Many ideas for digital health services in the DigitalWell Arena are aimed at the public sector. Thomas Wernerheim works to increase insight into what is required to succeed. Among other things via the Innovationsforum service, where companies and entrepreneurs can get valuable input.
Thomas Wernerheim is a digital business developer in Karlstad municipality and part of DigitalWell Arena's Innovation Council. All requests for support to companies and entrepreneurs that come to DigitalWell Innovationssupport are assessed there. So far, roughly 40 applications for new digital health and welfare services have been granted some form of support.
- You can state that there are many people in Värmland who have good ideas and would like to make something good out of them. It bodes well for a more developed innovation system in the region and a thriving business community, says Thomas Wernerheim.
There must be financial viability
However, a recurring question in the Innovation Council is whether an idea can be taken forward into a viable product or service.
- What I have missed quite a bit is that many people don't think about money and the business. Many are driven by interest, knowledge and commitment in an area but forget that there must be financial viability.
And a challenge with the public sector, as a potential customer, is both financial management and procurement.
- We decide well in advance how much money to spend and on what. The structure is based on setting up target images and the entire management is based on reaching those targets, says Thomas Wernerheim.
- It is a structure based on control, and control and innovation work quite poorly. Then, of course, I don't mean that it should be the whole sea of storms, but in some sense it is about taking controlled risks and working systematically with innovation to achieve better results. We must also remember that many businesses are subject to rigid legislation, which of course makes it difficult.
Need to cog in needs and systems
For new digital services and products that are aimed at the public sector, it also applies that they must fit into the existing systems and needs.
- There, as public actors, we have a great responsibility in letting in innovators and entrepreneurs so that they can really understand our business, our challenges, needs and get to know the users and the "architecture" you need to be able to exist in.
A service in DigitalWell Innovationssupport to create such contact surfaces is called Innovationsforum in the public sector. The innovation forum gives entrepreneurs and companies the opportunity to verify their service and get tips for further development together with the public sector.
Need new collaboration areas
Thomas Wernerheim has participated in such a workshop with an entrepreneur, who, through AI, tries to make early forecasts about which students may have problems meeting the knowledge goals in mathematics.
- The idea is inherently exploratory and we don't really know which data can benefit us, we have to find out, says Thomas Wernerheim.
- For me, the case in Innovationsforum is just as much a way to develop and test systematic innovation work in Karlstad Municipality. If one were to generalize, we as a group are not particularly good at creating areas where different actors meet to create some form of insight and solve challenges together.
What do you think is needed in the public sector to really provide the opportunity for innovators to contribute?
- In part, someone is needed in the role I have, a receiver and pilot who can lead correctly in this large organization. And in order for a business to take on something, it requires people there who have the point of view: that we should test it, and a structure around it.
