Director General of the Population Register Centre Janne Viskari appointed digital leader of the year 2019

“For successful perception of a strategy that combines an organisation’s operations and the opportunities of digitalisation, the entire organisation’s effort is required. Similarly, collective contribution is necessary for planning, implementing and disseminating the required actions. This description applies to the PRC which has undergone significant changes and extended its area of responsibilities through successful operation over the past few years. Nevertheless, an innovative, goal-oriented spokesperson and realiser of digitalisation, such as Janne Viskari, is required to direct and guarantee successful operation. As a leader backed by his organisation, he has the courage to reform the organisation’s services and operations models as well as to act as an example for other public administration bodies in utilising the opportunities of digitalisation. In addition, he has the ability to get things done,” states Tivi in its criteria for the nomination.

The development of the PRC and several other public administration bodies into pioneers of digitalisation has been noted outside of Finland’s borders as well. This has resulted in a surge of visitors and speech requests. The personal recognition awarded to Janne Viskari is simultaneously a collective acclaim to the remarkable digitalisation development implemented in public administration. Currently, the PRC’s services offered via the Suomi.fi platform are part of Finns’ everyday online services. In addition, new services are resolutely developed with citizens as the focal point.

The PRC’s role as a pioneering trailblazer of digitalisation will become even more highlighted in early 2020 as the PRC and the local register offices will merge as the Digital and Population Data Services Agency. This central agency will be responsible for promoting societal digitalisation, ensuring access to information and the provision of services.

“Our main challenge lying ahead is the maintenance of the service level attributable to the welfare society. Digital services offer the best solution for overcoming the challenge. In future, we will need to be able to provide public administration services equally comprehensively but with lower production costs. In order to better meet citizens’ needs, we must invest in extensive utilisation of various data resources across operators and systems. We must enable reliable, automated flow of data between different systems. To achieve this, system developers must pay particular attention to the systems’ interoperability. At the same time, we must ensure that data is processed in an ethical manner. One of the key objectives of digitalisation is to be able to maintain citizens’ trust in the public administration’s capacity to process their data correctly. Citizens’ trust can be increased by making the data processing more transparent, that is, by enabling citizens to see where their data is processed,” says Janne Viskari.

“However, digitalisation cannot be implemented only by improving the systems or the legislation. We need to get citizens who are capable of using electronic devices to also use public administration services electronically. We must invest in the development of people’s individual digital skills. All fields of education must offer instruction in basic digital skills in future. Furthermore, the skills and capacities of working-age people and the elderly must be improved in order to narrow the skills gap caused by the turning point of employment,” Viskari continues.