Norway’s Innovative Pension Program Wins Computer World’s Prestigious 2012 Human Services Achievement Award

The Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) Pension Program received Computerworld’s annual Human Services 21st Century Achievement award in recognition of its innovative use of technology to deliver world- class pension services.

The Computerworld Honors Award is one of the most prestigious independent industry awards. NAV was nominated by Accenture and honored during a June 4th ceremony in Washington, D.C.

Like many countries, Norway is facing a growing senior population. NAV needed to increase its efficiency, curb soaring pension costs and better serve its surging older population.

NAV’s groundbreaking solution sets a new global standard by fully integrating citizens’ public and private benefits. It automates claims processing and provides a “one-stop” self service portal, “Din Pensjon” (Your Pension) where Norwegians can easily apply for benefits online. NAV also increases citizen access with call centers, smart phone applications, and an extensive communication campaign.

Learn more about how NAV is collaborating with Accenture to transform pension benefit administration.

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In 2005, the Norwegian Parliament legislated comprehensive welfare reform to be completed over five years. Of these, one of the largest is a $500 million program that involves transforming the way Norway administers pension benefits.

To help NAV carry out the sweeping reforms and ultimately achieve high performance, the agency selected Accenture as the pension program’s primary contractor. Accenture was chosen for its global resources and breadth of skills in business process reengineering, technology architecture, program management, change management, learning programs, as well as for its strong track record in end-to-end delivery of large, complex environments that deliver measurable results.

Working closely with NAV, Accenture is responsible for the full scope of delivering changes to the pension program. Accenture developed and is overseeing the five-year deployment plan, drawing on its extensive program management skills, proprietary Accenture Delivery Methods methodology and leading practices from other pension administration engagements.

NAV and Accenture deployed initiatives in five major areas:

1. Implemented information technology solutions through a new pension portal linked to a new, back-end, centralized service-oriented architecture case-handling system
   
   
2. Revamped and automated all pension-administration processes
   
   
3. Established five national production centers that centralize case work
   
   
4. Set up benefits guidance information for citizens that is delivered through 465 municipal offices
   
   
5. Five call centers to manage calls and e-mails
   
   

These initiatives were implemented based on existing pension regulations as an interim phase, accompanied with extensive skill training, learning and change management efforts. The final phase of the program will roll out all initiatives based on the new regulations, in conjunction with nationwide public awareness campaigns.

With Accenture as a strategic ally, NAV is on track to fully administer the new regulations in 2011 and to ultimately achieve high performance in pension administration. It is likely to affect some 1.2 million Norwegians today and countless more in the years to come. NAV’s pension administration organization, processes and IT systems have been transformed, and continue to evolve as NAV progresses toward meeting Norway’s reform targets.

The establishment of the five production centers streamlines the case-handling function and concentrates case-handling knowledge. Case managers now access one modern, centralized system instead of numerous legacy systems, greatly improving case-handling quality and efficiency. As a result, managers can take on more cases per day and spend more time with individuals at NAV offices. The rationalization and redesign of business processes have also contributed to improved efficiency.

The launch of the pension portal on www.nav.no (called Din pensjon, “Your pension” in Norwegian) offers citizens a pension self-service solution and automates application processing. Pension applications used to take about three months to process by post; today, it takes about three minutes when submitted electronically.

But the portal goes beyond application processing. It is designed to be a comprehensive “one-stop” tool that Norwegians will be able to use throughout their lives to plan their pension timeline and benefits.

Ultimately, Norway’s pension reforms aim to let citizens make informed choices about their pensions and for NAV to provide the correct benefits at the right time, with individuals’ needs evaluated quickly and services offered to meet their specific needs.