Motives for digitization

According to a survey conducted by KANTAR SIFO on behalf of SKR in April 2018, 2 out of 3 respondents believe that it is high time that municipalities and county councils prioritize the digital service. The same survey also shows that only 1 in 4 respondents think that municipalities and county councils live up to their expectations of digital service.

For the citizen, digitalisation means that it will be easier to communicate with the municipality, that matters will be easier to handle and follow up and that processing times will be shortened. Norrtälje is a municipality that has successfully digitized the building permit process and thereby shortened the processing time by several days, and also reduced the tariff. (link to good example)

For the municipality, digitalisation from the citizen perspective means many benefits. The e-services that are developed make the processing routines that become more efficient, more legally secure and less key person dependent. Error registrations and misinterpretations are minimized.

Digitization means that it will be easier to reach more citizens via different types of digital channels. Information about the municipality's activities and plans reaches more groups in the community. Digital information is easier to make targeted and specially adapted to the needs of different groups, eg linguistic, disability etc. Citizens also have greater opportunities to control how and when they want to access the information.

The digital tools also make it easier to gather views and suggestions from citizens, and more people can be involved in the public conversation.

By making information available from municipal processes, transparency is created in the municipality's activities. Digitization therefore contributes to a strengthened democracy, increased transparency and transparency, and in the long run increased legal certainty.

Data, or information, can be considered as a new type of raw material. Public information is a significant and in-demand amount of information that is largely not available today. How would Swedish business and industry benefit if public information was available? What could be done with this new raw material, and what innovations do we see in front of us? New industries may emerge with many new jobs around the country.

One of the advantages of digitalisation is that the workplace becomes mobile. The work can be performed anywhere as long as there is an internet connection. In other words, there is the opportunity for growth both in the city and in the countryside.

Digitizing the community building process creates benefits for citizens and companies but also for all the actors who are active in the community building process. Uninterrupted digital flows of information make contacts between authorities and construction actors faster and easier. The risk of duplication of work and misunderstandings is minimized when everyone has access to the same information, and the quality of the decisions made will be of a higher quality when the needs of all sub-processes have been taken into account.

Builders will easily be able to find buildable land, and make their own assessments of the suitability for starting a project even before they contact the municipality. They will thus also be able to contribute early in the process in a better way than today.

Housing construction will therefore be supported by a digital community building process, and this also applies to other societal challenges that benefit from the information that is created. Climate adaptation and crisis preparedness are examples of processes that would benefit from a digital community-building process.

There is already a shortage of skills in the public construction sector and according to SKR's financial report from May 2018 (new window, in Swedish), the need for recruitment in municipalities and county councils will increase significantly in the coming years. This is due to the demographic development, which means that the proportion of young and old is increasing sharply in relation to the number of people of working age. One of the proposed measures involves using the possibilities of technology to facilitate and streamline work.

Succeeding in recruitment will thus be an even tougher task in the coming years. One way to strengthen your brand as an attractive employer is to introduce modern digital tools and working methods.

Process support with simpler elements of automation makes it easy to do the right thing. Simpler tasks will disappear or be performed by someone with lower skills. The streamlining that this entails means that more time can be spent on more complicated and creative tasks. When work materials can be accessed online and meetings can be held digitally, the workplace becomes more flexible. The employee can choose a place in an activity-based office or perhaps work from home.