City of Turku - Tieto

Customer case: City of Turku
E-invoicing took off in Turku
Turku, European Capital of Culture 2011, has this year taken a long leap
towards e-invoicing and electronic orders.
“Tieto became our e-invoice
operator at the turn of the year
2011. Previously we used several
service providers, for example
in the ordering department, but
now we wanted to centralize
operator activities,” says Thorbjörn
Andersson, IT Chief Planner at the
IT Department in the City of Turku.
In spring 2010, Turku made the
decision to implement a mainly one
operator model. In less than a year
the operator was already delivering a
part of sales and purchase invoices
and many orders in an electronic
format to the right addresses. Turun
Seudun Osuuspankki was also
involved in the e-invoicing project.
“We wanted to introduce
e-invoicing in Turku and
centralize the operator
activities. We chose Tieto
to be our partner”,
says IT Chief Planner
Thorbjörn Andersson.
The Food Service Centre’s food
orders and pharmaceutical orders,
for example, were transferred to
the electronic format easily. The
same applied to water invoicing
and self-reporting of water
consumption. “The City’s branches
of administration that previously
used an EDI based ordering system
have now linked themselves to the
new SAP based electronic ordering
system,” says Janne Samsten,
System Specialist at the City Office’s
Centre of Economic Affairs.
Start with purchase
invoices
Due to delays in administration,
transition to e-invoicing ended
up being an intense two-month
project carried out at the end of
the year, instead of the four-month
project that was originally planned.
According to Andersson, the City
of Turku handles 280.000 purchase
invoices per year. Additionally,
they send 30.000 sales invoices
per month, in total 360.000 sales
invoices per year.
Sales invoices are still delivered to
recipients mainly in a paper format,
unlike standardized purchase
invoices. Sales invoices leave
electronically but are delivered to
their destination as letters via Tieto’s
printing service.
Text: Tiina Ruulio • Picture: Mika Okko
Janne Samsten (left), Thorbjörn
Andersson and Ulla Hyvärinen
have taken Turku to the era of
e-invoicing.

Customer case: City of Turku
However, in the City of Turku
electronic invoicing has become
a reality. “We are currently testing
electronic sales invoices, and their
implementation will take place after
summer holidays in 2011. In addition
we will deal with e-invoices of private
customers when direct debits
stop,” says System Specialist Ulla
Hyvärinen, who has been closely
involved in projects concerning SAP
as well as electronic invoicing and
ordering.
SAP, Rondo and e-invoices
“Last summer the City Board of
Turku decided on accepting paper
invoices only in exceptional cases,”
says System Specialist Janne
Samsten.
Not to make things too simple,
there are also other projects linked
to electronic invoices and orders,
such as an extensive SAP project
and a new version of Rondo for
processing purchase invoices.
“Since the older version of Rondo
didn’t communicate with the new
enterprise resource planning system,
it had to be updated,” says Janne
Samsten, who is responsible for the
Rondo project.
Companies already expect
e-invoices
Tieto’s implementation of purchase
invoices and operator services has
run smoothly after the new operator
codes have been communicated.
Managing SAP, Rondo and
e-invoices as a whole presented
some challenges, especially as the
majority of the work was done in
addition to people’s own tasks.
Customer
City of Turku. The former capital of Finland, number of inhabitants
177.326, tax rate 18.75%. European Capital of Culture 2011.
www.turku.fi
Challenge
The need for e-invoicing was obvious: assuring compatibility
with the new SAP system and the purchase invoices processing
system.
Tieto’s solution
Turku has agreed on transferring purchase and sales invoices
to Tieto’s service production. Electronic purchase invoicing was
ready in January 2011, and electronic sales invoices in autumn
2011. Additionally, pharmaceutical and food orders can be placed
with the help of the EDI system.
Results
E-invoicing is in production in the purchase invoices department,
as well as electronic EDI high volume orders.
“Economical reasons weigh
most in the decision to move to
electronic services. The price of
paper invoices and manual handling
is many times more compared to
electronic invoices,” says Thorbjörn
Andersson. “Companies also expect
to receive e-invoices from the City.
It’s about keeping up with the latest
developments,” Ulla Hyvärinen
continues. According to Hyvärinen
progress has been fast and attitudes
have been positive. IT training
was needed throughout the City
organisation.
More information: Tarja Leino, tarja.leino@tieto.com • www.tieto.com/fvc
Full speed ahead
Besides invoices and orders,
also the payment orders of Turku
Apprenticeship Training Office were
made electronic. “This brought some
extra spice to this project, since
payment orders aren’t real purchase
invoices, which would have an open
invoice,” says Janne Samsten.
Both SAP and e-invoicing are
already developing further. In Turku
there will be for example three
joint-stock public utilities and their
financial administration will require
adjustment to both systems.