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THE NATIONAL BOARD OF PATENTS AND REGISTRATION OF FINLAND USES EFECTE’S ERP FOR IT
- The ERP for IT -solution has improved IT services’ profitability and raised quality
2007-05-14
The National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland (NBPR), operating under the Ministry of Trade and Industry, develops entrepreneurship and innovation in Finland and internationally. The organization employs 500 people and has several offices in Finland. A wide business field, largely self-produced IT services and the development of the related processes pose a challenge for IT management.
”The starting-point was that IT management was widely distributed between profit units, whose expenses and levels of skill varied greatly. It was difficult to form an overall picture of our IT environment, the related expenses, and the quality of services,” explains Timo Junnonen, IT Manager at NBPR.
”The aim of the project was to raise IT management services’ quality and unify operational methods so that we can better support the entire organization’s operations. Producing high-quality services required extensive renewal of our IT management processes and the procurement of an ERP for IT -system that supports our processes,” Junnonen continues.
Financially, Efecte’s ITIL Solution was the Most Affordable
The IT management processes were created using ITIL best practices. The procurement of the new system was launched after defining the processes so that they could be directly integrated into the system as it was commissioned.
”We surveyed several different systems and paid special attention to the transparency of costs and the system’s flexibility. Efecte’s solution best supported ITIL model processes, support request management, and possible centralized IT assets management. We selected Efecte since, financially speaking, it was the most affordable and its qualities enabled the described ITIL processes’ implementation. Efecte’s contract and IT procurement management solutions also proved to be the best for us”, proclaims Junnonen.
It took less than two months to implement the solution delivered by Efecte. Operating on the same platform, the solution comprises IT asset, license, procurement and contract management, as well as support for the Configuration, Incident, Problem, Change and Service Level Management processes. ”Its implementation in co-operation with Efecte was swift and problem-free,” explains Junnonen.
Improved Risk Management and Service Quality
The NBPR Efecte system has proved its usefulness in a short period of time. Due to the project, the NBPR has comprehensive information on its IT environment and the ITIL processes have been thoroughly adopted.
”Thanks to Efecte’s browser-based system, the right persons from, for example, IT management, legal affairs and the financial department have had access to the required information regardless of time and place. Current information, for instance, on IT expenses per user, software or unit is easily available, which is necessary in terms of procurements and budgeting. In this way, we have also been able to improve the transparency of IT management’s cost structure,” Timo Junnonen states.
For the National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland, quality assurance is important. Due to the project, the results of the board’s profitability and efficiency indicators, among others, have improved.
”With Efecte’s solution we can ensure that the service levels agreed with business operations and third parties will be realized as planned. This has raised the end-users’ satisfaction with our services. More efficient resource targeting has also balanced the load on our IT staff. And, most importantly, we have been able to minimize the risk factors causing operational disturbances to the organization,” he continues.
”Efecte’s technologically progressive solution has exceeded our expectations. Using it, we can predict and plan our operations on a long-term basis and act sufficiently flexibly during organizational changes. Efecte is a functional and efficient IT operations control and management system,” concludes Junnonen, IT Manager.
The National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland is a central agency under the administrative sector of the Ministry of Trade and Industry. It is an expert organization for industrial rights and company and corporate operations. The NBPR examines and grants design patents, trademarks and copyrights, and is one of eleven international PCT authorities. It maintains a trade register and a register of associations and foundations. The NBPR is a net budgeted agency, whose expenses are covered by customer fees. Among others, NBPR’s national service network consists of Employment and Economic Development Centers, registry offices and chambers of commerce. Approximately half of its EUR 38 million income is generated by international operations. NBPR belongs to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the European Patient Office, and the Office of Harmonization for Internal Market (OHIM). Practically speaking, all of NBPR’s services are available electronically, and through NBPR, its customers have access to the field’s central international data services. For more information, please visit www.prh.fi
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