Better service for Finnish forest owners – The Finnish Forest Centre is introducing a Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement solution

The Finnish Forest Centre and Digia signed an agreement on 25 June 2019 on the delivery of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement customer relationship management system. In addition to the delivery agreement, a support and maintenance agreement and a framework agreement were also signed. The value of the agreement is approximately EUR 1 million, including an implementation project, further development and maintenance for four years. The solution package delivered by Digia replaces the current CRM system of the Finnish Forest Centre.

The Finnish Forest Centre is a public administration operator whose task is to promote forest-based livelihoods, collect and share information on Finnish forests and monitor compliance with forest legislation. The target group of the Forest Centre is all Finnish forest owners and forestry operators, including companies, private individuals and consortiums. For the Forest Centre, customer data acts a facilitator of operations and the centre aims to create and utilise it in increasingly versatile ways in service situations.

The goal of the new CRM system is to enable the systematic planning, implementation and monitoring of the Forest Centre’s customer relationship management, thus supporting the Forest Centre’s operations in promoting forest and nature management and in its role in connecting forest operators.

“The Forest Centre wants to improve the usability of open forest data and the benefits its customers gain from forests. At the same time, we also want to renew and modernise our systems. This reform of the customer relationship management system serves both purposes”, says Ari Eini, Director, the Finnish Forest Centre.

“Digia was chosen as the solution supplier thanks to its industry and integration expertise, among other things. Moreover, the Microsoft solution proposed by Digia was clear and cost-effective, as well as being well-suited as part of our overall architecture”, says Tapani Hämäläinen, Chief Development Officer, the Finnish Forest Centre.

In addition to internal plug-ins, the CRM solution also utilises data from external sources, such as the Population Register Centre, the Tax Administration and the National Land Survey of Finland.

“The Forest Centre’s CRM package is an excellent example of how one system can be used to serve many different stakeholders by utilising information from different sources. We are not just implementing an isolated and limited system, but a genuinely networked solution that connects to a wider ecosystem through interfaces”, says Senior Vice President Jukka Kotro from Digia.

In addition to the Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement system, the package to be delivered also includes the ClickDimensions marketing automation solution and Lyyti event management. Digia is also responsible for implementing the necessary integrations.