Enterprise Architecture in the Finnish public sector – It’s the law

In 2011, Finland adopted the Act on Information Management Governance in Public Administration, aiming for a common way of working when using and managing information. For the citizens the results of the Act can be experienced via more coherent processes when dealing with public services, even if many organizations are involved in the delivery. It is important to note that the Act reflects an advanced thinking on information management by mentioning Enterprise Architecture and how it has to be adopted by the public sector.

The Ministry of Finance drives the modeling the action-oriented and strategy based enterprise architecture work. It also has a governing role for common services. The execution is the responsibility of all public sector organizations.

The effects of the new law are already visible. If 2013, was still a year of spreading the word and the understanding on enterprise architecture (already 88% of state organizations had started EA work), 2014 has seen some major EA implementation projects. So 2015 can be predicted to be a booming period for EA in many public sector organizations. As the understanding and maturity of EA has increased, it’s becoming an integral part of the public sector ICT transformation process. However, EA has gone further from ICT planning and it’s now also playing a major role in the state financial administration and control development.

In order for EA to be implemented and to serve as the common language for development, the joint enterprise architecture approach is backed-up by a large and efficient training program developed by the Ministry of Finance. Since 2013, approximately 1000 officers from state, municipal and academic administrations have received training in 8 different EA subjects.

Finnish public organizations must now by law plan and model their enterprise architecture as well as comply and maintain it. The goals and benefits for public sector EA are numerous, but essentially it aims to provide new and existing services in a smooth and accessible way as well as bring cost savings for the administration. This in turn leads to realizing a vision of boosting the Finnish technology sector in international competition and securing the country’s leading position in electronic services.


Jussi Siltanen

Product Marketing Manager
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