e-GOVERNMENT IN FINLAND - ePractice.eu

of using more efficient electronic services. While citizens also stand to gain, the benefits of
one-time transactions may not outweigh the costs of familiarising oneself with a new service
channel.
218. Many of the Finnish G2B services are very straightforward and concern the sale of data and other
information resources. Administrative simplification can translate into big savings for both the
administration and business users. Part of what differentiates government from the private sector, however,
is the obligation to serve all citizens. The MoF survey of IT use in government found that 66% of
organisations reported that their services targeted citizens, while 64% reported that their services targeted
businesses (respondents were allowed to pick more than one target group) 40 . Serving businesses can help
government better prepare for serving citizens. The 2001 Information Society Report suggests that
developing electronic services for businesses can facilitate the development of electronic services for
citizens, as they create “functional and technological solutions which are easy to apply to services directed
at citizens”. 41
219. Very few ministries and agencies reported providing electronic services to non-citizen and nonbusiness
users at stage 3. Only one agency, Statistics Finland, reported maintaining a very broad customer
focus, providing electronic services to citizens, businesses and others. It provides a variety of statistical
services to private users, a broad public (i.e. municipalities) and private organisations. Access to certain
databases (e.g. maps, geographical tables, economic indicators) is on a fee basis and provision is subject to
online registration.
Key Points - 34
x Finnish e-government services provided to businesses are further advanced than online
services provided to citizens. A business orientation to service delivery seems to have helped
advance the development of electronic services at all stages. Business services tend to have
a greater customer orientation, which may provide some lessons for developing and
delivering electronic services to citizens.
220. Many services that are currently at Stages 1 or 2 can logically be transformed into Stage 3
services. The Citizens’ Electronic Forms Service, 42 for example, allows users to search for and download
forms and to submit them by e-mail. The MoI is working with other agencies to allow online submission of
forms. The Citizen Portal team in the MoF is responsible for the forms service.
221. TUKES, the Safety Technology Authority, has downloadable forms on its Web site and is
currently working on electronic filing of applications. All application forms are gradually bring transferred
to electronic form, but means of connecting separate documents have not yet been determined. Experts
coming into an examination can in the near future select a date for their examination and the selection goes
automatically into the back office database. The result of the examination are stored in the database and
also licenses are generated from there. The licenses, however, are still sent printed on a paper. The agency
is also trying to be more proactive. For example, they no longer require some supporting annexes, because
the required information can be found on the websites of National Board of Patents and Registration of
Finland.
40 Ministry of Finance (2001), Information Technology within the Government 2001.
41 p. 75.
42 At the time of writing, this service was only available in Finnish and Swedish: https://lomake.fi/lp/index.cgi/--
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