After many submitted entries, there are now six nominated municipalities left. Everyone with a chance to win the prize and be awarded the honorary title.

As a municipality, actively working with digitization and its integration is absolutely vital for streamlining and developing the work. But also so as not to fall behind in a world where digital solutions are on the rise. The competition “Sweden’s Digitization Municipality” is organized by the Quality Fair and intends to praise the municipality that has made advanced digitization efforts. Patrik Sundström is Chief Digital Officer at SKR (Swedish Municipalities and Regions) and has been given the honorable assignment as the competition’s jury chairman.

– The purpose of the competition is to draw attention to progress made in society, we celebrate the municipalities that are forward-leaning, something that also provides inspiration to other municipalities. Through the award, other municipalities can learn from experience and to a greater extent understand why the nominated municipalities, or the winning municipality, have succeeded, says Patrik Sundström.

And there is no doubt that it is an honor to be nominated. The six nominated municipalities are the City of Landskrona, the City of Malmö, the Municipality of Sundsvall, the Municipality of Södertälje, the Municipality of Upplands-Bro and the Municipality of Växjö. Marcus Matteby is a CDO / CIO at Sundsvall Municipality and sees the nomination as a reward for solid digitization work.

– Being nominated is proof that everyone’s dedicated work in the organization gives results. It is also a success for digital maturity because we have invested wholeheartedly in that method, it is in our DNA. We have not only added a measurement method but thought differently and made questions into principles and based our development efforts based on those principles. We work with DiMiOS, which measures digital maturity in the public sector and is based on evidence-based research. A nomination is not only a proof that we are doing something good, but it also encourages us to continue to do a good job, says Marcus Matteby.

Maria Stellinger Ernblad is head of digitization in the city of Malmö and has worked with development issues in the digital sector for over 20 years.

Digitization is business development and this is reflected in the fact that digitization in the city of Malmö takes place close to operations. Within the city’s central digitization work, we make sure to provide the digital tools and platforms needed throughout the city. We also work with developing various skills needed to drive development work with digital elements. We have, for example, change leaders and the Malmö Civic Lab team. Malmö Civic Lab functions as an itinerant innovation team that meets the companies’ needs for digitization at the place where the work is carried out. Anyone who is curious about what we do can follow us on our LinkedIn page The digital Malmö, says Maria Stellinger Ernblad.

“Sweden’s Digitization Municipality” is an important initiative in the issue of focusing the spotlight on those who by various means succeed best with their digitization efforts. It is about digitalisation being accessible to everyone and that both employees and residents in the municipality are part of the development phase. Mia Forsäng, responsible for school and higher education at Microsoft Sweden, sits on the competition jury and believes that successful efforts require courage but also cooperation between different parties.

– I think it is super important that municipalities have the courage to invest. The technical development and digitization are exceptional. You can not afford or time not to get hooked. It is necessary to have politicians who dare to invest, a permissive climate in the municipality and curious people in the organization who make sure that the ideas become a reality. Simply that you take advantage of the ideas that are out in the organizations and take help from other municipalities or companies to realize them. Before, you did a lot yourself, but today it is required that we work in an ecosystem where we together create new opportunities for the future, says Mia Forsäng.

The fact that various bodies in a municipality collaborate in the work towards successful digitization seems to be a concept of success. And this is something that Patrik Sundström believes that, among other things, the nominated municipality of Sundsvall has shown proof of.

– Sundsvall has shown a structured and aggressive work for several years to develop the business with the support of digitization. There is also a great deal of commitment at the political level and between managers, employees and directors. Sundsvall is serious about pursuing long-term development with the support of digitalisation, says Patrik Sundström.

And which municipality will win the title of “Sweden’s Digitalisation Municipality” remains to be seen until March 7, 2022, when the winner will be presented at the Quality Fair’s inauguration evening.

The quality fair has grown to become the largest meeting place in Europe in business and community development. It is an arena where officials and politicians can take part in the latest trends, impulses and challenges to create the society of the future. The quality fair will be held 7-9 March 2022 at the Swedish Fair in Gothenburg.