We’ve saved thousands of hours by using Kolla - Västkuststiftelsen

Västkuststiftelsen is responsible for managing and protecting the nature trails and nature reserves across Sweden’s west coast. It covers a massive area involving some 49 county councils. For every cycling and hiking trail, they need physical signs dotted along the route. “Right now we’re building three new trails that will merge into one very long trail. With that, comes a new system of signage for every stage of the trail,” says Anna Laurin, project-leader at Västkuststiftelsen and the person who brought Kolla into the organisation. “What we’re doing now is using Kolla as a digital bulletin board where each county council can add in relevant information for their stages of the trail. They’re delighted about this,”

One of the reasons they’re so happy is the time savings aspect. Previously, there were 150 unique signs. Producing one sign was a time-consuming task, never mind 150. But the other major bonus is that it resolves a bottleneck at the county councils. “Nobody in the local county councils has ‘sign-maker’ as part of their job description,” says Laurin. “It was one of those tasks that slipped between the cracks.” Until now. “We’ve gone from impossible to possible,” says Anna Laurin.,

Västkuststiftelsen is now replacing their 150 unique signs with just 20 signs, one for each trail. A QR-code on each sign then leads to a Kolla microsite that helps a visitor access all the information about the trail but also specific information about that section of the trail. In this way, they are dramatically reducing the time taken to produce so many unique signs while removing the burden on county councils to carry out the task.

“We estimate that it takes about 40 hours of work per sign, and that’s a conservative estimate,” says Louis Monville, trail development manager, at Västkuststiftelsen. A quick calculation suggests that 130 fewer signs results in 5,200 fewer hours spent in sign production. “But it’s actually so many hours of savings that you can’t really count it because the real figure is probably even higher. We’re definitely saving thousands of hours,” says Monville.

Added value with a digital bulletin board

“It also means that we’re now offering something that we couldn’t offer before,” adds Robert Wahlström, project-leader at Västkuststiftelsen. “If we need to inform people with new information such as fire-lighting restrictions, or information regarding the trails after a storm, then we can update this information in Kolla and keep everyone informed.”

“This kind of information went out on our social media channels in the past but then it got lost in people’s social media feeds. It’s much better to provide it at the right place and the right time. We can now do this with Kolla.”

Västkuststiftelsen believes also that this is just the start when it comes to using Kolla. They see opportunities to add much more information and inspiration into every microsite. “We can explain the Right to Public Access for example,” says Robert Wahlström, “but there's so much more we can do to enhance the experience along the trail.”

Statistics providing intelligence to user needs By using Kolla, Västkuststiftelsen will also be able to see the trails where people scan QR-codes the most, what pages are being viewed and therefore what questions are most relevant. This will give the organisation useful intelligence as they continue to improve and tweak their communications. Västkuststiftelsen aims to rollout the new signage during the spring of 2026. The goal is that hikers and cyclists can enjoy the nature reserves of Western Sweden even more with access to the right information at the right time from the Summer of 2026 and beyond.