More than half of all organizations feel that integrating different system solutions is one of the most significant barriers to their development and success. The Municipality of Östersund, Sweden, is no exception. As a municipality, they have many different needs to take into account. The municipality had tried other alternatives on the market that did not fully meet their needs and expectations, so they continued to scan the market for a suitable solution.

The municipality of Östersund needed a flexible integration platform to support its IT strategy and accelerate the ongoing digital transformation. With Frends, not only did they find a platform that is safe, flexible, and easy to manage and overlook – but they have also been able to cut down on administrative costs and increase the level of knowledge within the municipality.

Since last year, the municipality has been subscribed to the Frends integration platform. Currently, the team of developers at Östersund Municipality is working in close cooperation with Frends to complete the migration, and according to Jonathan Kennås, system developer at Östersund Municipality, they already see many positive results.

With our previous solutions, complex integrations have been difficult to solve, but these are now easier to handle thanks to the Frends' simplified platform. The platform is easy to understand and provides an excellent overview of our operations. Our ambition is that each department or administration should be able to overview their organisation and make simple daily tasks, Jonathan Kennås says.

He further explains that instead of needing to ask their developers for help when needing to find missing files or share them across the team, the municipality's employees are now able to do it themselves:

"The collaboration with Frends has meant that we have been able to increase everyone's level of knowledge regarding integrations and automation, which is also a vital part of our own IT strategy. Furthermore, we will continuously work with competence development to ensure that our employees can learn about smart integrations, the Frends platform and all its functionalities," says Jonathan Kennås.

Per-Olof Öhman, the municipality's system administrator, adds that since the platform offers many visually-presented insights, it's easier to combine those with less technical knowledge.

"We appreciate that Frends workflow automation tool offers simple visual demonstrations and explanations which allow everyone to understand their workflows in a better way, even for someone who is not yet familiar with integrations. This means that we can now include others with less technical knowledge to collaborate and avoid organisational silos," says Per-Olof Öhman.

Östersund municipality currently has about 57 processes backed by Frends, and around 35 processes are underway, Jonathan Kennås says.

"With Frends, we have managed to save 10 000 SEK in just the first month in administration costs, and several additional savings are to come. In the long run, this means that we can focus even more on the many interesting features that Frends offers and gradually roll them out across the municipality. In conclusion, we see Frends as a long-term solution that Östersund aims to work with for many years to come," Jonathan Kennås concludes.

With the help of Frends, Östersund municipality has been able:

• To run a total of 57 processes backed by Frends, and 35 processes underway
• To cut down on administrative costs by 10K/month
• To simplify complex integrations and save time
• To increase everyone's level of knowledge with continuous competence development