Suomi.fi e-Authorizations reach the finals in the prestigious Innovation in Politics Awards

Suomi.fi e-Authorizations, a system developed and maintained by the Digital and Population Data Services Agency, has been selected as one of the 10 finalists in the European Innovation in Politics Awards. Suomi.fi e-Authorizations are competing in the Digitalisation category.

The e-Authorizations service is one of Finland’s joint national digitalisation support services. ‘Both within Europe and across the world, e-Authorizations is a unique solution for acting on behalf of other parties. This service offers a smooth and safe platform for issuing and managing mandates digitally throughout the whole of society,’ explains Development Manager Mika King from the Digital and Population Data Services Agency.

The service can be used both by private individuals and by organisations. Through the service, the user can digitally authorise another individual, business, association or other organisation to act on their behalf in any services that have taken the e-Authorizations service into use. The service also enables acting on behalf of other parties based on register data, such as guardians acting on behalf of minors. Such cases do not require separate mandates to be issued.

The service can be integrated with public and private sector customer service systems, and it can also be used in face-to-face customer service situations. The service has made it possible, for example, to act on behalf of another person or dependent in all Finnish pharmacies.

Currently, the e-Authorizations service is used 3-4 million times per month to act on behalf of another party, and over 11 million electronic power of attorneys have been created in the service.

Competition jury includes around 1000 citizens from 47 countries

Nearly 400 projects from all around Europe have been competing in the Innovation in Politics Awards. The jury for the competition is composed of around 1000 people from 47 different countries. The assessment criteria for the jury include innovativeness, sustainability, and user participation.

There are nine different categories for the competition: education, ecology, economy, digitalisation, quality-of-life, coronavirus crisis, democracy, human rights and community.

In addition to the e-Authorizations service, seven other Finnish projects are also competing in different categories.

The finalists for the Digitalisation category are presenting their projects to the public at the following address: https://innovationinpolitics.eu/en/awards/finalists-2020-digitalisation/

Suomi.fi e-Authorizations has already won awards, achieving recognition in 2019 in both the European Commission’s Sharing and Reuse competition and Finland’s Blue Arrow Awards.

The Innovation in Politics Awards

The objective of the annual Innovation in Politics Awards is to give recognition within Europe to the most pioneering projects and programmes operating in key areas of society. It was held for the first time in 2017.

The competition is run by the private and unaffiliated Innovation in Politics Institute.

Suomi.fi e-Authorizations in a nutshell

• In the e-Authorizations service, you can issue digital mandates to another individual, company or organisation to act on your behalf. The service offers its users a smooth and digitally secure self-service at all times and in all locations.
• The mandates issued are secure and are kept up-to-date. The service checks the right to act on behalf of another party from the authorisation register, the Finnish Trade Register, the Register of Associations or the Population Information System.
• It is free to take the service into use in both public and private customer service systems. The customer service pays only for the costs of integrating the service.
• Using the service brings significant savings through the digitalisation of service processes.
• Since its launch in 2016, over 11 million mandates have been created in the service.
• Each month, 3–4 million mandate checks are carried out in the e-Authorizations service.
• Suomi.fi e-Authorizations have already been integrated into over 135 customer service systems, and these are used by a total of 235 private and public sector service providers. In addition, the service is also in use in Finnish pharmacies.