City of Oulu & City of Turku

Early childhood education system reform allows more time for children

Two of the largest cities in Finland reformed a critical system for early childhood education and care, and now early childhood education professionals have more time for children. At the same time, it became easier for parents to be in contact, prerequisites for knowledge-based management improved and further development became more agile.

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OBJECTIVE

Modern tools for early childhood education

In Oulu and Turku, the aim was to develop an ERP and customer information system for early childhood and preschool education. As the system is critical to the provision of the service, its development was estimated to have a significant positive impact on professionals’ day-to-day work, management, costs and online services for the local residents.

The aim was to replace outdated systems with a modern solution that would bring several different functions and services to a single location. Oulu and Turku decided to make use of the eVaka information system based on open source code, with Espoo and Tampere already having gained good experiences of the implementation of the system. After a bidding process, Gofore was selected as a partner for the implementation and continuous development of the system.

SOLUTION

Agile deployment and further development with the MVP model

The eVaka system for early childhood education was introduced first in Oulu and then in Turku. After commissioning, the system has been developed in collaboration with Tampere and Espoo. The principles of agile development have been utilised in the work.

“Cooperation with Gofore and other eVaka cities has been easy and open. Thanks to the Scrum practices and regular meetings led by Gofore, we have been up to date on the progress at every stage”, says coordinator Anne Jokiniemi from Oulu.

In the implementation, Gofore and the cities paid special attention to the efficient migration of old data and the several system integrations required. The functionalities have been developed according to the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) model. Under this model, a simple version of the system is built and then developed further in stages based on feedback. In this way, it is possible to react quickly to the wishes of the users.

“For us, this has not been just an IT project, but a change project covering all the operations. Our organisation has learned a lot from Gofore about agile methods and MVP thinking. I can also draw on these lessons in all our development activities,” says Turku’s chief service designer Olli-Matti Orpana.

For us, this has not been just an IT project, but a change project covering all the operations.

Olli-Matti Orpana / City of Turku

RESULT

More time for activities with children

Oulu and Turku now have a smoothly functioning early childhood education ERP and customer information system, which will be further developed on the basis of feedback received from the users. Staying on schedule and achieving goals is a particularly great achievement for a public administration project that involved several different cities, needs and integrations.

“We are really pleased with how well we achieved our goals. The most important thing is that the staff can now use more of their working time for activities with children’s groups”, says Jokiniemi.

The easy-to-use eVaka is in use on the phones of thousands of early childhood education professionals and tens of thousands of parents every day. It is used, among other things, for records of children present in early childhood education, communications between parents and early childhood education professionals, applications for a place in early childhood education for a child and the handling of invoices. Replacing multiple systems with a single one saves both time and cost.

“With the help of system integrations, eVaka provides high-quality and up-to-date data to support decision-making, which helps with the development of knowledge-driven management in the city organisation,” Orpana says.

We are really pleased with how well we achieved our goals. The most important thing is that the staff can now use more of their working time for activities with children's groups.

Anne Jokiniemi / City of Oulu

Project highlights

Objective

Outdated systems affected the day-to-day work of early childhood education professionals in Oulu and Turku. A modern, easy-to-use, uniform ERP and customer information system was needed, which would free up professionals’ working time from using the systems to activities with children.

Solution

Gofore implemented an eVaka system based on open source software, first in Oulu and then in Turku. The city organisations praised the smooth collaboration and the educational Scrum and MVP processes. After deployments, the system has been developed in accordance with the principles of agile development with other eVaka cities.

Result

Thousands of early childhood education professionals and tens of thousands of parents use the new system daily in Oulu and Turku. Replacing multiple systems with one saves both time and cost. The day-to-day activities in early childhood education now run more smoothly and it is easier for parents to manage their affairs. Additionally, up-to-date data supports the knowledge-based management of cities.