tions within the Helsinki region at any specified time. The service was
launched in 2001 and is still active, indicating the demand and durabil-
ity of the service. This journey planner is constantly up-dated and has
become the most important information channel concerning public trans-
port in HMA. It is a PPP solution ordered by HSL and operationalized by
Logica Finland.
The service is provided with four languages (Finnish, Swedish, English, and
Russian) and includes current changes and exceptions taking place in public
transport. The journey planner may be considered a successful electronic ser-
vice. It is used by tens of thousands of HMA citizens and tourists daily, and is
one of the most widely used e-services in Finland (Ministry of Finance, 2009).
The journey planner applies street addresses or “commonly known” locations
as potential start and end points. Moreover, one innovative software addition
is the GIS-service allowing the customer to indicate the start and end locations
on a map.
98 Tommi
Inkinen
Initial travel information input
Results for routes
Results on maps:
- Origin
Æ destination
-
Shortest time or distance
-
Indicates the start and
- Street
address
- Shortest
walking
distance
end locations
- Map
identification
-
Total amounts of
- If
connections
are
-
Specific locations (e.g., market
o Walking
needed, displays the
square)
o Time
connection zones and
- Time
and
date
o Route distance
walking guidelines
- Selection
of:
-
Combined travel information
- Indicates
time
intervals
o Means of transport
o Includes all modes of
for each mean of
o Preferred exchange
transport (busses, metro,
transport during the
time
tramlines)
journey
o Accessibility choices
o Three suggestions per screen
-
Produces list of stops
o Ticket zones
o Earlier choices ÅÆ later
(stop name and street
o Estimations for
choices
address)
walking speed
o CO2 emissions for each
-
Indicates right stop to
between transport
route selection (based on
step out
stops for exchange
used means of transport)
Figure 8.2 Journey planner user interface steps.
Figure 8.2 indicates that the HSL service has similar elements to those available in the map services of transnational Internet companies. This brings
up an important question of scale: to what extent is it desirable for a small
city organization to “compete” in its service provision with global corpora-
tions? The notion also involves the defi
finition of virtual space ownership. An
example here is Google’s “streetview” service and the separation to “public
roads” (accessible) “private roads” (not accessible). The question of privacy
was also raised concerning identifi
fiable faces on the service to which Google
responded by digitally erasing facial characteristics identifiable in the views.
Several larger cities in Finland provide their own municipal map services and
thus they are “competing” with international companies. So far only Google
has managed to produce a service so extensive that it has become a global
“routine” option for location-bound information search.
3.4 Free
Salary Accounting for SMEs
The third and fi
final project concerns electronic government service for SMEs.
“Palkka.fi ”
fi is a free of charge electronic management service targeted at small
employers and households. It allows them to manage and calculate salaries
and wages. The service also includes social security contribution shares and
other legislated non-wage payroll costs. The service provides a free to use
demo version for potential new users.
The service is available only in the two offi
fficial languages of Finland
(Finnish and Swedish). The service includes segments for calculating pay-
ments, taxation, and social security together with insurance costs and
insurance applications. The service is provided by the Ministry of Finance
in co-operation with private insurance companies and may be seen as a
competitive public sector product for private sector fi na
fi
nce management
solutions such as provided by SAP, which commonly are too expensive and
Examining Successful Public Sector Electronic Services 99
Employer basic information
Selection of employee
-
Company name, type, identification
-
Basic information (personal and
number, language
employment contract)
-
Address and contact
- Taxation
information
-
Bank account
- Insurance
information
Taxation information
-
Labor union information
-
Frequency of notifications
-
Credit liability information
Insurance information
- Absences
from
work
-
Types of insurances (accidents,
pensions)
Calculation of salaries
- Insurance
company
details
-
Salaries and benefits (cross)
- Taxation
(agreement identification numbers,
ending dates)
- Vacations
- Deductions
- Other
information
Printouts and summaries
-
Salaries and accounting for each employee, employee groups and total
-
Archives of past month/year salaries and employee costs
-
Full salary payments and account details
Links to other organizations
-
Bank contacts (home pages)
-
Value-added and other tax notifications/accounts (Ministry of Finance)
-
The Social Security Institution of Finland notifications (KELA)
A concise schematic of palkka.fi online user interface. All segments are
fi
interlinked and are usable from the main tool bar.
complicated for SMEs. The service is active and provides cost reductions
for small businesses and NGOs.
Figure 8.3 portrays the user interface structure. The simplicity of the visualization stresses the importance of
an easy-to-use philosophy in service
production. Importantly, palkka.fi a
fi lso provides direct links to other public
sector services relevant for SMEs including taxation and banking. The inter-
connectedness of the services increases the usability of the design. Overall,
the collaboration model involves a diff eren
ff
t version of the PPP arrangement
compared to the two previous cases: collaboration between Finnish ministries
and private sector banks has a long tradition concerning the identifica
fi tion
process. In Finland practically all identifi c
fi ation processes in electronic ser-
vices are done with private online banking codes. Figure 8.3 shows that salary calculations involves social security information, insurance details, and
agreements together with bank accounts. The use of service requires a high
level of trust in the cloud service and its information security. Therefore, the
collaboration in the identifi c
fi ation and insurance/banking processes may be
considered as a value-adding element provided by the service.
100 Tommi Inkinen
3.5 Discussion of Commonalities among the Cases
The fi
first question of the chapter concerned the factors that are required for
successful service implementation (compare Heeks, 2003). These common-
alities are essential in a universal sense, and relevant elements have been
statistically analysed concerning end-user adoption (Welch, Hinnant, &
Moon, 2005; Carter & Bélanger, 2005; Lean et al., 2009). All services are
considered to involve the following main principles:
1. They serve extensive and well-defi
fined target (user) groups.
2. They are highly convenient and easy to use regardless of the OS
platforms.
3.
They are free of charge (the application use) except the SMS ticketing
service in which the ticket naturally is normally priced. However, the
application itself is free of charge (means of payment).
4.
They are embedded into a service provision structure (they have
existed long enough to establish themselves as a “known” alternative
to other competing means of conducting the business in question).
5.
They may be seen as transferable to other locations (universal). How-
ever, local business arrangements may cause difficulties if the business
environments are fragmented.
All studied services are functioning today. Five of the listed services in
Appendix 8.1 have terminated. This brings forth a problem of continu-
ity: how to create a lasting service after the initial project period. This
problem relates to consortium structures, because the private sector’s role
in electronic government is realized mainly through subcontracting. Own-
ership relations matter because national government and large cities own
several of the companies creating e-solutions for them. Thus subcontracting
between the public sector and the private sector is a blurred issue if owner-
ship relations are considered.
The cases are successful due to their practical significance and customer
potential. Key elements of a successful e-service require the durability and
long-term commitment of the providing organization(s) to update and
develop the service. The presented cases have high number of active users
(realized customer potential). The technical end-user interfaces are easy
to use and the customer is aware of the organization that they are dealing
with. In other words, the services are produced by well-known organiza-
tions and they are easily approachable if the transaction fails (e.g., SMS
tickets) or provides false information (e.g., journey planner).
As argued, the Internet, with the services provided online, is an effi-
cient tool for modifying citizens’ interaction with the public sector. The
empirical challenge is to fi
find out how citizens perceive themselves as
customers and how they perceive service reliability and trustworthiness
Examining Successful Public Sector Electronic Services 101
(see Heeks & Bailur, 2007). Administrative and political studies rec-
ognize this signifi
ficance: how are services produced? who is allowed or
expected to use them? and what type of governance does it support?
Internet services are to a large extent substitutes for physical entities,
in which services are realized through immaterial transactions, for
example, selling SMS tickets. Virtual representations modify knowledge
pertaining to their physical counterparts (e.g., Graham, 1998). In this
process, the issue of assessing information reliability and critical content
reading, which are required of the reader, becomes paramount.
4 FUTURE RESEARCH CHALLENGES
The public sector has traditionally produced the majority of its services
in-house in Finland. This is gradually changing towards the adoption
of collaborative solutions. A broader discussion of electronic service
development expands beyond the presented locally and nationally cre-
ated services. It relates to technology integration into a societal struc-
ture and market economy (West, 2005). What actually public services
are and how they should be produced? A key problem in thinking of
citizen-government relations is the ever-increasing complexity of society.
This may be seen as a result of societal change in which technological
solutions have an embedded role. This however, also brings several new
challenges: an understanding of computer and technology structures in
terms of privacy, security, and responsibility is becoming more impor-
tant daily. The process is refl
flected in the business economy through
technology transfer. Signifi
ficant eff
fforts are conducted from country to
country in search of a one-solution-fi
fits-all idea, with varying outcomes
in terms of success.
There are both theoretical and empirical research challenges includ-
ing how global fl
flows of fi
finance and information interlink, what politi-
cal conditions underlie success in informational development, and
how nation states support innovative e-service production. The ques-
tion concerns information distribution, demand, and significance. A
critical understanding of the rhetoric and representation used in the
marketing of new services requires further attention. These research
challenges are arguably embedded in societal development and tech-
nology integration: who presents public sector information and how
does citizen interaction with the public sector change via electronic ser-
vices? What is provided as a service and what is not? Potential research
themes combine online service development and the administrative
(political) realm including power structures between political decisions,
and transparency and policies guiding the integration of technology
into society.
102 Tommi
Inkinen
APPENDIX
Table 8.1 Specially Awarded Electronic Services by th
e Finnish Information
Society Policy Program in the Years 2004 and 2006
Reward
category
and year
Service and short description
Current condition
New
Consumer Gadget: Allows to check the ethical
Service no
innovations
background of a consumer item. The Consumer longer
category,
Gadget was designed for use in mobile-phone
available
2006
handsets. It uses the EAN barcodes of products
(reward year)
facts.
New
Palkka.fi : Provides a free internet service to small
fi
www.palkka.fi
fi
innovations
employers to calculate and pay the salaries and
category,
wages of their employees as well as the social
Service is active
2006
security contributions and other non-wage
payroll costs.
Eff ectiveness
ff
The precompleted income tax return form:
www.vero.fi /
fi
and
The taxpayer only needs to check the
veroilmoitus
productivity
information entered by the Tax Administration.
category, 2006
Service is active
Eff ectiveness
ff
Penguins in school – Now: Computer education: www.antarktis.fi
and
a school network using an open source
productivity
software and LTSP technology increasing the
Project no longer
category,
use and eff ectiveness of computers with greatly
ff
existing
2006
reduced costs.
Application
The SME Risk Management (PK-RH®) toolkit: http://www.pk-rh.fi
fi
and promotion Off
ffers concrete tools for comprehensive risk
of data
management. It is backed by more than ten
Project thematic
security
years of research and development carried out
active
category,
by research institutions and SMEs.
2006
Application and Citizens’ computer support: The service
http://www.kansal-
promotion of
maintains a list of local computer businesses
aisenmikrotuki.fi
Public Sector Transformation Through E-Government Page 18
