Applying for an access licence

In what situations should the organisation apply for an access licence

The Act on Central Government’s Joint e-Service Support Services (571/2016, in Finnish)Opens in a new window. regulates the provision and use of the Suomi.fi services and also contains provisions on service-specific matters. Pursuant to the Act, public sector organizations are either obligated or have the right to deploy use of Suomi.fi Messages.

For example, when submitting the application for an access license for Suomi.fi Messages, an organization must determine whether it belongs to the entities that have a statutory obligation to use Suomi.fi Messages or whether its right to use the service is based on the performance of statutory duties.

Organisation with a legal obligation to use Suomi.fi Messages

First-time deployment of Suomi.fi Messages

When your organisation deploys Suomi.fi Messages for the first time, apply for an access licence in Service Management.

In the access licence application, under the section “E-service details”, enter the general designation “Sähköinen viranomaisasiointi” / “E-förvaltning” / “E-government” as the name of your service.

This ensures that the licence also covers any future use cases related to digital communication, and you will not need to apply for a new access licence for each new deployment.

The actual name of the service, including language versions, must be submitted to the Digital and Population Data Services Agency using the service information form at the start of the deployment process (see Administrative deployment, section 4: Please complete and return the service information form).

Expanding the use of Suomi.fi Messages

If your organisation has previously been granted an access licence with a broad purpose (e.g. “E-government” or “E-service”), the existing licence covers the organisation’s full use of Suomi.fi Messages. In this case, you do not need to apply for a new licence when expanding your use.

You can proceed directly to step 4 of the deployment process: Please complete and return the service information form (see Administrative deployment).
During deployment, the validity and content of the existing permit will be reviewed.

If your organisation has previously been granted a licence with a narrow purpose (e.g. “Early childhood education services”, “Environmental services”), you must apply for a new access licence as described at the beginning of this page.

You can check previously granted access licences for the use of Suomi.fi Messages for your organisation in Service Opens in a new window.Management by logging in to your organisation’s account and selecting “Applications” from the main menu in the upper right corner. To use Suomi.fi Service Management, you must be a registered user and belong to an organisation registered in the service.

Note: An access licence with a broad purpose granted to an organisation with a legal obligation to use Suomi.fi Messages is organisation-specific. Remember to inform your organisation internally about the valid permit.

Organisation with a legal right to use Suomi.fi Messages

Your organisation must apply for an access licence for each deployment of Suomi.fi Messages.

In the application, under “E-service details”, enter the actual name of your service, including language versions.
Also provide the grounds for your organisation’s right to use the service: what public task your organisation performs and under which legally binding agreement the task(s) are carried out (see further instructions below under E-service details).

The access licence application must always be approved before moving to production use. However, we recommend that you submit the service information form (step 4 in the administrative deployment process) before the application is approved, so that you can begin building and testing your technical implementation in good time.

Apply for an access licence in Service Management

When applying for an access licence, your organisation must be registered in Suomi.fi Service Management, and the person submitting the application must have the rights to submit a Suomi.fi Messages access licence application.

In the Service Management section of the Suomi.fi for Service Developers website, you will find instructions for:

Once the rights are in place, you can start filling in the access licence application by going to the Suomi.fi Messages access licence application (Suomi.fi Service Management)Opens in a new window. and logging in with strong identification. More detailed instructions for applying for an access licence can be found below.

If you cannot access the application directly, a representative of your organisation can first log in to Suomi.fi Service ManagementOpens in a new window. and then start the application process by selecting "Apply for an access licence" under Suomi.fi Messages on the front page and then selecting to apply as a representative of their organisation

The access licence application consists of several sections. The details of the sections are discussed below.

Applying for an access licence using the intermediary model

An intermediary can also apply for a Suomi.fi Messages access licence on behalf of an organisation.
The intermediary model means that an intermediary – such as an IT vendor or service provider –

can fill in access licence applications in Service Management on behalf of a client organisation, such as a municipality or wellbeing services county, and
submit them to the client organisation for approval.

The intermediary model facilitates the completion of access licence applications that mainly contain technical content in situations where the client organisation is not the party most familiar with the technical details of the application.

If your organisation would like a vendor to handle Suomi.fi service access licence applications on your behalf, you can ask the vendor to enable the intermediary feature in Service Management.

Instructions for intermediaries can be found on the page How to request an access licence on behalf of a client organisation.

The organisation must approve the application completed by the intermediary. See the instructions for approving an access licence application submitted by an intermediary.

In the second section, you are requested to indicate the contact persons of your organisation and their contact details.

The administrative contact person must be aware of the Suomi.fi Messages activation, as they may be contacted about matters related to the access licence application or the terms and conditions of use, among other things.

The technical contact person in turn must be aware of the technical implementation of the e-service and Suomi.fi Messages, and they may be contacted to solve incidents, or about matters related to maintenance and changes, among other things.

It is also extremely important to enter a general email address for service disruption notices to ensure that you will receive information on service disruptions regardless of changes in your personnel.

All contact details will be sent to the email distribution list used to inform organisations about changes, disruptions and other matters concerning the service if necessary.

Organisations subject to an obligation to use Suomi.fi Messages

The situations in which an organisation with an obligation to use Suomi.fi Messages must apply for an access licence are described at the beginning of this page.

If your organisation needs a new access licence, indicate "Sähköinen viranomaisasiointi"/"E-förvaltning"/"E-government" as the name of your service in the licence application.

You will be asked to complete the details of your e-service in the Service information form (Administrative deployment, point 4).

Organisations with access licence to Suomi.fi Messages

In the "E-service details" section, you enter the required information on your service to be integrated.

As key information, the page will ask you to name the service you are connecting to Suomi.fi Messages in three languages. You must also enter the same name later in the Service information form you will complete separately.

The name will be displayed to the end users, for example,

in the user interfaces of Suomi.fi Messages, in connection with the message you send
when the end user is selecting the recipient for a new message that they have created themselves
on the list Organisations and services using Suomi.fi MessagesOpens in a new window.

Name your service clearly and carefully so that the name describes the service to the end user as well as possible. This enables you to avoid failure demand. For example, rather than naming your service “E-service” or “Case management system”, aim to give it a more descriptive name. Also, avoid using different names of systems and Suomi.fi Messages as part of the name. The following are examples of names that work better:

Pension record
Insurance and pension service
Applicant service

In this section, it is also important to provide a sufficiently good description of what kind of messages you intend to send through Suomi.fi Messages so that the access licence can be granted. In addition to the purpose you will use the messages for, the legal basis for applying the licence also contributes to granting it. The legal basis for Suomi.fi Messages is section 5 of the Act on the Joint Electronic Support Services in Public Administration (Finlex)Opens in a new window., under which the following bodies have the obligation to use Suomi.fi Messages:

central government authorities and agencies, as well as institutions and state enterprises
municipal authorities when performing duties they are prescribed by the law
courts and other judicial bodies.

As a rule, other public sector organisations also have the right to use Suomi.fi Messages. Private-sector organisations cannot use Suomi.fi Messages unless they carry out a public administrative task.

In this section, you must be able to indicate if your organisation falls within the scope of the Act on Information Management in Public Administration (906/2019, Information Management Act)Opens in a new window..

The Information Management Act mainly applies to the authorities, the universities referred to in the Universities Act (588/2009) and the universities of applied sciences referred to in the Universities of Applied Sciences Act (932/2014). The Act is also partly applied to private individuals or communities or public-law entities other than those acting as an authority to the extent that they carry out a public administrative task.

If necessary, check the matters related to the scope of the Act with the specialists in your organisation, such as the information security officer.

In addition, complete the other questions in this section and, if necessary, request help from a specialist who is familiar with the system that will be deployed and your organisation’s operating practices related to information security.

Note for organisations with an obligation to use Suomi.fi Messages:
In the section “Data processing in the organisation”, you will be asked whether your organisation discloses data transmitted via the service to third parties. Your organisation may have different practices depending on the service. If, at the time of completing the application, you know that data from one of your services will be disclosed to a third party, select Yes and provide further details.

Read and accept the terms and conditions of Suomi.fi Messages (PDF, 272.06 kB, in Finnish). You can then submit the licence application. If questions arise during the processing of the licence application, they will be addressed to the administrative contact person indicated in the application.

If your organisation has not started the administrative activation of Suomi.fi Messages, start taking action now. Sending the access licence application alone does not initiate Suomi.fi Messages activation.

If you need more information on the access licence, send a message to suomi.fi-kayttoluvat@dvv.fi.

Updated: 31/10/2025

Digitalise your service path

Enhance information management

Improve service quality

Protect your data

Open, share and utilise data