"As Long as Our Customers Are Happy": Joki ICT Helps Provide Better Services to Finnish Citizens
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A regional company providing Information and Communications Technology (ICT)-powered government services, Finland's Joki ICT is actually owned by the municipalities it serves. As such, it has 36 owners — 25 municipalities, six municipal associations, and five municipally-owned companies — and provides these owners with network, data center, information security, data protection, telecommunications, Information Technology (IT) support, and software systems services. The company places emphasis on close cooperation with customers, heavily investing in solutions that streamline and digitalize service processes.
The public sector faces a huge challenge: modernizing ICT infrastructure and digitalizing citizen-facing services, all while the citizenry they serve expect ever higher levels of digital convenience and automation. As a result, digital transformation is now imperative, covering everything from electricity to household water supplies.
This is where, for years, Joki ICT has stepped in, helping Finland's public sector with all things ICT, taking over the burden from municipalities, who are freed to focus on their core mission as well as make space for innovation and modernization. Back in 2015, the company was searching for a new network vendor, to better cater to the anticipated future needs of municipalities. "I was searching for alternatives to a legacy switch solution for one of our clients," noted Mauri Kyllönen, Network Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Joki ICT. "This legacy system was no longer able to support all of the functions required."
So Kyllönen first discovered Huawei online, through the latter's website, and was pleasantly surprised to find an extensive product portfolio, including a switch option that satisfied what he'd initially set out to look for. Reaching out to Huawei Finland, Kyllönen oversaw the purchase of products from the CloudEngine S6720 Series.
After successfully implementing this new switch solution for the client in question, Joki ICT took on additional infrastructure modernization projects, hand-in-hand with Huawei, gaining increasing expertise in the implementation of Huawei network solutions, storage devices, and server products. Huawei's Campus Network Solution, to take one example, has proven especially popular with Finnish customers. The solution's product portfolio includes CloudEngine S Series campus switches, AirEngine Wi-Fi 6 Access Points (APs) and Access Controllers (ACs), NetEngine AR Series enterprise routers, Huawei's next generation autonomous driving network management and control system for campus networks — iMaster NCE-Campus — and the campus network analyzer platform iMaster NCE-CampusInsight. The solution helps organizations build converged, efficient, secure, and integrated campus networks that are simplified, flexible, easy to manage, and high performing. Joki ICT also has experience deploying Huawei OceanStor Dorado all-flash storage systems for its customers, delivering significant performance boosts.
Beginning life as a tiny two-person team, Joki ICT has enjoyed sustained, significant growth — that twin team has now grown to more than 50 people, today — playing a big role in the digital transformation of Finland's public services. And with the Joki ICT-Huawei cooperation into its sixth year, from 2016 to 2020, the company enjoyed unparalleled success, growing by nearly 100%. Now, the company is well on its way to becoming a formalized Huawei partner.
Working with Huawei, Joki ICT has accelerated the time it takes to build solutions for municipal clients, with improved customer service proving a boon to sales. Huawei, too, has provided rapid service support to the company, across its operations, resulting in positive feedback from end-customers, who highlight the performance and rapid delivery of solutions. "I am delighted with the cooperation with Huawei and satisfied with its products," commented Petri Kinnunen, Joki ICT's Chief Executive Officer (CEO). "In truth, I'm even a little surprised at just how well everything has gone, given that there have been no complaints at all from our customers and no real challenges." And as far as Kyllönen is concerned, "with Huawei, we are able to deliver smooth services to customers, making their lives better. And as long as our customers are happy, we're happy too."
The story doesn't end here, either. The Joki ICT team has recognized the huge potential of Huawei's solutions and plans to expand into more sectors. For example, it will soon offer smart education solutions to Finnish schools, including the collaboration tool HUAWEI IdeaHub. And as far as Huawei is concerned, it will continue to search for new ways to support Joki ICT, helping the company to grow from strength to strength.
