The Information Society Policy Guidelines for the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities 2015

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1 The Information Society Policy Guidelines for the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities 2015 Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities 2008

2 Background and purpose In the year 2001, the Administrative Board of the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities (ALFRA) approved the ALFRA Strategy for the Information Society and its 10 objectives for the year It was also agreed at the meeting that Information Society issues are relevant for all the units working in AFLRA and must in the future be viewed horizontally across all the units. Ever since, all information society related issues have been discussed at the cross-sectoral Information Society Group in ALFRA. The Information Society Group consists of several experts from different units of ALFRA and its affiliate companies. The objectives as defined in 2001 are still relevant, but major changes have happened in the fields of technology, the service structures of municipalities, organization of data administration and public administration cooperation at both national and international levels. For example, in the municipalities, the challenges of aging and climate change are nowadays receiving more focused attention than at the beginning of the century. Looking at the objectives set in 2001, the most positive progress has been in the development and usage of electronic services, as well as in the capability of the municipalities to exploit the possibilities of information and communication technology in practice. The possibilities of community members to participate in the democratic process have improved. Vast amounts of information about municipal activities have been published via the internet. Unfortunately, the objectives bothering on the exploitation of broadband facilities and the common use of public administration basic registers have to be repeated in these policy guidelines as they were in Although many positive changes have happened, the municipal-level information technology is still very organisation and sector-oriented. This causes needless extra costs, not to mention the extra work involved in renewing municipal sector service structures. A notable change occurring in the markets is that the Finnish companies have evidently decreased the number of new software and applications delivered to municipalities during the last seven years. The purpose of these 2008 policy guidelines are is to sharpen the objectives for which ALFRA and its affiliate companies will work to support the municipalities 1 in information society issues and development work. With the following focus points, ALFRA will encourage municipalities to fully exploit the possibilities of information and communication technologies in the development of customer oriented services, and, to increase productivity of municipal activities and services. These 2008 policy guidelines should also be seen as a handbook for supervision of the different interests within AFLRA and for their services. These guidelines are meant for those who have already been working as experts as well as for those who have just started their work in the field of information society at the ALFRA house. 1 the word municipality in this document means every organisation that belongs to the municipal sector

3 The focus points for the coming seven years are that: 1. the services in municipalities are customer-oriented 2. the municipality is an open community for its inhabitants 3. the municipality is a competitive and modern organization and workplace. 4. the possibilities of information and communication technologies are utilized comprehensively at the local level. 5. the broadband services in all parts of the country are adequate and at reasonable prices. 6. the data administration of the public administration is an effective and functioning entity. These guidelines are to a large extent in line with the ALFRA strategy work of autumn A more meaningful way of preparing these guidelines would have been to have the possibility to align these guidelines with already existing strategy. However, it was necessary to have these information society guidelines ready before the winter of , because ALFRA would have to respond to many open questions concerning public administration cooperation and broadband supply. These guidelines do not include, as in many other information society strategies, any statistical ranking list objectives, where Finnish municipalities should be placed internationally. Above all, these guidelines focus on strengthening our weaknesses by leveraging our strengths. As such, the international ranking lists are not often viewed as useful, because of the differences of tasks and the role of Finnish municipalities. Naturally, we have, especially at the local level, more and more to learn from other countries, about how information and communication technologies are used in local administration. Our processes are now more than before taking on international dimensions. The international ranking lists available mostly focus on electronic services. In Finland, due to the unique tasks and duties of the municipalities that charges them to take care of the quality and productivity of the services, it is crucial to consider how information and communication technology is used in so called traditional service channels. It is also very important to cooperate locally in order to maintain large and well functioning service networks and customer-oriented service entities. The role of an electronic service is to provide to the municipal infrastructure, a well integrated self service channel that is useful for both the user and the service provider. In most cases this (an electronic service) means just a part-process of a certain service entity which is made easier, faster and cheaper by the use of technology. Some good examples are for example, using SMS in paying parking charges, buying tickets, reserving books from the library or using SMS in a system of booking appointments at health care centres. It is obvious that more and more municipal level services would in the future, be offered to the inhabitants as self-services via the web.

4 One essential principle in this policy guideline is the brave increase in the quality and productivity of services across organisational and sectoral borders. Similarly, this guideline harnesses the power of information and communication technologies in: welfare technology for the aged, especially in supporting their living at home increasing the energy efficiency closely linked with functional changes like more flexible ways of working and the one stop shop concept ensuring the availability of staff by generating a pool of workers and matching them with job openings in the municipalities promoting a sense of community in municipalities and being abreast with the world. This for example includes net voting, net decision making, social networks, and any other tools supporting the sence of community. As a prerequisite, the information and communication infrastructure must be good. The public administration information should be fluid between different locations, and sufficient broadband services should be available to everyone. The skills and expertise in municipalities should in the future be very good and the management of activities between operational work and data administration must receive special attention The biggest challenge is to ensure equal services in the face of the growing disparity of possibilities between the municipalities and regions. Even so, success in information and communication technology initiatives is very much dependent on the innovativeness of the municipalities. Information Society Guidelines 1. Services in municipalities are customer-oriented 1. considers as its main policy that by using ICT, it is possible to offer public services extensively over a wide geographical area so that the channel of the services and used languages are understandable to everyone 2. points out that the above mentioned goal requires bypassing the red tapes between the organisations and sectors, and is economically possible only by integrating service channels with comprehensive one-stop-shop networks that link public and private actors.

5 3. recommends that joint national development activities should focus on those electronic services that are integrated into the one stop concept. 4. points out that with ICT it is possible to make many services that require activity of the customer unnecessary and replace these e.g. with proactive service proposals by exploiting the existing information. 5. aims to enhance appropriate and interoperable share of the work between municipal portals (local/ regional content) and national portals 2 (common content), in a customer-oriented way. 6. develops a comprehensive videoconference service network, which allows remote interpreting services and remote expert decisions in one- stop shops. tries using all available means, to reduce administrative burden and in cooperation with other organisations, promote national solutions, where the information required is given only once. 7. works towards making the legislation of welfare services to not prevent the municipalities from developing services based on life situations. 8. participates in the development of trusted and user-friendly identification services 9. focuses on information services, which help municipalities to get information on good practices in other countries. 2. Municipality is an open community for its inhabitants 11. points out to its members that they should focus on data privacy and security, and together with state governments and other actors, develops tools for that, so as to forestall the loss of trust of citizens for the municipalities. 12. participates in the development of user-friendly solutions that help citizens to get information that allows them to be more involved in shaping and affecting policies and decisions taken by politicians that eventually affect them. 13. draws attention to the possibilities of social media tools on the Internet in the development of the external and internal communications of the municipality 14. considers as very important, the decision making power of customers concerning the use of their personal data, and strongly emphasises that this issue be given more attention 2 e.g. portals like suomi.fi, yritys.fi

6 15. is of the opinion that the customers should have a possibility to see how their personal data are being used across organisational and sectoral borders. The prerequisite for this is a more user-friendly approval and identification service developed in collaboration by different actors. 16. supports the implementation of net voting 3. Municipality is a competitive and modern organisation and workplace 17. shall in the future provide training services to help politicians and staff of the municipalities to develop their capacity in the use of ICT 18. develops for the staff of the municipalities, open learning environments that are beyond time and place. 19. develops in collaboration with other actors, national Internet services that increase local service expertise, paying special attention to the needs of the one-stop shops and the 24/7- services. 20. contributes with all available means, towards making the employee have among other things, a possibility with the help of ICT, to concentrate on his/her main task than is currently the case. 21. supports the use of ICT to give employees more opportunities to design their work and to work more as part of a network. 22. clarifies what kind of changes in the legislation and practices are needed to make the decision-making of the local political bodies possible through the Internet. 23. promotes by the means of ICT the joint use of human resources over municipality borders 24. develops national services that help to match the supply of staff to the demand for them in a better and faster manner 25. promotes the rationalization and digitisation of joint processes of the municipalities and of the whole public administration 26. supports the rapid and full implementation of an all-inclusive electronic invoicing system and the full digitisation of the whole procurement process.

7 4. Possibilities of information and communication technology are utilized comprehensively 27. ensures through various means, that the strategic role of information and communication technology in increasing participation, productivity and quality of services, is recognised in the municipalities. 28. stresses in its services the need for strong connection between operational management, information technology and data security management 29. calls attention to those untapped possibilities of information and communication technology, for e.g. special groups and the elderly. These untapped possibilities can facilitate their a) activity more than is presently the case in their work and study places b) living at home, supporting it by device and security technology c) status as members of a community 30. advocates that the educational system has ICT-tools for flexible and lifelong learning 31. develops in collaboration with the whole public administration, the IT in local government so that it is not limited to organisational and sectoral borders. 32. encourages municipalities to take more seriously, in their own activities as well as among inhabitants and companies, the great possibilities of ICT in energy efficiency 33. emphasizes the importance of municipal cooperation in ICT to ensure sufficient skills development so as to meet the challenges of the structural changes in the future. 34. supports municipalities in the development of local logistics so as to optimise the transport and mobile services of different actors

8 5. Broadband services in all parts of the country are adequate and reasonable in price 35. sets as its goal that by year 2015, every entity like municipal offices and centres or companies in rural areas, can have a 100MB/s full duplex broadband connection at reasonable prices if they need it 36. points out that the above mentioned goal is feasible only by wide fibre optic backbone and investing in the last mile connections. 37. points out that the regional balance in broadband services should primarily be financed by the state government. 38. points out that the financial support of the municipalities to the private telecommunication operators is reasonable only when linked with very long-term maintenance agreements. 39. promotes utilisation of the open access principle in the jointly-owned Finnish telecommunications network, giving all actors equal possibilities to provide access and content services. 40. views as important the development of technical solutions and legislation improving the reliability of broadband services. 41. examines if it in the future possible make mandatory, the connection to broadband networks in the densely populated areas 6. The data administration of the public administration is effective and functioning entity 42. makes it a principle that the one who pays for the IT and is in charge of the services, also decides the IT used 43. is of the opinion that good cooperation, clear agreements and first-rate recommendations are most important tools for public IT- coordination. 44. sees to it that in certain cases the use of a national IT-service can be mandatory in the legislation suggests that the Association and the state government should clearly agree on areas, where public IT-cooperation is necessary, useful or even unnecessary. 46. views as important that public IT has all the needed political- ministerial level coordination 3 like in the case of electronic archives of the health care sector

9 47. supports the new role of The Advisory Committee on Information Management in Public Administration (JUHTA) as a coordinator of the whole public government IT-cooperation. 48. emphasizes the importance of an inclusive and good quality public administration recommendation system, that also takes into account the needs of international interoperability, and makes sufficient resources available for this work. 49. promotes the shift from software giants to products that consist of smaller components. 50. utilises in joint procurement procedures, the possibilities of open source products and international markets in order to increase competition. 51. acts so that unnecessary national practicesdo not become obstacles for foreign companies to operate in the Finnish local government IT-markets. 52. promotes the development of joint services that can replace the need for own software, especially in small municipalities. 53. considers as a top priority, the establishment of a common development and service center, that cuts across sector borders, that would take responsibility for financing, developing, producing and maintaining the joint IT-services in the whole public government. 54. examines the possibilities to establish a similar organisation for the municipal sector, if the common development and service center of the whole public administration is not coming true. 55. views as necessary that in the near future, all commonly used information is usable inside the public administration easily and without delays. 56. states that national basic registers and other common databases under the different ministries should be collected as one service entity. 57. is of the opinion that with the reengineering of the roles of different actors in the production and maintainance processes of the basic registers, it is possible to decrease joint contribution and raise the quality of the information.