Providing user-centric, coherent services is an important, common goal for the public sector in Norway. At the coast of Helgeland, 16 municipalities have joined forces through the project Digitale Helgeland to realize exactly this.
Hilde Rafaelsen, project manager at Digitale Helgeland, has extensive experience with digitization, both in public and private sectors. The municipalities participating in the collaboration differ in many aspects, but the services they offer are the same. How about making things smarter through collaboration?
- Driving innovation as an IT manager in a small municipality is demanding. Working together, we can make important improvements easier, faster and better, says Hilde.
One of the first services the municipalities have collaborated on is reduced parental pay for kindergarden services. The target group for a single municipality is not necessarily that large, but the service is important for those who have a tight financial situation.
- Contacting the municipality digitally, should be both easy and safe and it has to be convenient for the employee in the municipality to follow up, says Hilde.
Digitale Helgeland has based their development on already available solutions The national and municipal common solutions of the Norwegian Directorate for digitization and KS (Kommunesektorens organisasjon, the sector organization for Norwegian municipalities) have been crucial. Together with these premise suppliers and Sikri, Digitale Helgeland has automated the value chain - all the way from application to reception at the municipalities. The complete applications are available in Elements without any manual processes.
Getting the first service up and running has required close collaboration between suppliers and Digitale Helgeland. Both the Norwegian Directorate for digitization and KS have participated, together with Accenture and Sikri. The tax administration's service is used to check the applicant’s income.
- We have collaborated through Slack and common stand-up meetings, says Hilde.
- It is inspiring to work with customers who have a clear and distinct goal for their digitization and how they use Elements, says Eren.
Hilde adds that cooperation between the public and private sectors is absolutely essential to be able to innovate.
- No one has the entire value chain. We have to work together to make it happen, she says.
Digitale Helgeland has clear goals to create more coherent services in the future, based on the solutions they have acquired.
- We see many opportunities with the solutions we have implemented, Hilde says.
Our vision is that the digitization work in Helgeland will increase the quality and efficiency of our services, through an improved utilization of resources in the municipality. We want more warm hands in nursing, being close to patients instead of spending time on administrative and repetitive tasks. We want our teachers to spend more time with the children teaching instead of being caught up with manual work that can be automated. We want to give citizens quicker responses and at the same time ensure a higher degree of equal treatment and legal security. We want to give residents easier access to information and insight on what the municipality knows about you. All in all, this will contribute to simplified everyday work for municipal employees and improved interactions with the municipality for our inhabitants. Together, Helgeland will make this happen.