IT companies can save money and create additional value by using Suomi.fi e-Authorizations

The Suomi.fi e-Authorizations service maintained by the Digital and Population Data Services Agency is a ready-to-use, free of charge and tested component that can be integrated into IT companies’ systems in which it is important to check whether the user has been authorised to act on behalf of another party.

The use of mandates requires strong identification, which increases the data security of the system.

Use e-services smoothly through Suomi.fi e-Authorizations

Many public authorities and other operators use Suomi.fi e-Authorizations if their services allow acting on behalf of another party. In connection with service use, it is checked, for example, whether the guardian can act on behalf of their underage child or whether an adult has granted another adult a mandate to act on their behalf.

From the user's point of view, the verification of the mandate takes place quickly and automatically because the information on the existence of mandates is retrieved from the national population information database in real time.

Guardians’ independent service use brings savings to customers

Wilma is a school administration system designed for early childhood education and care and municipal education services by the software company Visma. It is used by many families to follow their children's school attendance.

Product Manager Joakim Pesola explains that Wilma uses Suomi.fi e-Authorizations. The municipalities that use Wilma can choose whether e-Authorizations is connected to the service or not.

e-Authorizations enables guardians to use the service more flexibly on behalf of their children. “Once the guardian has performed strong identification using their online banking codes or a mobile certificate and their mandate has been verified, they can create their own username for Wilma.”

Municipalities that have chosen this option no longer need to create and distribute usernames. This saves paper, printing costs and, most importantly, working hours. According to Pesola, up to 100 person-days a year can be saved in large municipalities. “We have received a lot of positive feedback on this,” Pesola says. He also mentions the decline in the number of support requests, which indicates that the overall customer satisfaction has increased.

Secure communication about important matters

The Hyvis e-service platform for the health and social services sector is used by several hospital districts. Hyvis was the first service to be integrated to Suomi.fi e-Authorizations in Finland. Juha Salmi, product manager responsible for Hyvis at 2M-IT Oy, explains that citizens can use Hyvis for example to check laboratory results, to communicate securely with professionals and to fill in forms. In some hospital districts, they can also use it to book appointments.

 “The most common way of using the service is that authorised guardians use it on behalf of an underage child,” Salmi says. “For example, booking a dentist’s appointment for a child under the age of 10 is straightforward, although what sometimes happens is that adults book the appointment for themselves by accident instead of booking it for the child.”  Salmi continues: “Children aged between 10 and 18 are the most challenging: according to law, children aged over 10 should already use the services themselves. However, not many preteen children have the online banking codes required for identification, for example.”

IT companies can focus on their core activities

Juha Salmi reflects on the utilisation of Suomi.fi e-Authorizations: “It has been built as a national solution. A component developed by ourselves might be more flexible but, on the other hand, we can now focus on other things, such as how IT solutions can be used to support the operation of our owner-customers and how we can develop the functionalities to improve the service as a whole.”