Goodbye to paperwork – Suomi.fi Messages streamline the work of Kirkkonummi Land Use Planning Services

Located in Uusimaa, Kirkkonummi is a growing municipality whose Built Environment Services are used by residents as well as summer cottage owners and companies. Examples of Built Environment Services include land use planning, building and environmental control, and plot and infrastructure services.

Because the services send a lot of notifications and other messages to customers, the smooth delivery of messages makes the processing of matters significantly easier and faster.

The municipality of Kirkkonummi uses the TieraCity system for managing the Built Environment Services. The system also integrates the Lupapiste permit management system, case management and financial systems and Suomi.fi Messages. This set of services facilitates the easy transfer of data between systems, and Suomi.fi Messages enable sending messages to customers quickly and securely in a digital format.

The municipality of Kirkkonummi introduced TieraCity in the spring of 2024, and Suomi.fi Messages was integrated into it at the same time. The aim was specifically to achieve benefits in land use planning, as it involves sending large numbers of decisions, hearing letters and requests for feedback on proposed zoning plans.

“Land use planning involved the greatest amount of work. It formed a clear whole for which we wanted to activate Suomi.fi Messages,” says Markku Korhonen, Geographic Information Systems Manager.

Mailing was time-consuming and slowed down the processing of matters

Before Suomi.fi Messages, land use planning notifications were mainly sent by letter. The number of parties to be heard in an individual planning project can range from hundreds to thousands of people. Finding their addresses took a lot of time, and the use of paper mail inevitably delayed the process.

Work steps related to mailing, such as printing large amounts of paper, took up a significant amount of professionals’ valuable working time, which they could have used for their core tasks. After sending out a paper letter, it could take a week for it to reach its recipient.

“Major land use planning projects involve a ridiculous amount of these letters. You have to send a letter to all relevant parties, and in practice, this meant that our land use planning employees had to print out the materials and put them in envelopes. After this, they had to print out all the addresses on labels. The whole process was done manually,” Korhonen says.

Electronic communications speed up land use planning processes

Introducing Suomi.fi Messages has improved the efficiency of the communications of the municipality of Kirkkonummi’s Land Use Planning Services. The system enables targeting electronic messages at the correct properties and landowners based on a map-based area selection feature. TieraCity automatically retrieves the recipients’ personal identity codes and address details from the population information system.

In practice, most messages are sent completely automatically. If the material is sent to, for example, 500 recipients, only a small number will require further clarification due to missing information, but these cases would also have required additional work in the previously used approach.

Land use planning materials, such as maps, are delivered either as an attachment to an electronic message or a link to a map service included in the message. Redirecting the user to the map service has proven to be effective, especially in the case of large map datasets.

“The system contains property owner information on contact cards, which are updated using an API connected to the population information system. In the standard case, the contact details are obtained directly from the system, where the details include the recipient’s personal identity code,” explains Marjukka Hanhijärvi, Geospatial Information Specialist.

The greatest benefits of the change are reduced time use and more streamlined work. It has been possible to eliminate manual steps and simplify the processes. For example, previously, putting together landowner lists and sending messages could require several people's input, whereas now, in the optimal scenario, one person can manage the process from start to finish.

The professional does not need to know whether the message should be sent electronically or in paper format – they simply forward the message. Suomi.fi Messages automatically distribute the message to an electronic mailbox or paper mail using the printing, enveloping and distribution service (also known as the TKJ service). If necessary, the professional can use log data to check which channel was used for sending the message to the customer. In TieraCity, the Suomi.fi Messages testing feature helped to understand how the electronic message appears to the recipient.

The benefits of Suomi.fi Messages are also clearly visible to land use planning customers. Electronic service arrives in the recipient’s electronic mailbox instantly, which speeds up the land use planning process. As land use planning involves many statutory tasks and deadlines, the quick and secure delivery of the message is a major advantage. In addition, customers can now access additional information easily and accessibly if necessary.

Use of Suomi.fi Messages will also be extended to other built environment services

Based on the experiences from Kirkkonummi, TieraCity and Suomi.fi Messages work well together.

The municipality is planning to extend the use of Suomi.fi Messages to other built environment services. At the same time, the processes that generate notifications that must be sent to customers in Suomi.fi Messages will be specified. There is also a need to determine which notifications are sent from the case management system and which from sector-specific systems.

Employees’ competence related to TieraCity and Suomi.fi Messages will continue to be ensured through instructions and the provision of training as necessary.

Although electronic verifiable service has not been used in land use planning, the possibility of introducing it will be considered in the future if a need arises and there is a wish to avoid registered letters.