The Toive system was implemented in less than a year on time and on budget

For several decades, the Finnish Tax Administration has set an example for Finnish organisations in digitalisation. The organisations entire operations are driven by a desire to do things simpler and more digitally – both internally and towards customers. In the exceptional year of 2020, the Tax Administration said goodbye to its old ticketing system and introduced a new generation ServiceNow platform.

The Finnish Tax Administration is often mentioned as a pioneer in digitalisation in Finland – and for a good reason. The organisation has in an exceptionally long-term and comprehensive way planned, implemented, and managed digital changes that affect the lives of the Finns.

Already 10 years ago, the Finnish Tax Administration brought a tax proposal to Finns and, with radical rethinking, offered citizens’ tax information directly to users. At the same time, more than 600 person-years of the Tax Administration’s own processing costs were saved every year. The next big innovation took place in the 2010s, when the largest change project in the history of the Finnish Tax Administration, the award-winning Valmis project, replaced 70 end-of-life tax systems with a single ready-made software. At the same time, the citizens received the MyTax (OmaVero) service, which is now actively used.

A wish to make internal processes more efficient

When this massive project had been completed, the Finnish Tax Administration’s IT did not stop there. In 2020, it was time to start implementing the Tax Administration’s ERP and service automation at a new level, where the organisation will increase the efficiency of their internal processes.

To meet this challenge, the Finnish Tax Administration launched a new Toive system project. The project began in February 2020 in collaboration with Sofigate and was completed in less than a year. The fully cloud and ServiceNow based Toive replaced the old Piste ticketing system, which already had 200 very different form types.

Sofigate has been in charge of implementing the new system with a project organisation of more than 15 people, which has built automated service processes and integrated them into the key vendors’ environments. The cooperation has resulted in a platform for comprehensive ERP in the 2020s. The Toive project has replaced Piste, but at the same time it creates the conditions for the Finnish Tax Administration’s new services.

“The expectations for the project were high, and after the first months, 2020 got a surprising turn. Fortunately, we are happy to take on challenges and we have the largest group of ServiceNow experts in the Nordic countries implementing projects. Thus, despite the exceptional year, the entire implementation took place on time and on budget”, says Mikko Talsi, Sofigate’s Senior Executive.

Take a closer look at our cooperation: watch the video in which Jarkko Levasma, the Chief Development and Information Officer at the Finnish Tax Administration, and Mika Koskelo, Director of the Tax Administration’s ICT Service Unit, talk about the project’s starting point, goals, achievements, and future plans.