IT solutions can save SEK 12 billion for Swedish municipalities

Press Release November 9, 2004 IT solutions can save SEK 12 billion for Swedish municipalities Investments in information technology solutions can achieve potential efficiency gains in the range of SEK 12 billion for municipalities in Sweden, according to Telia's new "Municipal Power" report. The findings of the report are based on IT projects that have been implemented in cooperation with Telia within a number of municipalities. Telia has studied five different areas where IT solutions can increase the efficiency of services and operations in municipalities: family care (SEK 4.3 billion); personnel pooling (0.3 billion); phone-based health care counselling (3.4 billion); mobile work within home-help service (3.8 billion) and shared PBX solutions (0.3 billion). The potential efficiency gains in these areas total SEK 12 billion, corresponding to the cost of more than 40,000 full-time assistant nurses during one year. "Over the next ten years, a growing number of municipal employees will retire at the same time as the number of public services will increase. The requirements that municipalities must meet will double. Some of the solutions are IT services that increase the efficiency of municipal services and operations. A concrete example is qualified health care counselling over the phone to give residents greater availability to expert advice and reduce the work burden of medical care facilities," says Anders Gylder, head of the Large Corporate Customers Segment at TeliaSonera Sweden. The report also includes a survey of chairpersons of municipal executive boards and municipal managers, who were polled for their opinions about IT and communication solutions. These decision-makers stated that use of IT services by municipal employees will increase sharply over the next five-year period. Municipal decision-makers also feel that IT and communication solutions have their greatest potential in home-help services, municipal administration, and in elementary schools and high schools. A large number of municipal decision-makers feel that cooperation between more municipalities would facilitate initiatives to develop IT services, and also enable efficiency gains and improvements in municipal service. "Many of the projects that we have carried out have involved cooperation between several municipalities. The gains are two-fold, because technology increases work efficiency, and because of the gains that can be realised through cooperation. A simple example is PBX systems shared by several municipalities," says Anders Gylder. About the surveys Telia has conducted two surveys and compiled the findings in the report "Municipal Power" ("Den kommunala kraften") to investigate the potential efficiency gains of IT solutions in municipal services in five priority areas, and to poll municipal decision-makers to get their opinions of IT solutions for their municipalities. The latter survey comprised interviews with 110 chairpersons of municipal executive boards and 93 municipal managers. The business intelligence company United Minds conducted the surveys for Telia's account from June 7 to 18, 2004. For further information journalists can contact: Yvonne Hansen, Press Manager, TeliaSonera Sweden, phone +46 8 713 58 30 TeliaSonera is the leading telecommunications company in the Nordic and Baltic regions. At the end of December 2003 TeliaSonera had 11,957,000 mobile customers (37,610,000 incl associated companies) and 8,061,000 fixed customers (9,160,000 incl associated companies) and 1,631,000 internet customers (1,691,000 incl associated companies). Outside the home markets TeliaSonera has extensive interests in the growth markets in Russia, Turkey and Eurasia. TeliaSonera is listed on the Stockholm Exchange and the Helsinki Exchanges. Pro forma net sales January-December 2003 amounted to SEK 81.7 billion (EUR 9.01 billion). The number of employees was 26,694 ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2004/11/09/20041101BIT20750/wkr0007.pdf