Executive Summary
The Social Insurance Institution of Finland (ISS) is a national organisation; ISS has over 1 80 locations around the country and boasts an impressive real estate and project portfolio.The challenge for ISS was to develop procedures that allow the entire portfolio to be controlled and simultaneously add transparency and efficiency to management of different project proposals and real estate related projects.
Modelspace enables an overall view of the various projects and investments. The information is collected in one place and it is easy to understand. In individual projects, Modelspace makes management of projects more efficient through effective communication, easily updateable data, and ease of access.
ISS aims at being efficient, which is why digitalization and new digital-based processes and tools are important to the organization. All Finnish citizens are technically ISS’s clients, so naturally it aims to get rid of inefficient traditional paperwork and move to better digital options. Simultaneously, the aging population and the need to offer equal services to everyone, everywhere, means that it needs to have many physical locations, which is reflected in the real estate and building needs.
”Modelspace is a central tool in our new approach.”
- Anne Rantamäki, Facility Manager
Customer
The Social Insurance Institution of Finland is a government agency in charge of administrating benefits under Finland’s national security program. ISS was founded in 1 937 and was originally tasked to handle retirement payments. Since then its responsibilities have been extended to manage all basic welfare of Finns, to promote health and support individuals in their daily lives in different conditions. ISS offers customer service, advisory, grants various subsidiaries, manages the payments, and also performs research. This versatile field of activities requires working spaces whose construction, development and maintenance is the responsibility of ISS facility and construction services. They operate with an efficient core team of professionals.
ISS in a Nutshell
Owner: The Government of Finland
Core team of 15 staff in the real estate and construction management department
Employs 5,968 people
183 offices and 1 separate branch, 220,000 m2 of floor space owned, rented space 99,100 m2 of floor space and €7.1 million
Balance sheet value €150.3 million
Turnover €1 0,772 million per annum
Challenge
The Social Insurance Institution of Finland lacked a common approach to manage its large project portfolio. Each project was seen as unique and tasks and processes were made on an ad hoc basis, which resulted in inefficiencies and hampered communication. Different projects and project proposals were difficult to compare and selecting the right ones for implementation was hard. Project information was often known by one person only, which increased the risks associated with the projects and for losing vital information.
ISS needed an integrated approach that on one hand could manage individual projects and on the other give an overall view of all projects. ISS realized the challenge was real, and wanted to solve it using new digital solutions.
Solution
One of the objectives set by ISS was to get rid of duplication of effort and potential errors in process. This "principle of one pass" formed the cornerstone of the project. Information was to move between systems and users automatically and without delay. Modelspace solution supports this principle. The same information cannot be different in different parts of the system or in reports. Ready-made integrations and interfaces ensure that information is transferred from one organization and user to another without repetition. It is important for ISS that the information is not lost, but that it is enriched in the system. This is key to enable better management by knowledge.
Tools made for investment planning and project management have been essential for the Social Insurance Institution of Finland. Proposals are developed in the system for all potential projects. These form the portfolio from which the implemented projects are selected on an annual basis.
Uniform proposals make it easier to compare projects and the flow of information directly into a project allows for a comparison between an implemented project and the initial proposal.
The current information is always up to date - different investments provide an overall view of the portfolio status.
ISS’s operating environment is defined by the need to make state and local government operations more efficient. When it comes to construction projects, a major efficiency improvement has been made with the help of automatic tax declarations – before, the collection of this data employed the project secretary for many days, now the information is accessible in the system with the click of a button.
“We have the courage to search for new solutions – we look for new information and new solutions from the data models.”
ISS has found the use of Modelspace easy and productive. Automatic integrations with existing business used by ISS and the fast speed of the system increase trust. ISS has also seen that Gravicon and Scudo Solutions Ltd, the developer of the cost tracking module, play well together and that also helps them as the client.
”We’ve gotten rid of having to print reports for people – Modelspace offers a real time view of the data.”
ISS didn’t buy only the software service, but also a solution and a knowhow. Gravicon together with Scudo Solutions is committed to producing effective solutions for investment and project management. ISS is a forward thinking and future oriented organization, which believes it’s important to develop their own activities and the quality of their processes. The transparency and the development of reliability of information have thus been seen to be a good way to operate in the construction industry. Cloud services allow access to up-to-date information, which is always available and customizable. Any changes can be monitored and analysed in retrospect. The information isn’t only available in their headquarters, but everywhere ISS operates. In construction projects, ISS can also use a traditional project bank, and transfer data to it from the Modelspace system.
Continuation
On the basis of the good results ISS is interested in further developing its operations using Modelspace. A possible next step could be to take advantage of information gathered during capital construction projects and use it for maintenance. Utilization of BIM and facility information opens new doors for real estate professionals. The information is concrete and it can be used in many ways, for example when planning cleaning activities and purchasing cleaning or facility supplies like filters, lights, or paint.
Gravicon will continue its cooperation with ISS as a partner, process consultant, and as a software developer. One of the future development trends is to use Modelspace in the project phase as well as with the tasks associated with the warranty phase. This allows for monitoring of whether the required tasks have been done, and how and what kind of feedback they have received. ISS uses information management in an exemplary fashion and strives to design, measure and continuously improve its operations.
Gravicon
Digitalization has changed and will change construction continuously. Gravicon is one of Finland’s leading specialists on construction data modelling. We are experts on construction data management. The data management of construction projects is “management of the project through better and more accurate data. ”
Gravicon works as an informationmodelling expert in Finland’s most notable projects. Our consulting services cover the planning of information model processes and comprehensive training on the topic. Modelspace is a software solution developed by Gravicon for the management of construction projects.
