Suomi.fi Messages has significantly reduced the amount of paper mail in Tampere early childhood education and care – ‘Messages could benefit municipal organisations across the board’
Published 9/4/2024
The City of Tampere introduced the eVaka system in spring 2022. Now, decisions on early childhood education and care and pre-primary education are also delivered electronically with Suomi.fi Messages via eVaka. The change significantly reduced the number of decisions to be sent by post and work related to mailing, and it streamlined internal processes. Based on the positive experiences, the city employees are amazed why Suomi.fi Messages are not used even more extensively in municipal organisations.
The City of Tampere introduced the eVaka system a few years ago. The system had previously, in 2020, been developed and implemented by the City of Espoo. For developing the system, the cities were granted joint support from the Ministry of Finance. After Tampere, eVaka has also been implemented by Oulu and Turku. At the moment, implementations of the system are also made available in Tampere to the eight surrounding municipalities.
Suomi.fi Messages has always been part of the system and it is implemented in all participating municipalities. All decisions made in early childhood education and care and pre-primary education, such as decisions on places, values and payments, are sent electronically through the Messages.
"The ecological aspect is important in all this. When we do not spend working time on mailing decisions, the costs are lower. You can focus more on real issues."
Suomi.fi Messages has reduced the amount of paper mail
The introduction of Suomi.fi Messages has significantly reduced the amount of paper mail in early childhood education and care in Tampere. For recipients who have not enabled Suomi.fi Messages, letters are printed and mailed directly through the Suomi.fi service. In other words, paper mailing no longer means separate working hours for the staff of early childhood education and care because Suomi.fi Messages can automatically direct messages to either the electronic or the paper mail channels. Tampere city employees are happy that, in addition to reducing working hours, the change also reduces their negative impact on nature.
"The ecological aspect is important in all this. Of course, at the same time the costs are lower, when we do not spend working time on mailing decisions, and you can focus more on real issues’, says Heli Ketola, eVaka Product Owner at the City of Tampere.
In addition, they are happy that people who use Messages receive decisions much faster. The service ensures the guardian gets the decision immediately, whereas it would take several days, sometimes even a week, to get a hold of the decision as a paper letter.
Municipal organisations could use Suomi.fi Messages across the board
At the moment, the employees are able to share that a few more municipalities are considering introducing eVaka, and we have received inquiries about it. They feel Suomi.fi Messages could be used considerably more in municipal organisations.
‘Yes, Suomi.fi Messages streamlines processes, and the benefits of the service are evident. However, it is surprisingly rare in the services of many other municipalities. We believe that there is great potential for new implementations across the board’, Ketola says.
The more citizens switch to receiving official mail electronically via Suomi.fi Messages, the smoother the process will become.
Does your organisation use Suomi.fi Messages? Remember to tell your customers!
Has your organisation already activated Suomi.fi Messages? Make sure you remember to tell your customers!
Many citizens do not necessarily realise that they receive mail and invoices in Suomi.fi Messages. This may result in important official messages being overlooked.
Communication about Suomi.fi Messages is a task that every organisation that uses the service shares. The best ways to do this is to talk about it in customer service situations and to mention it on the organisation's website in connection with the service that uses the messages.
Remember to tell your customers that they can receive your organisation’s messages in Suomi.fi Messages instead of by letter. If necessary, also advise your customers on how to find Suomi.fi Messages and activate the service.
Messages from more than one organisation
It is important that your customers also understand that when they activate Suomi.fi Messages, they will receive messages from all authorities that use Suomi.fi Messages.
Check the list of participating organisations in the Suomi.fi Web Service (Suomi.fi)Opens in a new window..
Suomi.fi Messages can be used to receive official decisions, invoices, hospital appointment details and other important documents, so it is important that your customers understand what the service is.
Take advantage of existing communication material and instructions!
When you tell your customers about Suomi.fi Messages, you can use the instructions and materials produced by the Digital and Population Data Services Agency: