Case Study
Data Strategy for the City of Helsinki
Helsinki’s vision is to be the “most functional city in the world” that makes the best use of digitalisation.
Problem
- As a continuation of Helsinki’s overall strategy, in 2020, the city decided to define a future-proof data strategy
- The data strategy should allow for better services to the city’s stakeholders and make the city’s own operations more intelligent and effective
- A city is a complex environment with many different duties and operations and independent divisions
- Legal constraints for data combination are considerable
Approach
- Defined the common objectives for the Helsinki data strategy
- Defined the common principles for data across different city divisions
- Defined the data-sharing principles for the wider data ecosystem
- The project was done in a very inclusive manner with 50+ experts commenting on the strategy document before publishing
Results
Many decisions were made and later implemented, such as
- The establishment of a city-wide data and analytics platform
- City-level working groups
- Management for citizens to manage their personal data transparently
- Inclusion of data in all city procurement cases
- Establishment of a central data & analytics team
Business Value
City Strategic Goals, City Effective Operations
Industry
Client
City of Helsinki
Helsinki’s population is 650,000, which comprises 12% of Finland’s population. Helsinki’s vision is to be the “most functional city in the world.”
The city of Helsinki employs 38,000 people making it the largest employer in Finland. Most people work in social services & healthcare and education.
