Baerum Municipality’s COVID-19 vaccination rollout gets rapid boost

Government and Public Services

Health

Norway

Power Apps

Power BI

Power Platform

Future of Work

Creating Trust

Intelligent Business Applications

Read the full case study

Business Situation

As the COVID-19 pandemic swept around the world and the rapid development of safe and effective vaccines to combat the virus finally offered a glimmer of light at the end of a long tunnel, local governments raced to get their citizens vaccinated as quickly as possible. Among these was the public health authority of Bærum Municipality, Norway’s fifth largest city.

The city needed a new platform to support its vaccination rollout – and fast. Once the vaccine was approved, the new system would have to be developed and ready for use in just two weeks. Bærum Municipality quickly launched an innovation contest to find a flexible solution that was user-friendly on mobile devices, could integrate seamlessly with the national vaccine registry, and could securely handle the confidential public health information of its citizens. It was through this contest that Bærum Municipality partnered with Accenture and Avanade – a joint venture between Accenture and Microsoft – to develop a solution using Microsoft Power Platform.

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“All of the people from Accenture and Avanade really quickly became a part of our team. Going into this project, I didn’t know anything about technology and didn’t know them, but in a very short amount of time we became a successful working group together.”

Tonje Vågårøy, Head of Public Health Office, Bærum Municipality

Solution

By combining the Microsoft Power Platform suite of offerings with an agile development approach, Bærum Municipality, Avanade and Accenture successfully developed the platform – known as NorVak – on schedule, bringing the solution from conception to launch in just two weeks.

Key to the rapid delivery of NorVak was separating tasks – such as appointment bookings, on-site check-in and registry submissions – into different applications within the platform using Power Apps. Integrations and process flows between these applications ensured a seamless user experience for public health workers using mobile devices, completing tasks with just a few clicks. Additionally, Power BI reports provide statistics and give booking teams an overview of weekly plans.

Results

With the programme powered by the new, user-friendly NorVak platform, nurses and administrators provide citizens with an easy and efficient experience. As a result, Bærum Municipality was able to hit its initial vaccination target earlier than many other jurisdictions in the country. Like the development of the vaccines themselves, the successful, rapid implementation of NorVak is a shining example of what can be achieved when people pull together in the face of a crisis to make a genuine human impact.

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