It is astonishing that many people wonder why things take time in the public by using welfare technology and why implementation is not always successful. Last night, I had a conversation about implementing technology about why you often fail with this.
As I have written earlier, all research reports in recent years claim that one of the biggest challenges in the development and distribution of welfare technology is:
- Communication gap between technicians and health professionals
- Management Expertise and understanding of digitization
- Expertise on change management
- How to change processes and change culture
- Organizational challenges
- Organizational structure, Organizational culture and Organizational anchoring
- Strategic challenges
- Political Anchoring, Collaboration with Private Providers
- Management Challenges
- Understanding of change leadership and implementation skills at management level
If we are to succeed in implementing new technology in the public sector, we need to understand the six points mentioned above. Furthermore, an understanding of innovation must be gained. This is not something to be driven on the side but in daily operations and across different municipal sectors.
Repeatedly, we see the launch of a project for the so-called further development of an existing or new IT system. Often the process is initiated based on the organization’s needs, rather than who the organization is going to serve.
One way to gain control of the processes is to establish a competence center across different sectors. A competence center should be responsible for working with the above points in addition to continuous improvement of work processes, development and deployment of new technology and systems.
A competence center can help facilitate the management and development of processes across processes in the municipality. At the same time, it can help facilitate dialogue between managers and health professionals in the redesign of work processes and the rollout of new technology.
Benefits of a center of expertise are improved resource utilization (cost savings): use of technology for management – and people to provide care. Harmonized work processes adopted by all employees.
Implementation of new technology requires, inter alia, a human resource strategy to develop the necessary working skills and engage them in the process. Cisco has released a report on technology projects, and the investigation showed that three out of four projects failed. Those who focus on collaboration, sharing and human relationships succeed.
The change challenge that one often faces is the implementation of new IT solutions, to engage health professionals who are often the most affected. Not rarely, they can feel quite threatened with new technology. Often, we see emotional reactions because they often have insufficient information about the extent of the changes and the potential effect on their working day.
Future technological solutions must be developed to have the user in the center and what the user needs, not what the organization wants. The public must understand that it is more for their citizens than the organizations themselves.
As I have written many palaces earlier, it is not about technology, but about understanding of work processes and having competence in the above-mentioned points. Technology must be used as a tool for management, while human factors for managing people and treatment.
Reference:
– Erfaringer fra pilotering av velferdsteknologi i Sarpsborg kommune, Høgskolen i Østfold, Oppdragsrapport 2015:4 – Cathahrina Bjørnquist
– Prioritering og kompetanse i bruk av velferdsteknologi i Telemark, Vestfold og Buskerud 2015. Høgskolen i Søst Øst Norge, Senter for omsorgsforskning, Per Gunnat Disch og Heidi Johansen
– Velferdsteknologi og hjemmeboende eldre, Høgskolen i Nord Trøndelag, Siri Andersen Devik og Ove Hellzen, Rapport 79 2013
– Velferdsteknologi – en studie knyttet til ledelsesmessige utfordringer ved implementering av velferdsteknologi innen helse og omsorg. Høgskolen i Trøndelag, 2015, Inger Lise Fiskvik
– Velferdsteknologi fra planer til prosjekt. NTNU, Desember 2015, Gulizar Astroshi
– Implementering av velferdsteknologi i helse og omsorgstjenesten – Høgskolen i Sør Øst Norge, 2015, Janne Daugstad, Etty R. Nilsen, Monika K. Gullsett, Tom