The Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities is improving its lobbying activities, as well as its service and development operations by implementing the Thinking Portfolio application.
Strategic management requires up-to-date, reliable and concrete information for decision making.
Tiina Rinne, Program Coordinator of the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities, is advocating an open, cooperation-oriented culture of development. She is hoping that new methods and tools will increase transparency while improving results and well-being. The objective is to inspire employees towards development and thereby enhance the association’s ability to reform and become more productive.
– Thinking Portfolio offers structure to the implementation of strategy, enabling us to visualize measures and to determine, whether we are moving in the right direction and that the selected measures are pursuant to our strategy.
– Thinking Portfolio is a tool for development and reform. This tool increases the efficiency of our processes and practices.
Thinking Portfolio will be implemented in the portfolio management for lobbying. Lobbying activities address issues arising from EU and national policies, and they are outlined in the association’s strategy. Currently, most of the processes related to lobbying pertain to the municipal reform. The Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities has an extensive sphere of responsibilities, and objectives are reached through projects and lobbying. It is essential that objectives can be aligned under one entity which can then be managed in a productive, strategy-oriented way.
Information system for implementing strategy
As a cloud service, Thinking Portfolio is an easy-to-use, affordable information system, which enables comprehensive management of project-oriented activities within an organization. Kari Ahopelto, IT Manager of the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities, finds that information systems are a part of unifying procedures and implementing strategy.
– The technical prerequisites have been available for quite some time. However, the possibilities provided by information technology are still surprisingly often neglected during structural changes, implementing strategy, monitoring or management. It is also important to observe cost-efficient information management architecture.
Thinking Portfolio enhancing openness
Implementation of Thinking Portfolio at the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities begins with project status reporting, which project managers will be performing for the first time with Thinking Portfolio in August 2013. In future, the projects will be easy to monitor and compare based on saved report data.
During the first phase, the tool will be used by management, directors, project managers and personnel responsible for lobbying. Pursuant to our dedication to openness, the entire staff, and later municipal partners and other project interest groups will have viewing rights to Thinking Portfolio.
Additional information
Tiina Rinne
Program Coordinator, Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities
Kari Ahopelto
IT Manager, Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities
