The Federal IT Ordinance governs the tasks and competencies in the planning and deployment of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the Federal Administration.
The top controlling unit at federal level is the Federal IT Council (FITC). Its administrative unit is the Federal Strategy Unit for IT (FSUIT). The FITC adopts the standards that are applicable for the entire federal information technology.
A distinction is also made between service consumers (SC) and service providers (SP). The SCs do not perform any operational ICT services themselves but must acquire these from a SP. With the exception of those interdepartmental services defined by the FITC (e.g. telecommunications), the SCs can decide for themselves, by arrangement with their department, where they wish to acquire their IT services: this may be from a SP within or outside of the department or outside of the Federal Administration altogether. The SPs are responsible for management, requirements management and financing of their information and communication technologies (ICT). The SCs and SPs enter into service agreements with each other.