Digitalisation in the Finnish Defence Forces' customer service


The Finnish Defence Forces have developed their services for handling matters, and this development continues as part of the digitalisation of the Defence Forces. The main objectives of the development of the Defence Forces' customer service are to create stronger data protection than at present, to improve the level of service in case management, to increase interaction, especially with conscripts, to enable matters to be handled also outside the opening hours, to facilitate cooperation and exchange of information between authorities, to improve the efficiency of various customer service processes and administrative processing, and to Save resources.

In general, by improving customer service, we want to reduce the need to handle matters and make it possible to handle matters in a proactive manner, so that we take the initiative to ensure that the processing of the matter is delivered to the customer in a prepared form, instead of the customer having to send a stack of forms to the authority himself. At the same time, you try to minimize the number of information you ask the customer for. In the best case, some of the current processes in the handling of matters and forms can be dispensed with altogether due to the development work. The digitalisation of services for the use of services is estimated to continue until 2030.

In addition to conscripts, the Finnish Defence Forces' customer service provides services for handling matters, both for Finnish citizens and citizens of other countries, for companies, communities and for Defence Forces employees when they need to deal with the Defence Forces. It will be possible to send documents related to the handling of matters through the service, as well as to receive official mail using strong identification and as an authorised person. The service has been in use since 2017 and is being developed continuously. The service is located at https://asiointi.puolustusvoimat.fi/en/frontpage. Login requires strong authentication.

The customer service of the Finnish Defence Forces is divided into three types of matters: Military service matters, i.e. MyMilitary. MyMilitary, permit matters and other matters. MyMilitary covers all services to be developed for the use of conscripts throughout their military service. In addition, MyMilitary can receive messages containing communicative and informative content, personal and time content targeted at different stages of military service and check your own conscription information. Permit matters consist of permit application and processing services regulated by the Territorial Surveillance Act, the Defence Forces' visiting permits and other permits administered by the Defence Forces. Other cases concern individual use cases, which cannot be classified under the above-mentioned types of cases. Examples of these are, for example, requests for access to personal data and citizens' questions.


Instead of building new use cases for handling cases or new features of the system over a long period of time so that they meet all predefined requirements, the Defence Forces aim to launch new services as often as possible and collect user feedback on them for further development. Based on the feedback, the predefined objectives can be specified and the entire service developed little by little.


The benefits of digitalisation in the Defence Forces' customer service


Available 24/7

  • The service is available, anywhere and anytime, provided that the user has access to the internet. The management of services is no longer tied to the service points and their opening hours.
  • The role of end users in building the service is important, we try to take their wishes into account as well as possible in terms of offering smooth customer services. The service offers a significant improvement compared to the current channels for using services.
  • The service is built in accordance with the current regulatory guidelines on information security and data protection. The service improves the individual's data protection.

Interaction

  • The Defence Forces receive information faster than before and the content of the information is more standardised. Thus, it is also possible to make better use of the content than before.
  • The service improves access to information, both within the Defence Forces and for the Defence Forces' various customers. All information is provided in targeted and individualized form through one channel.
  • Through the service, it is possible to check your own information and update it.

Efficiency and effectiveness

  • The service streamlines the processes involved in handling cases, which means that the work can be focused in a more productive way. This also results in direct cost savings, for example for mail handling.
  • The electronic handling of information reduces human error and enables real-time guidance of users.
  • More up-to-date information of higher quality than before enables the Defence Forces to achieve a better situational picture.