony, Berlin and North Rhine

Good service has given us a good reputa-            Westphalia.

tion – far beyond the borders of Bavaria            BVK is even responsible for nationwide

Having grown over time, the regional scope          pension provision for stage actors, or-

of responsibility of the pension schemes ex-        chestral musicians and chimney sweeps.

tend in some cases far beyond Bavaria and
some to several Federal States.

Thus a number of Federal States has refrained
from establishing their own pension schemes
and instead joined the existing Bavarian pen-

                                                                                                     25
02
                                                                Our responsibility
                                                               as a major investor on the
                                                                capital markets – worldwide
                                             Sustainable capital investment policy is un-       On the other hand the best-in-class approach
      2019 – An excellent year
                                             derstood as consideration of social, ethical       actually prevents diverse capital invest-
                portfolio institutionell     and ecological aspects in investment decisi-       ment and is therefore rejected by us on risk
                awards                       ons. But since these aspects are not clear in      grounds. We have chosen what is known as
                “best sustainable            themselves, a generally recognised system of       the engagement approach, so influencing
                investor”
                                             values is needed to be able to evaluate a ca-      companies through voting rights, since we are
      On 11 April 2019 in Berlin the         pital investment policy for sustainability. Our    convinced that it is only through constructive
      investment journal portfolio
                                             concept is therefore based on the Principles       dialogue with companies that we can exert
      institutionell presented BVK with
                                             for Responsible Investment (PRI).                  maximum influence to persuade them to
      the award as “best sustainable
      investor”. A renowned jury and                                                            work sustainably.
      top-class entrants demonstrate         With a current capital investment volume of
      the standing of this award for         around 82 billion Euro (book value), BVK has       Our task as trustees requires that we achieve
      participants on the capital invest-    considerable ”weight” on the capital market.       maximum yields and at the same time im-
      ment market.                           This must be responsibly exploited – alone         plement a stable, safe, long-term, high-yield
                                             and in conjunction with other investors. That’s    capital investment policy. The engagement
                “Institutional Assets
                                             why we as the first pension provider in Ger-       approach of the “active investor” also corre-
                Award” in the category
                                             many became signatories to the Principles for      sponds best to the principles for responsible
                “ESG criteria imple-
                mentation 2019“              Responsible Investment (PRI).                      investment presented on page 24. In practice
                                                                                                this means that we promote and support the
      The “Institutional Assets Award”
                                             In the design of our sustainability strategy the   idea of sustainable investment on all levels
      in the category “ESG criteria
                                             various approaches – best-in-class, exclusion      available to us as an investor.
      implementation 2019” was pre-
                                             principle or engagement approach – are ana-
      sented to BVK on 19 September
                                             lysed with regard to our pension provision         We seek dialogue with all our business part-
      2019 by the specialist publisher
                                             task.                                              ners and exert maximum influence in all in-
      of the newspaper Frankfurter
                                                                                                vestment sectors to ensure successful and
      Allgemeine Zeitung. Our invest-
                                             Both the exclusion principle and the best-in-      sustainable economic activity within the con-
      ment strategy impressed on two
                                             class approach have drawbacks for our pen-         text of PRI. In all our investment decisions it is
      counts: both the well-coordinated
                                             sion provision task. For instance the exclusion    important to us to know the entities in which
      processes which check the sustain-
                                             principle, no matter how strict, cannot ultima-    we are investing our money. So before every
      ability of investors and ensure this
                                             tely provide us with a guarantee that really       investment we request appropriate disclosure
      as far as possible, and also the
                                             only sustainable investments are made. Never-      of ESG factors from the companies in which
      constant further development of
                                             theless there are sectors, e. g. scatter bomb      we want to invest.
      these processes were praised by
                                             manufacturers, which we exclude as possible
      the ESG Committee.
                                             investments.

     26
02
                    Responsible corporate
                   management

Practically every corporate decision has effects   the subject help to sensitise employees to this
on the environment and the people in and           subject and provide everyone with a secure         Our values
outside the company. Environment here is           operational framework. Compliance training         • Respect / esteem
the physical environment in a narrow sense         is mandatory for managerial staff.
                                                                                                      • Trust
as well as the social environment in which
an organisation acts. For us at BVK our focus      Data protection
                                                                                                      • Team spirit /collegiality
is above all the legitimate implementation of      As a pension provider we not only deal with        • Strong decision-making
our pension provision task – from its design       personal, but often also particularly sensitive    • Readiness to accept change
in trustful cooperation with our decision-ma-      data. The same applies to us as an employer.
king bodies to the support of our employees        Besides all basic data protection require-
to ensure that their abilities can unfold their    ments under the law we also ensure that
full potential.                                    we only allow external data processing (e. g.
                                                   by printing service providers who send
Behavioural principles                             our notifications and other mass printed
The trust of our participants, members and         matter) if it is really necessary. Then we place
employees is a fundamental precondition for        our business partners under the obligation to
the success of our work. This trust depends on     handle the relevant data with extreme care.
how the staff of Bayerische Versorgungskam-
mer behaves both internally and towards our
external target group.

With a jointly developed new mission state-
ment, based on five core values and behavi-
oural principles, the Executive Board, man-
agerial staff and employees are committed
to exhibiting lawful, reliable and customer-
oriented behaviour.

Compliance
For us, compliance is the entirety of all mea-
sures to ensure the lawful behaviour of all em-
ployees of BVK with regard to all relevant legal
duties and prohibitions.

This has been monitored since 2019 by the
unit Compliance as an additional measure to
our Internal Review division. Regular talks on

                                                                                                                           27
02

                                                                   Our employees

                                                Pension provision is a task performed by peo-     Health management
                                                ple for people. And successful work can only      Administration is deskwork. Not always, but
                                                be delivered by employees who are motiva-         nearly always it is a sedentary job. The health
                                                ted and productive. That’s why we are con-        of our staff is a valuable asset – for the staff
                                                stantly working on our concepts for specialist    themselves but also for BVK as an employer.
                                                and management staff development. In 2019         That’s why we provide not only modern, well-
                                                around 1,352 employees were working to-           equipped workplaces, but we also ensure ideal
                                                wards pension provision for our participants      ergonomics at the workplace. This ranges from
                                                and members. At our Welcome Week new              establishing the right sitting position at va-
                                                staff are introduced to BVK world and provi-      riable height desks to various sport courses at
                                                ded with the most important information.          lunchtime or in the late afternoon. At an annu-
                                                                                                  al health day we publicise the broad range of
                                                We are convinced that good training and the       opportunities, offer flu jabs and medical check-
                                                achievement and further development of            ups.
                                                qualifications are basic foundations for long-
                                                term professional success. For our employees      Family and job
                                                – and particularly for our management staff       Balancing work and private life is an impor-
                                                – we have developed a comprehensive semi-         tant goal, not only for our staff but also from
                                                nar and advanced training programme. Besi-        an employer viewpoint, and it is an import-
                                                des method and specialist training, the focus     ant goal in personnel policy. That’s why we
                                                is above all on personal development too.         support our employees with various part-
                                                                                                  time working models, tied places in numerous
      AUDIT BERUFUNDFAMILIE
      In 2019 BVK was audited by the com-       The subject of trainees is not something we       childcare facilities in Munich, holiday child-
      pany berufundfamilie Service GmbH         leave to chance either. We offer courses in of-   care and the services of family support com-
      for the fourth time. We are therefore
                                                fice management and real estate agency. We        pany pme Familienservice. Meals to go from
      certified as a company with a family-
      friendly personnel policy. Many           offer our trainees the option of a permanent      our company restaurant, even for the whole
      opportunities in this respect, com-       employment contract after successful qualifi-     family, a parent-and-child office in the case of
      bined with flexible place of work
      and hours of work for our staff, repre-
                                                cation. For our academic juniors we offer two     childcare problems and working from home
      sent the sustainable realisation of       dual honours degree programmes in conjunc-        also offer flexibility, as flexitime working with-
      the compatibility of work and family.     tion with renowned universities. Since 2019       out core hours. Our audit berufundfamilie
                                                BVK has been offering a trainee programme         certificate confirms our considerable efforts.
                                                in capital investments in order to develop and
                                                support new employees.

     28
The advance of                                                                                                                                02
digitalisation – chances
and challenges
Digital transformation represents a huge challenge for compa-
nies in private industry, but also for the whole public sector.
The areas affected most are core strategies, corporate culture,
organisation, value-adding chains and processes. Digitalisation
is a transformation process which is gradually sweeping across
all branches and business sectors.

Digitalisation in the public sector                corporate culture. For employees, this change
The increasing digitalisation will lead to con-    process means adjustment and considerably
siderable changes in the future, particularly      greater flexibility, including the use of mobile
in the public sector. Online services, like web-   devices.
based orders and documents, are becoming
more and more common in administration             Personnel structures and overall organisation
and in a few years citizens won’t need to visit
public authorities at all. Customers benefit
                                                   must therefore be accurately established. The
                                                   recruiting of suitable new staff, but also trai-
                                                                                                      „   These disruptive changes affect
                                                                                                          markets, products, processes,
from this. They can use these online services      ning and advanced training measures on all             organisations and whole cor-
at any time and from any place. The advan-         aspects of IT and coherent management pro-             porate cultures. For customers
tages are better quality of service and major      cesses are needed. Ultimately the final consu-         and consumers digital innova-
time-savings for individuals.                      mers of the digital processes should benefit.          tions have long been part of
                                                   The goal: processes are faster and simpler. At         everyday life – companies and

                                                                                                                                      „
Challenges                                         any time and from any place required infor-            public administration are re-
Especially in the case of the digital document     mation can be retrieved or services used, such         sponding quite differently here.
registration, a well-organised procedure is        as document transfer. BVK is facing precisely
                                                                                                          Daniel Just
essential. Large amounts of data (big data)        these challenges: our digital processes require        Executive Board Chair
which cannot be processed using manual or          constant adaptation. For the electronic trans-
standard data processing methods demand            fer of our members’ and participants’ data we
innovative solutions. Here technical innova-       must ensure that data quality and security of
tions are required which can ideally also be       data transfer is guaranteed.
integrated into the existing IT systems.
                                                   The subject of data protection is therefore
But the technological changes also have a          also on our minds. Guaranteeing the confi-
major influence on the world of work and           dential handling of customer and staff data at

                                                                                                                                         29
02

                                            all times is very important to us. In addition,    instance, to realise a modern and progressive
                                            improving our digital communication is also        Internet presence with new group and career
                                            important, as is the digitalisation of our real    pages. The amount of invoices we receive is
                                            estate management. The goal here is to sim-        to be partly automated in the future to speed
                                            plify and accelerate communication with ten-       up internal processes. And the legal depart-
                                            ants and tradesmen using digital processes.        ment is also currently further developing its IT
                                                                                               strategy; here too there are plans to introduce
                                            Chances for BVK                                    electronic files and a further development of
                                            The topic of digitalisation has top priority at    the legal knowledge management.
                                            BVK. We want to ensure that we are at the fore-
                                            front of automation and digitalisation, but        Looking ahead – with a view to digital trends:
                                            without following short-lived trends. Efficien-    BVK’s Innovation Lab
                                            cy is our guiding principle. Our focus is always   What will the digital technologies of the fu-
                                            the benefit to our participants and members.       ture be? What can we do without because it
                                            It is important to examine the chances and         is only briefly fashionable and what is essen-
                                            challenges of digitalisation and use these in      tial because it is a mega technology trend?
                                            the best possible way for BVK. In this process     These are topics for the Innovation Lab, which
                                            we want to ensure that our employees are           was established at BVK in 2019. The Innova-
                                            able to work with the most modern digital          tion Lab monitors all the innovations on the
                                            tools and processes: digital working meth-         market which could be relevant for us in the
      WHAT IS A SURFACE HUB?                ods are already state of the art at BVK, like      future.
      A surface hub is a large screen for   our use of surface hubs and Skype sessions.
      video conferences with an integra-
      ted whiteboard and Microsoft Office   These digital tools enable the organisation of     Ultimately the latest developments in IT tech-
      applications.                         meetings and conferences regardless of geo-        nology and methodology will be investigated
                                            graphy. Many staff use notebooks and tablets       and tested here to drive on digitalisation at
                                            from any location and also make use of wor-        BVK.
                                            king from home days
                                                                                               So IT concepts, new developments and in-
                                            The further digitalisation of internal pro-        novations will be examined which are either
                                            cesses and services for our participants and       already in use at other insurance companies,
                                            members is a major preoccupation. In 2019          consulting firms and congresses, or have
                                            we were able to successfully launch nume-          been presented there. The Innovation Lab
                                            rous projects relating to internal administra-     also creates the scope for employees to try
                                            tion, properties and the customer portals. The     out their own ideas and is intended to pro-
                                            websites of BVK and the associated pension         vide methods, tools and processes for brain-
                                            schemes are constantly undergoing visual           storming.
                                            and technical revision. BVK has been able, for

     30
02

Change process through digitalisation
The new digital working world and the digi-
talisation of internal processes also means
an adjustment for our staff. And here we are
already laying the necessary groundwork
for this. In 2024 we intend to move into our
new office building. So when it comes to the
future design of the workplaces and internal
areas we have already taken account of our
long-term goals, such as paperless office, fle-
xible and mobile working and the further ex-
pansion of digital customer services. This will
remain one of our focuses in the future.

                                                  31
02        Current digital projects
          at BVK – how we are
          preparing for the future
          When it comes to use of e-government services Germany is third
          from last in the EU. Particularly when it comes to the digitali-
          sation of public administration there is enormous scope for
          improvement all over Germany – this is not the case at BVK.
          In 2019 numerous online portals were launched or fundamen-
          tally revised. In addition many digital projects were realised
          or initiated to make processes more efficient.

          1. Information for everyone:                       2020 will also see the launch of a mobile
            the new group and career pages                   app especially for doctors. Besides the
            Since November 2019 the new group and            classic information function this is also in-
            career pages of BVK have been online:            tended to have a photo/scan function. This
            the particular focus was on a modern and         will enable the user to submit documents
            contemporary design and the implementa-          for further internal processing via a pass-
            tion of mobile-optimised websites. And the       word-protected registration area.
            new BVK career portal gives an ideal repre-
            sentation of BVK as an employer (see also        The revised members’ portal of BVK Sup-
            pages 61 – 62).                                  plementary Pension Scheme (Project “Re-
                                                             Port”) went live in May 2019 and offers a
          2. More service for our members and partici-       number of additional services. Employers,
            pants: new portals and apps                      e. g. municipal and church organisations,
            The online portal of the physicians’ pen-        can process transactions online, which sig-
            sion scheme (BÄV24) was expanded in              nificantly reduces the administrative work.
            2019. In particular the self-service functions   This means that, for instance, an annual
            were developed. These now include a pen-         statement can be prepared quickly and
            sion calculator. In addition it is possible to   easily via the portal without paper or post-
            calculate      additional payments and their     age. In addition, members can check their
            effects on future retirement pension, to call    own efficiency by quickly and easily calling
            up a summary of contributions paid and           up analyses of participant numbers, mis-
            entitlements since the beginning of mem-         sing annual statements or even payment
            bership and to adapt your own communi-           summaries (see also page 50).
            cation data.

     32
02

The members’ portal of BVK civil servants’          In addition the new members’ portal of
pension scheme DAISy (employer advice               the Supplementary Pension Scheme
and information system) will be the new             was launched at cooperation partners,
secure digital platform for members from            the participants’ portal of this BVK Sup-
March 2020. All information can in futu-            plementary Pension Scheme (VIP) was
re be called up conveniently online. The            technically realised, work started on de-
advantage: members are able to digitally            velopment of the members’ portal for the
transfer change notifications with the re-          theatre and orchestra pension schemes
levant attachments and other information.           and there are also plans for a new commit-
In addition, they can view pensionable ser-         tee portal: the portal must in future fulfil
vice periods and much more. This will con-          all security standards, i. e. communication
siderably improve data quality. The upload          between BVK and committee members or
function offered saves posting the many             between the committee members them-
required documents: data and important              selves must be encrypted. Additional IT
documents are thus received faster and can          requirements include e. g. online tools like
be processed more conveniently.                     self-service, a meetings calendar, push no-
                                                    tifications, archive functions, forms and a
A digital purchasing portal has also been           discussion forum.
introduced: since the end of 2018 all tende-
ring procedures have to be processed elec-        3. Optimisation of internal digital processes
tronically all over the EU. This applies to all     The introduction of modern workplace
communication between client and enter-             technologies, but also the optimisation
prise, from the notification of offer submis-       of internal processes through the appli-
sion to award of the contract. BVK has now          cation of IT and software technologies,
implemented a solution which fulfils all re-        advanced massively in 2019. Our goal: to
quirements and is easy to use. The advan-           establish more efficient processes and use
tages, such as paperless working, flexible          digital tools to facilitate faster and better
and easily understandable handling, less            communication and data transfer both
administrative work, documentation secure           internally and with interface partners.
against revision and avoidance of time-
consuming extra work, have long been
exploited even where it is not mandatory
under the purchasing regulations. And by
now we are also seeing a steady increase in
acceptance amongst bidders. The potential
applications of the purchasing portal repre-
sent an important milestone in the digitali-
sation of purchasing processes.

                                                                                                    33
02

                                                       Evaluation and initial introduc-                Introduction of
                                                       tion of modern workplace tech-                  cloud technology
                                                       nologies (Surface Hub, Windows                  in the data centres
                                                       tablets, etc)
                                              Microsoft Surface Hub, a large screen dis-     In 2019 IBM Cloud Private (ICP) was intro-
                                              play system with integrated whiteboard         duced in BVK computing centre. This is a
                                              and Microsoft applications, enables excel-     local private cloud, which ensures high
                                              lent interaction, collaboration and spon-      availability, performance and security.
                                              taneity at meetings and video conferences.
                                              Two Surface Hubs are already in use at pre-    The ICP is the technical foundation for the
                Conversion to digitali-       sent, two further systems are in testing.      portal solutions currently in development
                sation of incoming post       Preparations are currently underway for an     at BVK and, through technologies such as
                (“early scanning”)
                                              expanded test with 100 Windows tablets to      Docker and Kubernetes, enables the crea-
      In the individual divisions of BVK      see whether these devices can satisfy the      tion of “containerised” applications and use
      “early scanning” has already been       trend towards increasing mobility.             of DevOps concepts.
      established for several years, in BVK
      division “Municipal Pensions” con-
      version is to begin in 2020.
                                                        Introduction of an IAM                         Initial implementation of the
                                                        system (initially for user                     IT strategy in the personnel
      In “early scanning” documents are
                                                        administration portals)                        management division
      digitalised immediately upon re-
      ceipt. Further processing is then       Identity & Access Management (IAM) is          In December 2018 the IT strategy was pas-
      also entirely electronic, thus en-      the umbrella term for processes dealing        sed by the Executive Board, in 2019 the re-
      abling more efficient processes, a      with the administration and maintenance        quirements were included in a preliminary
      higher level of automation and bet-     of user accounts, including the administra-    study. The tendering process for an overall
      ter mobility in the processing.         tion of user authorisations for applications   system is planned for 2020.
                                              and systems (login, identity and access ma-
                                              nagement).                                     The work will start with the modules not
                                                                                             yet supported by a software solution or
                                              An IAM system increases the security of all    in which the software support used up to
                                              associated processes.                          now has proved sub-optimal. This applies
                                                                                             to the modules personnel administration,
                                              An IAM system for the portals is about to be   personnel development and the electronic
                                              introduced. The pilot is the members’ por-     personnel file.
                                              tal currently in development for the thea-
                                              tre and orchestra pension schemes and the
                                              participants information portal VIP. Other
                                              portal solutions, like DAISy, the Supple-
                                              mentary Pension Scheme members’ portal
                                              and BÄV24, will follow in terms of IAM inte-
                                              gration before other core applications are
                                              coupled with the IAM system.

     34
02

           Real estate management:                         Real estate management:
           DMS 2.0                                         transition to new release
                                                           SAP RE-FX

A major focus in 2019 was the selection          The SAP module “RE Classic” in use up
and implementation of a new document             to now for real estate management was
management system (DMS) for real estate          no longer supported by SAP and had to
management based on the existing ECM             be converted to the successor module
strategy. The goal is to automate some of        “RE-FX”. The goal was to ensure that all
the incoming mail processing using optical       data and functionalities were also available
character recognition (OCR), to implement        through “RE-FX” as well as to enable the im-
the legal requirements of the General Data       plementation of further optimisations.
Protection Regulation (GDPR), such as au-
tomatic deletion at the end of the retention     The successful data migration was com-
duty period, and to replace the archiving        pleted in March 2019. This established the
solutions in use up to now.                      technical basis for all upcoming projects
                                                 in line with the IT strategy for real estate
                                                 management.
          Real estate management:
          computer aided facility
          management (CAFM)
                                                           E-invoices
Another project in 2019 was the selection
and implementation of application ex-
tensions to the ERP system in the form of        The goal with digital invoice processing
modules/portals for customer relationship        is to reduce lead times and waiting time,
management (CRM), for technical equity           to resolve media disruptions as soon as
resource management (SRM) and for mo-            invoices are received and to automate in-
bile applications. This was based on SAP         voice checking and approval processes in
master data and real estate management           a user friendly way.
process logic. Here cockpits were introdu-
ced step by step for the customer relations      Other goals of the project are the creation
staff, for damage reporting or real estate       of a central invoice receipt book and tam-
contract notifications. In addition cockpits     per-proof archiving of invoices. The pa-
have now been introduced for mobile em-          perless processing of incoming invoices
ployees to record and process notifications      also contributes to sustainability. Due to
via mobile devices, including the proces-        the blanket use of the software, not only
sing of tasks in the course of duties to en-     will the scanning of invoices be centrali-
sure public safety. This was followed by the     sed, but also incoming mail for real estate
linking of trade service firms via the cockpit   management will be recorded early too.
for service providers and the integration of
tenants via a tenant cockpit.

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