New system lifts Government Finance to next level

The Finnish Government Shared Services Centre for Finance and HR (Palkeet) provides group services to the administrative branch of the Ministry of Finance. Its 650 employees offer finance and HR services for central government agencies, departments and funds, state-owned businesses, state-owned limited companies and 73,000 individual government employees.

The Finnish Government Shared Services Centre for Finance and HR (Palkeet) provides group services to the administrative branch of the Ministry of Finance and offers finance and HR services to various government agencies, companies and funds, including 73,000 individual government workers.

Based on its impact, Palkeet needs to stay ahead of any potential challenges and, with its SAP Finance support ending in 2027, it was planning to convert from SAP ECC to SAP/4HANA. However, Palkeet didn’t see a benefit of doing only a technical implementation. “They are costly, time-consuming and you don’t get any benefits of process or operating model improvement,” says Suvi Allan, Palkeet Head of Finance Transformation. “So, we looked at the desired state processes and decided on a full transformation programme.”

To ensure a successful outcome, Palkeet needed an experienced partner that would help with this big transformational challenge. “I really wanted to find a systems integrator with deep expertise because the main driving force for us was to have quality people working with us on this,” says Allan. “This is why, in the procurement process, we emphasised quality rather than price. But with Fujitsu, we ended up with the best of both worlds.”

Fujitsu’s successful digital transformation of Palkeet’s systems included the conversion to S/4HANA, programme management, leading operational change management activities, design and implementation of a new user interface and process changes. In essence, Fujitsu delivered the whole package.

The journey took just over a year, but this change is only the beginning. Palkeet continues working on improvements. It is particularly focused on Fiori UI that Fujitsu helped design and implement for Palkeet’s customers.

“We wanted to create a system that’s more modern, user-friendly and easy to use,” says Allan. “We got a lot of positive feedback on it. And our own personnel have even commented that some reports run a lot faster because of the HANA database.”

This is important because, historically, reports tended to be simple rows and columns. With S/4HANA and the Fiori UI, almost 3,000 users have access to more visual data. As part of the programme, Palkeet even implemented new dashboards—something it didn’t have before—because they give people a better understanding of payables and receivables.

Users can better manage finance operations with this new information and the reporting side of the new system is much improved in addition to providing a much friendlier interface. In short, the new system created an environment where it’s easier to find the right information, run a report or create a sales order. It gives users more and better tools.

“We want to provide a high-quality service to our customers and it’s obviously important for us to work efficiently as well,” says Allan. “So now, although we can provide all the reports, people can also do more tasks themselves and truly utilise the information in the system.”

A particular improvement is also seen on the collections side of the new system. Before, Excel spreadsheets detailing past due receivables were being sent to 70+ government organisations that were owed these payments.

Palkeet and Fujitsu implemented a Fiori app to simplify things and improve the process. Government departments, such as the tax of fice, can simply log in and see real-time information about all the receivables. “It’s going to save us time and definitely make our work more efficient,” says Allan. “It will also improve the quality of the data because we don’t have to input anything manually.”

Fujitsu’s help also extended to the design and implementation of other process changes that have brought much-improved efficiency. “For example, within the government, a lot of orders need approvals,” says Allan. “A new workflow was created to manage the process within the system and automate a lot of the tasks involved. We are also close to going live with our new intercompany matching and reconciliation tool.”

The latter is designed to help reconcile different actions such as sales orders from government agencies that have purchased something from each other. This will help
manage intercompany transactions within the group and is a great example of Palkeet’s aim of efficiency and quality.

“We focused on quality in the procurement phase and the success of this approach was proven throughout this programme. Fujitsu people are truly experts,” says Allan. Palkeet is constantly looking for new ways to streamline and improve processes, always measuring against baselines and KPIs, and has, so far, met all the targets. “We’re now going through an upgrade after which we plan to implement the Fiori interface in our own service centre. There are government procurement guidelines that we need to follow, but we would very much like to continue collaborating with Fujitsu.”

This wish is based on a very successful delivery of the programme but also on the relationship that developed between the two organisations. Because delivering a digital transformation project of this scope relies not only on expertise but also on cooperation, team spirit and professionalism. “We truly worked as one team,” says Allan. “It was an approach of solving things together and everyone has been so committed to the programme and its objectives. There wasn’t ‘us’ and ‘them’. Right from the beginning, it was a really good collaboration. I know everyone says: ‘we are one team’ but we truly have been.”