Today, the IT Operations Inquiry submits its interim report Secure and cost-effective IT operations - legal conditions for outsourcing to the Minister for Energy and Digitalization, Anders Ygeman. This is a potential milestone in a long and complex series of events concerning uncertain legal conditions in the public market for IT operations services.

The inquiry has had a delicate task in balancing a number of seemingly irreconcilable needs (cheap, safe and good). No easy task. The rapid pace of digitization and legal developments (hello, Schrems II) has hardly made the work easier.

Now, after an extensive legal analysis, the committee has come to the conclusion that, under current rules, it is actually legally unsafe to outsource IT operations in the public sector. But this conclusion should probably be seen in the light of the fact that the committee also proposes a new provision to break confidentiality. The old door to outsourcing is closing. But a new one (with supposedly better locks and security devices) is opening at the same time.

As we have previously pointed out, the legal uncertainty that the inquiry has been tasked with trying to resolve has probably cost the public sector billions in lost efficiency gains. Now, of course, the committee's proposals need to be scrutinized. If market-driven innovations are to help improve efficiency and create benefits in the public sector, the new rules must enable private suppliers to continue to offer their IT operations services - including public cloud services - to the public sector. At the same time, given the above, there is a strong need for the proposal to be expedited and transposed into law as soon as possible. In other words, the balancing act continues and we at IT&Telekomföretagen will continue to closely follow and assist in the processing of the committee's proposals.

Pär Nygårds
Industrial policy expert, IT&Telecom companies

Secure and cost-effective IT operations, SOU 2021:1. Interim report of the IT operations inquiry