In Karlskrona, a city known for its naval base and World Heritage site, work is underway to realize a vision where businesses can easily and efficiently navigate to the municipality's services.
The vision becomes reality thanks to a strong collaboration with Onify, who, together with the municipality, is developing a business portal – a digital meeting place for all entrepreneurs. The portal is not just a solution to the fragmentation that often challenges municipal services , it is a cornerstone in a larger vision of a digital hub that brings everything together in one place for both citizens and municipal employees, whether it concerns applying for building permits, communicating in a case, or viewing their licenses.
From Fragmentation to Cohesion
The insight into the need for change is at the core of the vision that has driven the development of a new digital platform. “The lack of cohesive service makes it difficult for both businesses and the municipality's own employees to get a complete picture of their engagement with the municipality,” says Mats Hellman, business developer at Karlskrona municipality. According to Mats, Karlskrona is not alone. “We work much like many other municipalities… a bit fragmented ”
“The lack of cohesive service makes it difficult for both businesses and the municipality's own employees to get a complete picture of their interactions with the municipality”
Next Step in Digital Development
For Karlskrona municipality, this is just the beginning of a larger journey.
“We have previously created e-services for businesses and built up a self-service bank, so that is in place,” explains Fredrik Sjölin, Head of the Digitalization Unit. He emphasizes the importance of the business guide function as a way to coordinate business owners' questions that concern several municipal departments, but also stresses that the work with the business portal represents a significant next step towards improving and deepening digital interactions.
A Digital Meeting Place
A central part of Karlskrona municipality's goal for an improved business environment is a digital business portal – where entrepreneurs can get an overview of services and cases in one place. “We want to offer businesses easy access to, follow, and get an overview of their interactions with the municipality,” explains Fredrik. The portal aims to become a digital meeting place where entrepreneurs can easily interact with case officers, ask questions, manage their permits, and access information tailored to their specific needs, which will significantly improve communication and accessibility.
"We want to offer businesses an easy way to access, track, and get an overview of their interactions with the municipality"
Internal Collaboration Portal
To complement the external portal, Karlskrona municipality is also developing an internal collaboration portal. This portal is designed to provide the municipality with an overview of all matters concerning businesses, including the status of cases handled by other departments outside the business development unit. “Internally, we are building a collaboration area; the internal collaboration portal retrieves data from existing operational systems and makes it available cross-functionally,” explains Mats. The system will enable municipal employees to work more integrated and efficiently, which in turn improves service to businesses.
A Vision for the Future
Karlskrona Municipality's ambition extends beyond a business portal. A future development of the municipality's digital hub will see the portal expanded to include various aspects of citizens' interactions with the municipality. The project with Onify aims to establish a comprehensive digital ecosystem, a citizen portal. “If a business owner can log in and manage their company's matters, then a municipal resident could log in and manage their property in the same way,” Mats explains.
Karlskrona Municipality's work with Onify involves both solving current challenges and the ambition to define how the municipality can better support and interact with its businesses and citizens. By building a solution that allows for more cohesive and easily accessible services, a new standard is being set for municipal service delivery. This vision extends beyond the traditional self-service model, towards a more integrated and interactive digital presence that meets the unique needs of all Karlskrona's citizens, businesses, and employees.
The choice of partner was crucial
Choosing Onify as a partner for the project was crucial and lays the foundation for a future where Karlskrona municipality not only improves its services for businesses but also for its citizens, through an integrated and accessible digital presence.
“We have a good and dynamic collaboration with Onify, who truly understands our needs and the journey we are on”
The successful collaboration between Karlskrona municipality and Onify highlights the importance of choosing the right partner for digital transformation projects. By working together in open dialogue and being flexible to new discoveries and needs, they have jointly created a solution that not only meets today's requirements but is also scalable for the future.
Robert Lundsten, Technical Manager and founder at Onify, shares Karlskrona municipality's view on a successful collaboration, where the key is having the same ambitions and a willingness to innovate. “It has always been Onify's core to think outside the box and create something new together with our customers,” he says. He believes the collaboration with Karlskrona municipality has been exciting and educational for both parties and looks forward to continuing to work together.
“It has always been Onify's core to think outside the box and create something new together with our customers”
A Source of Inspiration
By sharing the journey Karlskrona municipality is undertaking, we aim to inspire other municipalities facing similar digital transformation challenges to take the step towards more efficient, accessible, and citizen-focused services. We see great potential in digital innovation that renews and improves public services in the country's municipalities.
