The Union of Journalists in Finland (UJF) is renewing its web service during this fall. Teamware Group will provide UJF with a union portal solution based on both open and closed sites. The portal will be divided into a public Internet site, an extranet for named groups, and groupware services for the Union office. Thus, different users will be able to utilize all required web-based services via the portal.

The Union of Journalists in Finland, established in 1921 and with nearly 14.000 members today, is an independent trade union that actively aims at influencing communication policies and defending freedom of speech. Other important focus areas are the preservation of ethical norms and copyrights as well as negotiating labor agreements. UJF members include both employed and freelance journalists from the press, radio and television, publishing companies, and online media.

‘The new union portal will be launched in November. One of the most important criteria when selecting the solution was ease of use,’ says Marja Palmunen, the UJF Organization Secretary. ‘The extranet was our focal point when specifying our needs. We will offer virtual workspaces e.g. for the Union Council, the Union Board, member associations and particularly the shop stewards for improved and more efficient communication. Initially there will be approximately 300 extranet users. All in all, modern associations and unions need efficient tools in today’s situations requiring fast communications,’ Palmunen continues.

UJF has long been an active user of the Teamware Office™ groupware system. In the future, the portal will be integrated to the groupware system so that users need to sign on to the services only once. ‘It was important for us to have our e-mail system integrated to the new office intranet,’ Palmunen describes. ‘This way we can reduce the number of different IT systems and clarify their use.’

The new portal will be implemented on the Teamware Pl@za® platform making use of its modular services and components. The users will automatically have access to such content and functionalities to which their user rights entitle them. The project includes the graphical design of the union portal, user interface and structural design, technical design work, implementation and hosting. The UJF portal will be hosted on a server administered by Teamware. The site will be implemented in Finnish, including sections in Swedish and English.