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Unique procurement to create space for innovation in the public sector

Karlstad Municipality is now procuring a development effort to increase care’s understanding of cognitive impairment. The procurement is the first in collaboration with DigitalWell Arena’s demand accelerator, where multiple companies can be engaged to shape a digital solution together with the organisation.

Currently, approximately 150,000 people in Sweden have a dementia diagnosis – adding other forms of cognitive impairment, the number is far greater. To be able to provide individualised health and social care, the care sector needs to increase its understanding of what it is like to live with cognitive impairment. The Health and Social Care Administration in Karlstad Municipality is therefore seeking a digital solution that can convey that experience in staff training.

– In practice, it is easy for a situation to arise where the focus is on what applies to “my client.” It is therefore easy to place the responsibility on the client, where the difficulty has not been understood and it actually applies to most clients. With a technical solution, we want to increase understanding through an experience of cognitive impairment, so that we can ultimately improve our working methods and better meet clients’ needs, says Maria Andersson, Cognition Representative in Karlstad Municipality.

With a digital solution that increases understanding of cognitive impairment, Karlstad Municipality wants to create better opportunities to meet clients’ needs. Photo: Karlstad Municipality

Karlstad’s procurement is unique in several ways. Since the service does not yet exist on the market, the aim is to procure a development effort where multiple companies are engaged to develop a solution together with the municipality. The methodology is built on running parallel processes, where the companies’ collaboration with the municipality is intended to provide increased insights into both needs and possible solutions.

Designed to address a broader need

The procurement is carried out in collaboration with DigitalWell Arena’s demand accelerator. A requirement for procurements carried out through the demand accelerator is that a potential solution must be of interest to the public sector in a broader perspective. This means that the companies participating in the procurement do not only develop a solution relevant to the ordering customer, but one that is also scalable and can spread to more. The rights to the services and products created belong to the developing companies.

DigitalWell Arena supports the companies with various services during the development work to increase the chances that effective welfare services reach a larger market.

– Having the scaling perspective from the outset means that the first customer in the public sector – in this case Karlstad Municipality – does not pay the entire cost of development, further development, operation, and maintenance, but that cost can be shared between several customers over time. If the service can be scaled up and reaches a larger market, the chances also increase that it is maintained and improved over time, which benefits both the company and the customer, says Thomas Wernerheim, Development Strategist at Karlstad Municipality.

Per Danielsson and Thomas Wernerheim hope that the new procurement methodology will create space for more innovative solutions that can also spread further within the public sector.

The expanded collaboration between industry and the public sector is the creative engine for developing innovative services based on real needs. The procurement methodology is an equally important piece of the puzzle for creating security and clear rules of the game for all parties.

Bureaucracy that can hinder innovation

According to Per Danielsson, City Lawyer in Karlstad Municipality, the public sector’s attempts to find new, innovative solutions easily run aground in the bureaucracy surrounding the procurement itself. And in procurements where reference customers are required, innovation becomes virtually impossible.

The method now being tested is intended to provide greater scope to procure a service or product that you cannot yet envision, but that ultimately better addresses the need.

– It is important that we follow the law to ensure that competition is safeguarded and that we get value for our tax money. At the same time, that is precisely what the law stipulates – it describes how we should proceed when making purchases, not what should be purchased or what a collaboration should look like, says Per Danielsson.

The contracts that can initially be awarded to multiple companies in the development process are, in Karlstad’s case, worth SEK 25,000. During the process, both the solutions’ and the companies’ potential are evaluated, with one or several companies progressively selected to complete the development work. The fact that all companies participating at an early stage receive a small sum – and are thereby procured – means they cannot be disqualified at a later stage of the procurement due to their prior knowledge.