Background

Situation

KOMBIT is a municipally owned IT community that purchases, manages, operates and further develops stable IT solutions and infrastructure for the benefit of citizens and businesses. Since its establishment in 2009, KOMBIT's main task has been to expose joint municipal IT solutions to increased competition for creation of better IT solutions. By 2023, this task was nearing completion and KOMBIT was moving towards a role that was more about secure operations, efficient management and further development.

Challenge

At the same time, it was clear that the municipalities' reality was facing major changes; changes in the foundation of the Danish welfare model, the threat of cyber attacks and the climate crisis. These were also themes that KOMBIT had to address in order to remain relevant as the largest digitalization community for municipalities.

Purpose

KOMBIT asked A-2 to orchestrate and facilitate a strategy process with broad involvement of directors, managers and external stakeholders, based on previous discussions with the board. In addition, KOMBIT wanted a larger survey and interview-based analysis of the municipalities' attitudes, strategic elements and business model etc. to supplement their knowledge of municipal challenges and needs, which are the basis for the continued digitalization.

Approach & Results

A-2 helped KOMBIT with planning, orchestrating and facilitating the strategy work and preparing an overall communication of the final strategy. A significant part of the work was also sparring with KOMBIT's executive board on approach, organizational involvement and change management.

The strategy process followed an iterative principle where KOMBIT, based on identified municipal challenges and needs, expanded and concretized the guidelines given by the board, including specific strategic initiatives. The various strategic ambitions and initiatives were then subjected to an environmental analysis among the municipalities and other key stakeholders, who provided input and qualified their relevance and angle.

The strategy elements were then reviewed and sharpened in KOMBIT and summarized in a unifying core narrative with a newly formulated purpose for KOMBIT, accompanied by a strategic action plan for prioritized initiatives for the first 6 quarters.

The result was a new strategy for KOMBIT 2023+, anchored in municipal digitization needs and KOMBIT's development and with broad support in the organization, the board and KL. The strategy ensures a focus on maintenance and improvement of existing solutions and opens up for a broader approach to KOMBIT's value creation for the municipalities.