High quality architecture work is part of digitalisation

Digitalisation refers to the utilisation of information technology to reform and develop activities. Architecture work and information play a key role in this. The framework the architecture offers helps in drafting a picture of the character, content and links of activities with the necessary accuracy. The existence of architecture helps in both the analysis of the current state and the follow-through of reform. 

Data has gained a key status in public administration and more extensively in society. Many private companies utilise data in carrying out their business activities, and the public administration's activities also rely a great deal on data. However, data has long been understood only as a part of information systems, and not as an independent and separate entity. There is a strong willingness in public administration to offer and utilise open data. The principle of "requesting information only once" has also been proposed at the EU level. Architecture work provides the tools and procedures for the management, determination and utilisation of data.

The starting point for the utilisation of digitalisation must be to ensure that as many activities as possible are carried out automatically as communication between services and systems. This will require significant changes to the manner in which things have been previously done, where one agency takes care of an activity from start to finish. Digitalisation will change the entire economy and society's structures as a whole as radically as industrialisation did. High-quality architecture work and information are a method to promote and manage digitalisation.