This post is written by Christian Astrup, Project Communicator, ITK (Aarhus Municipality).

  • The problem: Disparate, local development projects may limit digitalisation in smaller public organisations.
  • Why it matters: This inhibits innovation efforts and leaves potential unrealised.
  • The solution: By collaborating in more open formats, smaller entities may find themselves better able to improve services to the benefit of citizens.

Local governing bodies that identify potential improvements in the efficiency of services may find themselves having to make tough choices about which improvements they can afford to pursue.

In effect, this often means having to leave unrealised potential on the table in terms of optimising their own organisations and the services they provide.

A combined effort

In Denmark, rather than each local municipality developing disparate solutions in proprietary software, some opted to join OS2 – an open source cooperative organisation, in which public sector members and developer partners create and share software solutions. Due to the open source format, each member may freely benefit from solutions created by and for other municipalities and customise them to suit their local needs.

One of the solutions created in OS2 was OS2forms – a piece of software which speeds up citizen self-service functions by automating some parts of the application process. This development project was named Better Digital Workflows (BDW).

In Aarhus Municipality, it was observed that if the OS2forms solution were to be integrated with a feature to similarly move data between several older systems, it would significantly speed up administrative processing as well.

In Aarhus Municipality, several systems are in use that have similar functionality as OS2forms, but which are bound by licensing agreements and limited numbers of users, self-help solutions and workflows. In OS2forms, there are no such limitations. More departments are therefore intending to shift from their current suppliers and use OS2forms instead – now with the added features developed in the BDW project.

Unexpected benefits

As the BDW project progressed, the process itself turned out to have unexpected benefits from the more open setup. Being able to contrast and compare suggestions from multiple suppliers stimulated debate about necessary features and the most elegant way to achieve them. For example, two sets of developers presented differing potential roadmaps, prompting a more nuanced development than in a closed setup.

By embracing open and collaborative development, smaller local organisations can amplify their innovation potential and ‘punch above their weight class’.

As BDW workflow features are entering use and freeing up time in public administration, gains are realised which may not have been as achievable in a proprietary framework.

In hindsight, each municipality developing their own solutions in proprietary frameworks does not necessarily result in more tailored or efficient software solutions.

By embracing open and collaborative development, smaller local organisations can amplify their innovation potential and ‘punch above their weight class’. When this shared development is occurring in an open source environment, making local adjustments and refinements to the shared product also becomes more accessible. That is, some fruits suddenly hang a lot lower.

At the same time, an open process with suppliers of software solutions may enable new forms of dialogue and lead to unexpectedly dynamic development processes.

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