Mikael Eklund new chairman of the Data Council

Mikael Eklund, Eklund and Eklund Konsult has been elected chairman of the Data Council. Mikael Eklund has extensive experience and interest in issues related to data-driven innovation and digital societal development. And he has long been involved in the work of IT&Telecom companies.

How did you become interested in digitalization issues?

My interest in digitization issues began when I worked with process management at the Swedish Tax Agency in the 90s. When working with processes, standardization is required, because without common concepts, there is no possibility of effectively managing the business. This is nothing new. At that time, it was manual processes that we standardized. But manual work has an inherent limitation. With the PC revolution came the opportunity to automate and digitize processes. There was great potential here to develop more efficient operations with fewer resources. For me, it's almost magic.

Why did you get involved in the Data Council?

One of the digitization issues with the greatest potential is increased use of public sector data. To capture this, in 2012 I was involved in setting up the Open Data Council within IT&Telecom companies, which was then transformed into the Data Council. Over time, the Data Council has come to engage a large group of member companies. It is a formidable collaborative platform for influencing the digitization of society in a positive direction.

What issues do you think will be in focus in 2020?

Cloud computing, open data and security. The recently launched IT operations investigation is very important for the industry and will be the focus of the Swedish Data Council. It will set a new framework for the industry's ability to deliver cloud services and digitization solutions to the public market for a long time to come. The PSI investigation also holds great potential that must be realized. Finally, security issues must also be mentioned; they will probably never go out of style.