“What happens if 7 People ride in an EPA?” Softhouse’s portfolio company Ifrågasätt expands the platform for societal communication
Ifrågasätt is a well-established platform for news reporting in the Swedish and Nordic markets, used by, among others, Dagens Nyheter and Göteborgs-Posten, as well as several Nordic and international publications. And Softhouse has been instrumental in continuously developing the platform for live reporting and customer support. Concurrently with the news reporting, Swedish municipalities are now also seeing the opportunity to engage in dialogue with their residents about events and topics of concern through Ifrågasätt’s tools. The first out is Borgholm municipality, focusing on reaching out to the youth in the municipality by opening up for digital conversations on everything from mental health to A-tractors.
Consuming news through live reporting has become a given for Swedish newspaper readers online. The media technology company Ifrågasätt’s live reporting tool was developed for news reporting in collaboration with journalists and is today used by the majority of Swedish newspapers. Softhouse has contributed to the development of Ifrågasätt’s platform for live reporting, which has now been extended from pure news reporting to be used in various communication areas, from the Melodifestivalen to socially beneficial citizen information. A step in this direction is that Swedish municipalities have begun using the tool in their communication with the residents. The first out was Borgholm municipality, whose municipal police talked with the citizens about everything under the sun in the premiere chat.
Borgholm municipality’s goal is to reach out to the population and be able to have a direct dialogue that can also be accessed afterwards, says Gustav Hjärn, founder of Ifrågasätt. They started with the youth unit and opened up for the municipality’s young people to ask questions to various experts, where they also get to request whom they want to interact with.
The questions in Borgholm municipality’s premiere chat were largely about regulations for A-tractors but also about the police profession in general and how to become a police officer. The opportunity to communicate directly with the residents during various events is something Ifrågasätt sees as a major societal benefit with their platform moving forward. Not least in light of the value seen from communication around important societal events that one wants to be able to follow in real-time, such as traffic incidents, floods, fires, etc.
We have seen that our clients have increased the use of the comment function in our live reporting tool during events that directly affect the residents. The need to interact increases with societal and climate changes, and the opportunity for direct communication with citizens can be both informative and reassuring. Therefore, we believe that we will see increased use of our tool going forward among authorities and municipalities, concludes Gustav Hjärn.
The Malmö-based company Ifrågasätt is part of Softhouse’s portfolio of minority stakes in software companies with interesting technology that makes a difference for the future. Softhouse delivers software expertise, and by investing in selected companies, Softhouse has taken software expertise a step further. In recent years, Softhouse has worked closely with Ifrågasätt, providing ongoing support for the development of both the product’s software and other business areas at Ifrågasätt.
