KMD in the local government market
Satisfaction with KMD among local government decision-makers is generally very high, although there are challenges in some areas. Overall satisfaction with KMD in 2009 was 83%, which was marginally lower than in 2008. In general there has been a weak downward trend in customer satisfaction since 2006, when KMD achieved great success in helping the local governments through the reform process. KMD expects that customer satisfaction has now reached a more natural, but still very high level, and wants to maintain this going forward. The general perception of IT companies has fallen since 2008, and KMD is still comfortably above the market average.
Overall satisfaction with collaboration with KMD in the various business areas is generally very high. In the school and cultural administration area, satisfaction rose by 5 percentage points from 2008 to 2009 to a level of 93%. While things are going well in the vast majority of areas, KMD has experienced a decline in the labour market area, where satisfaction has fallen from 79% to 61%. This is a drastic fall, which can be attributed to problems with KMD Opera in job centres, primarily in the spring of 2009. KMD has resolved the key issues with the KMD Opera product, and the most recent measurement showed that overall satisfaction with the product was back on an upward trend.
KMD Opus, which is KMD’s offering for the SAP-based business systems of the future, was particularly well received by KMD’s customers. In 2009 the proportion of customers who thought KMD Opus was the right strategy for the local government market rose to 61% of those questioned, an increase of 5 percentage points on 2008. At the same time the proportion of customers who did not express an opinion fell from 38% to 30%. KMD sees this as a sign that customers are increasingly aware of the strategy behind KMD Opus.
Do you think KMD Opus is the right strategy for the local government market?
Renewal of local government IT solutions with the SAP-based business platform KMD Opus continued to gather pace in 2009. KMD has introduced a new implementation concept, offering customers a far more customised implementation of their KMD Opus. Implementations are in full progress in the finance area, and from the start of 2010 a total of 27 customers are now using the SAP platform, with implementations for a further 10 customers scheduled for 2010. In the payroll and HR area we have focused on stabilising and quality-assuring the product. A new product for user and rights management was also introduced in 2009 (Opus Brugerstyring), together with an overall concept for Business Intelligence.
KMD Opus integrates local government production in institutions, the public sector, etc. and provides a general overview and cohesive work processes, enabling service improvements and significantly improving opportunities for control and overview through the addition of a cohesive and visible data flow. This results in a corresponding improvement in financial control, providing local governments with the necessary financial overview to control and schedule resources.
In 2009 KMD continued implementation of the new IT solutions for the social area (known as 4S), and an important milestone was reached with completion of the implementation of 4S in the Copenhagen local government area. 4S includes four IT solutions: KMD Social Pension, KMD Underholdsbidrag [maintenance payments], KMD Børneydelse [child benefit] and KMD Boligstøtte [housing benefit]. 4S makes it easier for caseworkers to deal with customers straight away, rather than sending the case to the back office for processing. User satisfaction with the four IT solutions is very high. KMD’s latest analysis of satisfaction shows that between 87% and 95% of customers are satisfied with 4S.
KMD continues to enjoy success within Business Process Outsourcing in the payroll area, including in Vesthimmerland and Hillerød, where KMD is taking over payroll administration and payroll employees from the two local governments.
KMD has also entered into collaboration agreements with a number of local governments to investigate how they can rationalise objective caseworking. Objective caseworking involves rationalising the local governments’ work in five social areas, with allowances, benefits and pensions being allocated according to objective criteria. The five areas are national retirement pension, housing benefit, family allowance, scholarships and maternity pay. KMD has entered into agreements to refine the concept it calls BPOsocial. The BPOsocial solution covers the objective case areas and is based on KMD’s portfolio of solutions in the areas KMD Boligstøtte [housing benefit], KMD Social pension, KMD Børneydelse [child benefit], KMD Underholdsbidrag [maintenance payments], KMD Dagpenge [unemployment benefit] and KMD Institution.
In 2009 KMD took over full operation of IT systems for Copenhagen’s local government. KMD and the local government of Copenhagen have also entered into an agreement to migrate to KMD’s service office solutions. By entering into this agreement, Copenhagen’s local government has made the transition to a standard KMD-ASP environment.
