This should have been updated decades ago to include email. Is it possible for any government to function properly?

The main issue is that who is supposed to implement it? The gov has 2 possibilities: hire a contractor, or do it themself. DIY has the issue that nobody wants to work for the gov because as any IT specialist you'd earn 1/3 or 1/4 of what you would earn in a private company. Stateworkers here cannot be fired. So you trade money for extreme "stability" (read: laziness). Hiring a contractor requires money they also don't see the necessity to spend. And that's how you end up in this situation. There are also other issues like no national wide implementation plan. Every state, every commune has to figure out and build stuff themself.

We are repeating obvious things here aren't we? I moved to Germany from a very pro IT country Finland. I've been here now for 15 years, and while I still disagree with their idea of dismissing email, I kind of got used to it. A couple more decades and it'll happen...