DiMiOS is an innovation because:

• It is the first scientifically developed model for digital maturity to be nationally scaled.
• It is developed through a strong partnership between universities, the private- and public sector.
• It challenges current underlying assumptions within the public sector, directly leading to new behavior.
• It is a novel form of research engagement, where the digital solution pumps data directly to researchers.

DiMiOS is now accepted as the main model for assessing digital maturity in the regions and municipalities in Sweden, yet adoption in the central agencies still lag. Through DiMiOS, the discussion about digital transformation has received increased conceptual clarity as well as been underpinned by clear, scientific evidence. Through this, Sweden is more and more reaching a situation where concrete action is taken to increase the overarching digital maturity.

Through the national scaling, the target is to reach a maturity level of 55% by 2023. At the same time, DiMiOS and the results communicated in reports have shifted the public debate away from seeing Sweden as a fore-runner in digital transformation into accepting the findings from organizations such as OECD where Sweden is a poor performer.

The initial setup involved collaboration between the Offices of the Government of Sweden, 18 national agencies, municipalities and regions, three universities (SCDI) and the software firm (Dimatech AB). This was later expanded through the creation of a user-group (with representatives from 150 organizations) and the national scaling project, where Adda AB and the Swedish Association for Local Authorities and Regions took a more central role.

• Citizens: At present, the public sector is shifting its strategies to become less internally focused, into directing more resources into citizen centric innovation.
• Government officials: The 40 000 respondents learn both through the assessment and through the e-learning created and distributed to a wider group (150 000).
• Companies: The e-learning is now made available to consulting firms, giving them access to the latest insights and creating an accreditation program.

We see a significant increase in the level of maturity for organizations that have used DiMiOS for more than one year. The national level of maturity is currently increasing. With over 40 000 respondents, this also translates into increased involvement of internal stakeholders in digital transformation, directing the dialogue into pressing issues (governance) rather than irrelevant ones (technology).

We constantly measure the changes in maturity, and through DiMiOS the organizations can compare across the sector. The e-learning accompanying DiMiOS is distributed to 150 000 people in the sector, increasing the learning and insight even further. In the near future, we expect to see full adoption among municipalities and regions, as well as increased adoption in the national agencies. We also expect to see more spin-outs into additional digital services such as the recently released digital infrastructure inventory (DIOS) and digital initiative portfolio management (PIOS) solutions.

The main challenges that we have faced so far are related to internal political conflicts in Sweden. Given the distributed nature of authority in Sweden, the idea of central solutions is both frowned upon and sought after, which has resulted in entrenchment from some agencies that wish to push their own, non-scientifically based solutions as standard. We have so far won this battle, and hope that this initial conflict will settle.

Another challenge lies in the public-private-partnership setup, where a private software firm is involved. Here, we see that regulatory difficulties related to procurement as well as suspicion from the public sector side into the motives of the private actor has resulted in problems with funding the initial development. The development surrounding GDPR and SCHREMS2 have also introduced problems with infrastructural choices (hosting), which have been solved but racked up additional costs for the private firm.

The core conditions for success, seen retrospectively, has been the strong involvement of individuals in leading positions in the public sector. These individuals have seen what we have wanted to create, bought into the vision and then acted unselfishly in paving the path for the adoption of DiMiOS. This involves both early adopters in public sector organizations, as well as more centrally positioned individuals with political clout.

In addition to this, the credibility of the university and research has made questioning the rationale of a scientific, evidence-based approach to assessment hard for individuals interested in maintaining the existing order. Lastly, the patience and risk-willingness of the private software firm has been critical to the success. There have been numerous occasions where the sound business choice would have been an exit for the firm, yet through perseverance and a desire to change public sector digital transformation for the better they have stuck around.

We have replicated the setup and digital solution to both the private sector (50 organizations) and through spin-outs into new digital services. With the research interests of the researchers being into public sector digital transformation, the private sector initiative has lagged. The spin-outs are just now gaining traction in the market, and are expected to become equally popular as DiMiOS. We are also in constant dialogue with other countries, such as Norway, Finland and Australia for exporting the solution to these markets.

The main lesson learned for the researchers is the necessity for perseverance. With this being a fundamentally different approach to research, you will encounter internal and external critique. Given the idea of making sure that research findings are utilized in society, this is something to hold on to in times of doubt. When it comes to the collaboration per se, the lesson learned is tightly coupled with the need to identify individuals that share your teams perception of the underlying problem as well as have the necessary clout to do something about it.