Sarpsborg leads the way in municipal use of AI

Boosting efficiency with Public 360° Online

Case processing is exceptionally fast, and Sarpsborg maintains full control over its data—positioning the municipality well as the AI wave gains momentum. Discover why Sarpsborg is considered one of Tietoevry’s benchmark customers.

Tietoevry customers for many years: Atle Johnsen and Ann-Sylvi Schie from Sarpsborg Municipality are satisfied Tietoevry customers after Public 360° has streamlined operations.

– Our archivists and caseworkers are very satisfied. The interface is intuitively designed, making tasks quicker to complete. This benefits both the citizens and results in cost savings," says Ann-Sylvi Schie, system manager for Public 360° in Sarpsborg Municipality.

Since 2023, Public 360°, Tietoevry’s cloud-based system for digital case processing, archiving, and document management, has been a preferred solution for many Norwegian municipalities. Among them is Sarpsborg Municipality, which already implemented a fully electronic archive back in 2007.

The municipality has always been curious about new technology and has a long and strong partnership with Tietoevry.

"They are a very good customer of ours, and I’m continually impressed by them. They simply have excellent control over their data," says Jan Faye, Senior Customer Manager for Public 360° at Tietoevry.

More than once, Faye has thought that the IT staff at the municipality could just as well be working at Tietoevry.

Pleased with Sarpsborg: Jan Faye and Mads Nordnes at Tietoevry appreciate that Sarpsborg challenges them as a partner, helping them develop even better services

Appreciates Tietoevry’s API

Because Sarpsborg was an early adopter of Public 360°, they’ve had a well-structured and organized archive for many years. They believe Tietoevry’s API has made it easier for them to reach the level they’re at today.

"We have a strategy stating that our caseworkers should work in systems tailored to their specific fields. Today, they can do that—while still being connected to the same system—eliminating the manual process of transferring cases from one archive system to another," says Atle Johnsen, Head of Operations in Sarpsborg Municipality.

Technology-driven municipality: Sarpsborg Municipality is heavily investing in technology—something Tietoevry clearly notices through their collaboration on Public 360°.

Ready for AI

In a time when artificial intelligence and the opportunities tied to this technology are rapidly evolving, having control over your data is absolutely essential. Implementing AI without proper structure, data flow, access controls, or ensuring compliance with laws and regulations can quickly lead to problems. In Sarpsborg’s case, data is cleansed through Public 360°, laying the groundwork for further use of robots.

With its innovative and forward-thinking approach, the municipality has already handed over several manual processes to robots—for example, handling access requests from the press. These robots, which the municipality was among the first to develop, are integrated into Public 360° via Tietoevry’s API.

"When we automate case processing so that cases move through the organization with minimal manual touchpoints, it results in direct gains in terms of time and money," says Johnsen.

In total, they have saved the equivalent of about two full-time positions by using robots to handle incoming cases, allowing archivists and caseworkers to focus on other tasks.

Robots in action: Sarpsborg Municipality was an early adopter of robots, including for handling access requests from the press.

Cutting costs through cloud solutions

With Public 360°, what was once just a historical archive system has become a case management system that positively impacts the daily work of both employees and residents.

Sarpsborg has also adopted Plan and Build 360°, a specialized system in the same family as Public 360°, developed for planning and building cases. As the number of planning and building cases increases in the municipality, digitalization and automation have become essential.

"Planning and building cases are of interest to almost everyone. There are more and more access requests, and now it’s easier to request access to these cases. We’ve also purchased an open government solution from Tietoevry where we publish all planning and building cases," says Schie.

Tietoevry’s solutions have led to savings not only for archivists and caseworkers. Without a cloud solution, the municipality would have had to manage its own on-premises server infrastructure. That would have required investing in hardware, allocating more IT resources for operations, and spending additional time on security and backups.

"Today, the municipality’s IT staff can spend more of their time on development tasks and new technologies like AI and process automation, while much of the operations run automatically," says Johnsen.

A new way of working: Public 360° has become a natural part of the daily routine for caseworkers and archivists in Sarpsborg Municipality. They find the solution intuitive and easy to use.

The customer drive innovation at Tietoevry

For Tietoevry, customers like Sarpsborg Municipality are especially important because their feedback helps improve the services even further.

"Some customers leave most of the work to us without asking many questions. Sarpsborg Municipality acts more like a partner. They suggest solutions, ask questions, and bring a lot of great ideas," says Mads Nordnes, the project manager at Tietoevry who has worked most closely with Sarpsborg Municipality.

Now, both parties hope the strong dialogue will continue and that the Public 360° system will keep delivering value for the municipality in the future.