expected reduction in
invoice processing costs
government departments
rolled out on budget
and on time
straight-through
automation goal
In 2016, the Finnish Government launched a strategic automation program to streamline the entire purchase-to-pay process for over 70 Government departments, with the goal of delivering a centralized service achieving annual savings of 15 million euros for the state.
The Finnish Government Shared Services Centre for Finance and HR, known as Palkeet, was responsible for providing the new service, which it called ‘Handi’. The new Handi service was a core element of then Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s Government’s cornerstone project to digitize public services.
Following a comprehensive European tender, Palkeet chose SoftCo Procure-to-Pay.
The timeline was ambitious. Signoff on the SoftoCo solution, tailored to the needs of Palkeet, was required within 6 months. The subsequent rollout to over 70 Government departments had to be completed within 24 months, handling procurement, supplier management and the processing of 1.2 million supplier invoices per annum. The key goal is for 90% of all purchase invoices to be processed automatically, with no human interaction.
Palkeet and SoftCo worked closely with the 70+ Finnish Government departments to successfully implement and rollout the Handi service built on SoftCo, on time and on budget.
| Industry: | Government |
| Solution: | Procure-to-Pay |
| Region: | Finland |
| Employees | 50,000+ |
| Invoices: | 1,200,000 per annum |
| ERP System: | SAP |
| Deployment: | SaaS AWS |
The Finnish Government is the general governing and decision-making body for Government administrative matters in Finland. The Finnish Government’s annual budget stands at nearly €60 billion and employs over 100,000 people.
“We have implemented a project that has progressed as planned and within the planned budget.”
Kati Siikonen, Process Manager, Palkeet
SoftCo was LIVE in all 70 Finnish Government departments by March 2020, on schedule. The final number of departments increased to 73 and was still achieved within the timeline.
SoftCo is transforming Finnish Government procurement to a ‘best in class’ electronic ordering and invoice processing system. The reform creates a unified operating model for all departments of the Finnish Government, replacing the old service solutions, Rondo and Tilha.
SoftCo automates the complete procure-to-pay lifecycle, from online requisitioning, catalogue management and vendor ‘punch-outs, to receipting, automatic matching and email and mobile approvals. The project included over 50 integrations with different systems in each Government department, in addition to the Government’s central SAP system.
Handi incorporates SoftCo Vendor Management and the portal enables vendors to maintain catalogues, receive and confirm orders and track the status of invoices directly through the portal. The Portal manages all vendor registration and maintenance operations. Vendors are invited to register on the Portal and must submit all required information before Palkeet activates and approves the vendor as a Portal user.
The Handi service is part of the Finnish Government’s overall digitalization strategy. SoftCo is the common procurement and invoice processing solution for all departments of the Finnish Government, centralizing vendor management, standardizing the procurement model and automating the processing of purchase invoices. This will save millions of euro each year in increased efficiencies.
According to The National Board of Police “by increasing invoice automation alone, it is estimated that annual savings of 800,000 euros will be achieved” in its department alone. The National Land Survey of Finland went LIVE with Handi in January 2019. Analysis confirmed that an automated invoice costs the National Land Survey of Finland 82 cents to process, while the manual process cost is approximately €4.13 per invoice. This represents an 80% cost reduction and does not include the working time saved from employees handling invoices.
“The success of the project is phenomenal considering the scale of the task to implement a new Procure-to-Pay process for the entire Finnish Government within two and a half years. The collaboration was remarkable and we believe that it is now one of Europe’s most successful P2P projects.”
Anton Scott, CEO, SoftCo
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