The Finnish Immigration Service receives 2.4 million euros for a productivity project
The Ministry of Finance has granted a significant appropriation to the Finnish Immigration Service for a productivity project for the development of its electronic case management system for immigration affairs (UMA).
“The world has moved from paper to electronic systems. Our system, which was launched in 2010, is due for an update,” says the project leader, Director of Information Management Vesa Hagström of the Finnish Immigration Service.
UMA is used by all the immigration administration bodies: the Finnish Immigration Service, the police, the Border Guard, reception centres, municipalities, Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment, central government and Finnish missions abroad. The appropriation for the productivity project will be used to further develop UMA from an authority-centric system based on a processing queue to a modern, interactive system supported by automation.
Development carried out by the Finnish Immigration Service
Scheduled for completion at the end of 2016, the total costs of the project will be four million euros. The Ministry of Finance will cover the project’s investment and acquisition costs of 2.4 million euros, and the Finnish Immigration Service will cover the cost of the development work, 1.6 million euros.
“The Finnish Immigration Service will not be hiring more staff to carry out the project. In fact, in line with the productivity objectives, the goal is to reduce the number of staff,” says Hagström.
“The development work will not only cover the electronic system, but the overall efficiency of our operations. In any organisation in which the core task comprises knowledge work, system improvements qualify as operational development,” says Hagström.
“We have long seen year-on-year improvements of up to 4% in the productivity of the Finnish Immigration Service, which is exceptional in central government. However, the number of applications continues to grow while the number of staff is being reduced. In that respect, developing our operations through this productivity project could not come at a better time,” Hagström concludes.
What is UMA?
The electronic case management system for immigration affairs, UMA, was introduced in 2010. UMA has enabled savings in costs, since the number of stages in the processing of immigration matters has been reduced and different authorities have been able to participate in the process more fluently.
The development of UMA aims to further improve productivity through:
Self-services: Expanding the e-services channel offered to customers.
Automation: Increasing the share of automation in routine tasks and directing human work to more demanding tasks involving reasoning.
The dashboard function: A dashboard user interface organises and presents various administrative duties in as complete and ready-to-use a format as possible on the desktop of the person processing the applications.
For further information, please contact:
Vesa Hagström, Director of Information Management, tel. +358 295 430 431, firstname.lastname@migri.fi
