Digital assistant kicks off digitalisation development in Laukaa and invites joint development

TalousEki is a digital assistant and chatbot that mines financial information using artificial intelligence, developed together by Gofore and the municipality of Laukaa. It expands the staff’s financial skills and takes the municipality further towards digitalisation and knowledge-based management. The system, based on open source code, is freely available to other municipalities as well.

“A couple of years ago, we started to develop our internal processes with an open mind with Gofore. After just a few brainstorming sessions, we had a vision that offers a range of innovative solutions to the municipality,” says Eero Raittila, the director of finance and human resources of the municipality of Laukaa.

The underlying driver was a desire to develop financial expertise as comprehensively as possible and to make a shift towards knowledge-based management. This crystallised into an idea of a digital assistant for financial administration, helping management in charge of a number of issues.

Municipal decision-makers should have quick and easy access to the basic information about the municipality’s financial situation and the full support of financial administration professionals in difficult situations. We saw right away that the digital assistant can enable both.

They used this as a basis to submit a funding application to the incentive scheme for the digitalisation of municipalities. The application was successful, and now the TalousEki chatbot is already in test use.

“I still find it amazing that after just a few meetings, we not only had a vision but also a good idea about the costs, timetable and project rhythm. This wouldn’t have been possible without Gofore’s expertise in AI solutions in the public sector.” Raittila says.

Raittila says that the work has been planned right from the start in such a way that TalousEki could become a scalable tool and operating model for municipalities. The financial structure of municipalities is pretty similar, although practices and tools may vary somewhat. Our experiences are so promising that I believe there will be interest for joint development.

Everything that was possible in terms of the technology has been done with this in mind. “The solution is based on open source code, and it’s easy to maintain. We can also develop it ourselves, independently of suppliers and systems.”

Raittila thanks the Gofore staff for their clear project management, active approach and relaxed, positive atmosphere to development, and compelling vision.
“Gofore’s own bots are a good example for us. Gofore were instrumental in the project. They brought in their expertise and ideas and have ensured that the project runs smoothly, even if we didn’t specifically ask for it.”

Cooperation with Gofore has been beneficial in other ways, too.

“I believe it has taken us further in our drive to digitalisation and agile development. This is a fine kick-off for us towards reaching our ambitious targets.” Raittila says.