A municipal IT benchmark club
With a new IT benchmark club, so far 23 Danish municipalities have had a unique basis for streamlining their IT usage. With benchmarking analyses they now have a platform for entering into a dialogue with top management, and – following exchange of experience – they are able to take stock of their own and other interested parties’ IT activities, finding out which initiatives work and which do not.
In the public sector, streamlining is given top priority. The merger of Danish municipalities from 277 to 98 in January 2007 may be one of the most obvious examples. This has created renewed interest for the concept of “The efficient municipality” (Den effektive kommune (DEK)). The concept, which has existed for approx. 4 years, makes municipalities form clubs within a given are in order to develop and streamline their activities, based on an exchange of experience and benchmarking: Benchmarking is performed on members who compare their results, and based on this, experience and ideas are exchanged. At present, there are 6-8 benchmark clubs.
The IT benchmark club
One club is the IT benchmark club, which includes 23 municipalities. The main purpose of the IT club activities is to present municipalities with an opportunity of evaluating their IT usage based on fixed parameters and to be benchmarked against other club members.
The benchmark club project for the IT area gained momentum in the course of 2006 with KMD as the initiator. During the spring of 2006, the municipalities of Gentofte, Hedensted, Svendborg, Frederiksberg, Hvidovre, Hørsholm and Vallensbæk formed a group and showed great interest in the project. KMD decided to cooperate with IT Optima in order to collect data and conduct benchmarking analyses for the interested municipalities. With IT Optima's extensive experience with IT benchmarking in both public and private enterprises, as well as KMD's wide-ranging knowledge about the municipal area, the cooperation was divided between the two, meaning that IT Optima performs analyses while KMD runs the clubs, performs marketing activities, etc.
Stock-taking, new knowledge and improved dialogue
The benchmarking analyses have provided the municipalities with a basis for rethinking their IT strategies, and the municipalities state the following advantages of the analyses and subsequent cooperation:
- They have obtained new information or a new awareness of their own IT usage, e.g. in relation to user satisfaction. Such new awareness has led to new analyses and efforts.
- In many cases, documentation has been obtained to prove that initiatives performed in the individual municipality have been successful. That is, the analysis has been performed to take stock of IT initiatives and previous initiatives taken in the IT area.
- The analyses and reported results have provided a platform for improved dialogue with top management. It is important that IT and the business are connected, and that top management also takes an interest in IT. In that connection, the municipal IT departments found that the analysis was a very fine tool in the dialogue between the IT department and top management.
The analysis – and subsequent initiatives
The municipalities decided to use IT Optima's analysis as a standard solution with very few adaptations: “IT Optima takes a leading position in this area and has extensive experience with IT analyses in both private and public enterprises, and as a result, KMD viewed IT Optima's analysis as best practice in this area,” says Sune Dybdal, management consultant of KMD, in a comment on the cooperation. The analysis included benchmarking within the following areas: User satisfaction, costs of wasted time, and end users.
Analysis results were initially presented at an individual presentation meeting held with each of the participating municipalities. Municipal results were presented and comparisons were made with benchmarks. Subsequently, a seminar was held for all participating municipalities, making comparisons across municipalities: Who performed best in which areas of the analysis and why?
Now, the individual municipalities are working with the analysis results and based on these, initiatives are being launched in different areas, e.g. a reduction of response times in IT support, competence development among IT users, IT employees, etc. Along with analyses performed in 2007 and 2008, this first analysis is intended to function as an ongoing process in which the municipalities will be able to establish whether their initiatives have the intended effects.
The work conducted in the benchmark club will continue too: The first seminar resulted in a number of initiatives being launched to address the potential in the municipalities as documented by the analysis. Networks have been set up, knowledge-sharing takes place across municipalities, and common themes have been identified for the purpose of learning more with and from each other. Theme days have been planned, during which the themes will be discussed and illuminated, e.g. through presentations and discussions. And in future, analysis results will be used as the basis for a constructive dialogue among municipalities.
The club concept
Many Danish enterprises conduct benchmarking analyses, for example within the IT area, and many take part in experience groups and other activities in order to share their experiences with other enterprises. The municipal benchmark clubs are unique because all members conduct the same analysis at the exact same time – thus gaining a unique, common basis for sharing knowledge and experience. It stands to reason to use this concept in connection with municipalities, as municipal activities are in many ways similar, however, it may also be used in trade and industry following some adjustments.
Benchmarking across Oresund
Almost at the same time as IT Optima has been carrying out this year’s IT measurement in 15 Danish municipalities, a similar measurement has been carried out in five Swedish municipalities. This means that it is now also possible to benchmark across Oresund – Swedish municipalities against Danish municipalities and vice versa.