Karlstad carries out innovative procurement to increase the city’s accessibility

In Karlstad, the health and social care unit had long been looking for digital tools to give people with cognitive challenges greater opportunities to independently access the city’s offerings. This could include cultural experiences, associations, and other activities that can contribute to a richer life.

– Being independent is important for everyone, and especially important for people with limitations in their lives, as they are often dependent on others. The target group is not always able to independently interpret the information available in society. Trying to develop a digital solution that can enable this is very much needed, says Ann-Sophie Gustafsson, Development Manager at the Health and Social Care Administration.

Procuring innovation work – not a finished service

To address the need, the municipality is carrying out a procurement with the support of the Demand Acceleration methodology. Put simply, this means procuring an innovation process where multiple companies can participate in close collaboration with the organisation to develop a new digital service.

– Since we see that this challenge has a high degree of innovation, we think Demand Acceleration is a good method. Not locking the procurement into predictable perspectives, but approaching the question from the standpoint of co-creation and innovation. That is important, says Marie Johansson, Head of Development at the Health and Social Care Administration.

The Demand Acceleration methodology means that, in addition to multiple suppliers being procured, the municipality’s own requirements specification takes a back seat compared to a traditional procurement.

– In a traditional procurement, the focus is on mandatory requirements and fixed criteria. In a procurement using the Demand Acceleration methodology, the degree of innovation is not limited by that kind of detail – instead, co-creation and development are encouraged in an integrated design process. The supplier gradually gains knowledge and support from us, and we can utilise the supplier’s capability and knowledge in a better way than if we had set limitations from the start. We actually get more influence over the final product by not describing exactly what it should be from the outset, says Marie Johansson.

The Demand Acceleration methodology has been developed within DigitalWell Arena. Karlstad Municipality has played a key role both in developing the theories and as a pioneer in putting them into practice. The very first procurement, “Experience My Reality,” was carried out in 2022. It resulted in a VR service that trains care staff in how best to meet people with cognitive impairment.

Aiming to spread services across the public sector

Initially, seven companies were procured in the opening concept phase. Virotea then became the company awarded a development contract to complete the final product. The company has since sold the service to several other municipalities – which is a fundamental principle for services developed with the support of Demand Acceleration. The commercial viability helps ensure that services can be sustained and developed further, which also benefits the customer that first procured the service.

– We really only have positive experiences from “Experience My Reality.” In this form of collaboration, the supplier listens to our needs and then develops prototypes that are evaluated during the process, before we finalise the end result. That we as a public actor can help drive innovation is a prerequisite for ensuring that the services we develop going forward meet real needs for new products and digital services, says Ann-Sophie Gustafsson.

Several other municipalities are now in the starting blocks to initiate similar procurement processes, including Helsingborg, which is seeking groundbreaking methods to reduce the climate impact of its public consumption.

Stakeholders across the country

A pre-study has also been carried out in which 15 municipalities participated to share more about the opportunities – and challenges – they see in relation to the Demand Acceleration methodology.

– The curiosity and interest are great, but at the same time it is a methodology that involves a degree of uncertainty around the final result, something that contrasts with how things are usually done in the public sector. Despite this, the pre-study has so far led to initial dialogues about testing the methodology in as many as seven municipalities/regions, and several of them have already begun the work, says Elin Fouganthine, Innovation Manager at DigitalWell Arena and the person who led the pre-study.