Public Housing Sweden – Allmännyttan

The Digitalisation Radar – A strategic tool to support digitalisation and collaboration among public housing companies

With Solita, Public Housing Sweden’s Digitalisation Initiative has developed the Digitalisation Radar, which is a strategic tool used by housing companies to map the progress of their digitalisation efforts. With the help of the Digitalisation Radar, companies can better plan their digitalisation work as it helps prioritise initiatives and creates significant opportunities for collaboration.

The Digitalisation Radar is a tool developed by Public Housing Sweden’s Digitalisation Initiative (DI) with the help of Solita. DI brings together 100 housing companies that have chosen to collaborate on digitalisation issues through a specially financed activity. The aim is to increase the pace of change within their own companies and to work together across the industry to create a sustainable long-term.

“The Digitalisation Radar originated from our collaboration on the new business architecture” explains Erika Strandberg, Project Manager at Public Housing Sweden’s Digitalisation Initiative, “using prior knowledge from the business architecture, we wanted to develop a digital tool that allows the companies to work with self-assessment in terms of digitalisation. We wanted to build a solution where companies can easily monitor their progress and movements, unlike a regular survey where the benefits from the results are not as transparent and easy to act on.”

Mapping digitalisation

The Digitalisation Radar was triggered by the need to support the companies in mapping how far they have progressed in their digitalisation process. The aim was to formalise and structure the digitalisation journey in order to make it scalable.

“We simply don’t have the opportunity to indulge every single member company to help them through their digitalisation process, while at the same time, we see that the need for support is great for many of them.

The major challenge for us is that all companies involved in Public Housing Sweden have such varying requirements; they are different sizes, have different needs, and different skills and digital maturity,” says Erika Strandberg and continues, “We have a unique situation in that we collaborate with 100 public housing companies, where there is no competition between them. This generates a lively culture of collaboration that is in the DNA of Public Housing Sweden. However, the way of working is not digitalised and that is what we are doing now. We review the work that has already been done in companies today and make it digital, scalable and sustainable.

There are three main purposes of the Digitalisation Radar

To continuously measure and monitor the companies’ digitalisation journey
To create understanding and consensus within the companies regarding the digitalisation journey
To be able to compare the results with other public housing companies and identify potential areas for collaboration

Help stay on course

The Digitalisation Radar is a simple and specific tool that companies can work with themselves, regardless of where they are in their digitalisation journey.

“I would say that the Digitalisation Radar creates value for the housing companies regardless of where they are in their digitalisation journey. It is particularly important for those companies that have not really made it that far. The Digitalisation Radar sets out a way forward, a starting point and an approach to tackle digitalisation so that companies can prioritise the right things. The major challenge with digitalisation is that it is abstract and there is no single answer as to how it should progress. Each company must start from its own premises and conditions. It is not a solution, but a compass.

This is where we are now and this is where we are going,” says Per Brolund, Senior Service Designer and the person responsible for the Digitalisation Radar at Solita.

The Digitalisation Radar is not the only tool for mapping digitalisation available on the market. There are similar self-assessment tools for digital maturity in the public sector, but the Digitalisation Radar is specifically designed to support housing companies and property management.

“The biggest difference is that with the Digitalisation Radar, you get a tool that identifies the opportunities for collaboration between the housing companies. We spent a lot of time creating a robust analytical tool, making it easy to slice and dice the data yourself to see which other companies are working with similar priorities. In simple terms, it works as a catalyst for collaboration which is a vital difference. And if I were to add anything, it would be that collaboration is the key to sustainable digitalisation,” says Erika.

User-friendly tool

The Digitalisation Radar is a dynamic tool that companies should ideally use on a regular basis, partly to stay on course in their digitalisation work, but also to provide a snapshot of what digitalisation looks like at Public Housing Sweden.

In the project, a lot of work has been put into making the Digitalisation Radar as user-friendly as possible, and the housing companies have been involved throughout the process by continuously testing and evaluating the tool.

“The content is based on a series of workshops with member companies and we have held several user interviews across various phases of development. 15 companies have been involved and influenced how the radar has been designed. It has been a very user-centric development process designed to create a tool to use in your day-to-day work. A tool to return to and use regularly.” says Per Brolund.

Part of a long-term collaboration

Public Housing Sweden’s Digitalisation Initiative and Solita have been working together for two years, across multiple projects in close collaboration that has been appreciated by both parties.

“DI always takes into consideration the varying needs and opportunities of the different housing companies, which has required Solita to work in a solution-oriented manner while at the same time staying on course on multiple decisive tracks. The collaboration has worked well and Solita’s consultants have succeeded in implementing the vision we presented. They have interpreted and realised what our needs are in an exemplary way,” says Erika.

“I am passionate about getting involved to influence society in a positive direction, and being able to contribute to building a specific tool that can be both scaled and developed, and the fact that it provides obvious value is very satisfying,” says Per Brolund and continues, “It has been really inspiring and gratifying to work with Public Housing Sweden as the rules of the game are so different compared to the private sector. Public Housing Sweden provides the conditions for a major social transformation. They are part of Sweden’s infrastructure and fulfil an important function in society. This type of initiative drives social development forward.”

Interested? – Contact us!

Erik Wide SVP, Strategic Sales, Sweden, Solita

[email protected] +46 70 385 2814
Maria Hansson Business & Ecosystem Designer, Sustainable Value Creation, Solita

[email protected]