Sida moves to Mattermost to improve focus & increase operational resilience

The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) is a government agency dedicated to fighting poverty, improving living conditions, and assisting humanitarian causes around the world. The agency, which was founded in 1995 and works alongside organizations like the United Nations and Red Cross, has more than 750 employees distributed across its Sundbyberg, Sweden headquarters and Swedish embassies around the world. 

Needing to migrate to secure collaboration tools 

In 2023, Sida was looking to increase team productivity by rolling out new collaboration tools. The organization began assessing its IT infrastructure and was somewhat surprised to find out how many employees were using Trello for project management. 

“This was around the time when Trello had a security breach,” says Niclas Cronsioe, head of IT at Sida. “We had a new director, and he found out about this and said, ‘Shut it down, shut it down,’ and that we’d have to get some other tool to use for Kanban boards.” 

Partnering with Redpill Linpro to deploy Mattermost 

As the Sida team started exploring potential options, including Zoom and Nextcloud, they engaged Redpill Linpro, an IT solutions provider for the Nordics, to find out how they might be able to help the team solve this problem.  

Having used Mattermost internally for several years — and having helped set up many of its clients on the secure collaboration platform — Redpill Linpro suggested that Sida explore it for themselves. 

“We looked at Mattermost and other platforms through Redpill Linpro,” Cronsioe says, adding that Mattermost was mentioned in dSam, a report commissioned by the Swedish government that examined secure and compliant collaboration alternatives to cloud services. 

After engaging with Redpill and trialing Mattermost through a proof-of-concept period, Cronsioe and his team liked what they saw and decided it was the ideal solution for their requirements. 

“Mattermost was more suitable for the way we used digital tools,” Cronsioe explains. “I figured it would be an appropriate platform for us.” 

Redpill Linpro deployed the solution in their own data center in Norway, which complies with both ISO 27001 and GDPR. Redpill Linpro collaborated closely with Sida to set up a tailored Mattermost solution that met the organization’s specific needs.  

Working alongside Sida’s employees, they ensured the platform was configured to best support the organization’s workflows. Redpill Linpro also provided comprehensive training to Sida’s staff on how to effectively use Mattermost within their operations.  

The partnership continues through ongoing solution management, joint planning of future enhancements, and continuous exploration of how Mattermost can further support Sida’s evolving organizational needs. 

Working with Redpill Linpro, Sida was able to deploy and roll-out Mattermost within three months. 

“It went really fast,” Cronsioe says. 

Leveraging Mattermost’s feature-rich nature to unlock more value 

Sida’s Mattermost deployment began largely as a Trello replacement, with Sida moving project management to Boards. Due to Mattermost’s familiar and intuitive design — and Redpill’s high-touch support — Sida employees were able to start using the platform productively out of the gate. 

“Redpill helped us establish the platform and provided a lot of help setting up the first templates, leading us, and guiding us,” Cronsioe continues. “We had some people who were really savvy with using Boards. I was astonished at how fast they used all the features in Mattermost, creating really advanced boards rather quickly. There was no real loss from Trello.” 

There’s always pushback whenever employees are asked to move from a familiar tool to a new one. Thanks to rapid adoption among a core unit of power users, it was easier for Sida to convince the rest of the team to use Mattermost every day. 

Sida began implementing Microsoft 365 at the beginning of the pandemic. Ultimately, they decided not to fully roll out Teams in the aftermath of the Schrems II decision, which raised concerns about the legalities of transferring personal data from Europe to U.S.-based cloud providers.  

“Now we’re looking at how we can use Mattermost as a good replacement for Teams,” Cronsioe says.  

As they prepare to fully move to Mattermost, Sida’s set up a channel for each different department to streamline communication, increase focus, and otherwise keep everyone on the same page. 

A stronger compliance posture 

Mattermost has been invaluable at helping Sida comply with new government requirements.  

“We have to be much more transparent in how we plan our missions and how we report back,” he says. “Mattermost has been huge for helping us navigate this big change in politics.” 

As a small government agency, each decision Sida makes can have massive implications. As the organization continues to use Mattermost every day, they’re confident they made a wise choice. 

“We have to weigh our decisions very carefully,” Cronsioe explains. “We’re very happy we chose Mattermost. It’s used so widely.” 

Looking ahead, Sida plans to work with Redpill Linpro to see how other parts of the platform, such as Mattermost Playbooks and Agents, can adapt to their organization.  

“We strive to be one cohesive Sida, and Mattermost is what glues us together,” Cronsioe concludes. “If you want to find out what’s happening in the organization, you’ll probably end up in Mattermost.”