Kainuu, a region consisting of eight municipalities and two cities in the north-eastern part of Finland and with a population of 86.500, is running a major administrative pilot project. It is called the Kainuu Model, where some of the basic municipal functions are being operated on a regional level. This extensive public sector initiative requires shared information systems to guarantee efficient collaboration. As a result of a public bidding process, Kainuu selected Teamware Office™ as its groupware system for 7.000 users altogether. At the same time, some municipalities will migrate from Microsoft Exchange to Teamware Office.

The Finnish Parliament passed a law on the Kainuu pilot more than a year ago. The objective of the pilot is to strengthen self-government especially when local and regional development is concerned. One concrete target is to increase efficiency and productivity e.g. by organizing centralized supporting services.

A new support unit has been formed to service the whole Kainuu region. One of its main tasks is to produce services for municipalities e.g. in the area of healthcare as well as social and educational functions. The unit will consist of 7000 employees providing services for nine different municipalities. Information management is one of the main service areas of the newly founded unit.

'We were looking for a unified groupware solution for the needs of the support service unit. Our work is decentralized in different municipalities where the regional employees will also remain in the future. In addition, distances are very long', says Mr. Arto Laurikainen, Head of Paltamo Municipality, explaining the IT requirements of Kainuu region. 'Some of the municipalities were already using Teamware Office. Thus, the purchase price remained reasonable for the whole region. Also, the license rights are permanent, which lowers the total costs,’ Mr. Laurikainen concludes.

The introduction of the system started in April and is phased out over the different municipalities involved. The project also includes extensive user, administrator level and support staff training. Furthermore, it is possible to extend the Teamware Office system in the future to include portal and mobile functionalities.