KIMPPA Project - Innovative Models for Improving Municipal Social and Health Service Networks

KIMPPA -project is carried out at SimLab, Helsinki University of Technology. The core of the project consists of high-quality services for the end customers, i.e. people using municipalities' services, by means of a certain service network of private and public actors.

The social and health service network is studied from thee different viewpoints: firstly, from that of the strategy process defining the operation of the network; secondly, from that of the customer service process; and thirdly, from that of the municipalities' purchasing process of public acquisitions, which are strictly controlled by the Finnish legistlation.

The KIMPPA Project creates forums for interaction, networking, and learning. The forums are used to exchange not only experiences but also the best ways of implementing practices between municipalities and service providing actors. The goal is to remove obstacles from co-operation and to promote genuine partnership. Furthermore, the goal is to create new innovative models of action for both the municipalities and private actors in the network of social and healt services.

KIMPPA is participatory action research project and its research data is collected from observing and analysing municipalities' service networks. KIMPPA Project studies service, procurement and strategy processes in the social and health services network of public and private sectors and customers. Research methods used in the project include interviews, process and network models and process simulations.