Microsoft Dynamics CRM as the solution

The City of Turku harmonises its stakeholder management with a CRM solution supplied by Mepco

The City of Turku is standardising and streamlining its stakeholder management with a unified IT admin system. This CRM solution was first rolled out in the central administration, the Turku Regional Development Centre, museums and the Turku 2011 Foundation.

Stakeholder management had previously been the responsibility of each individual administrative section in Turku. A single, centralised solution was desired to replace the various practices and dis-parate systems.

"Turku is an important civic player that is at the centre of a significant collaborative network. We were looking for a unified solution for our admin functions to keep our stakeholder information up to date and which everyone could use," explained Esa Tuomisto, Turku's director of government and community relations.

"The old systems were difficult to use, the content was redundant and they were expensive to maintain. We needed an efficient solution to manage our Finnish and international networks consistently," added Mia Ylinen, project manager for the City of Turku's central administration.

A complex and challenging software deployment project

The project, which got under way in 2009, was based on a previous needs analysis and surveys of the systems. The solution they chose was Microsoft Dynamics CRM supplied by Mepco Oy.

"The Port of Turku, which is owned by the city, had already been using the same system from the same supplier. The positive experiences with both made it a natural choice," Mr. Tuomisto reasoned.

Joint workshops were held to go through the data content and classification models and to harmonise concepts. The software was rolled out in the winter of 2010 in the central administration, the Turku Regional Development Centre and the city's cultural facilities.

"It was a challenging project because we had to harmonise complex data from a number of differ-ent systems. The project went well, thanks to our experienced business partner," said Matti Rautee from the city's IT department.

In its initial phase, the software is being used by around 50 users. That number will increase when it is rolled out into more departments in the autumn of 2010. Even in this first phase, the number of contact details logged in the system has increased to ten thousand.

Publicising events and communicating with stakeholders

The city administration's stakeholder groups include the national government, the regional government, municipalities and international partners. These target groups are actively contacted in connection with various events and seminars. The system is used in planning and managing events. Mailouts are done both via regular post and electronically.

"In the future, we will add an electronic notification system to the solution. We use the accumulated historical data in the system in developing events and targeting communications," explained Ms. Ylinen.

The Turku Regional Development Centre specialises in employment, serving businesses in the region as well as promoting regional cooperation and improving business competitiveness.

"We use the CRM system in electronic communications and in managing business partnership pro-jects. We're always generating various lists of companies and sending out letters, newsletters and invitations to our stakeholders," said Sanna Forslund, a project administrator at the Turku Regional Development Centre.

Serving more visitors at the Turku Cultural Services Office

The Turku Museum Centre was the site of the pilot project for the Turku Cultural Services Office. The system will be expanded to cover the city orchestra, the theatre and library in the autumn of 2010. The stakeholders of the Turku Cultural Services Office are mainly individual customers and the media.

"We use the system to handle the distribution of newsletters and publications to various stakeholder groups. Our plans for the near future are to use the new tools to market various monthly offers to tens of thousands of holders of Culture Cards," explained Leena Lehmusto of the Turku Museum Centre.

Turku is one of the European Capitals of Culture in 2011, together with Tallinn. The programme for this special year includes over 150 projects and thousands of individual events. The CRM system is used in all communications with stakeholder groups.

"With the eMarketing tool developed by Mepco, we can market events efficiently to large numbers of potential visitors. In the future, we will use this solution in generating new programmes as well," said Jarmo Röksä, project manager with the Turku 2011 Foundation.

A strategically important solution for the city's administration

The shared CRM solution makes it possible to standardise practices, informational content and sys-tems. "The system has achieved the desired change and ease in our operations. The efficient management of our networked capital is of key strategic importance for the city's administration," Esa Tuomisto emphasised.

"Centralised management of our stakeholder data ensures that this information is up to date and accessible to everyone. The familiar Outlook user interface guarantees that our day-to-day work goes smoothly. The system makes it possible to handle communications electronically and target them precisely. It also eliminates duplicated work and saves on costs," Mia Ylinen explained.

Mepco managed the project in a focused, yet straightforward manner. "The people from Mepco listened to our requirements, used understandable language and were able to provide professional yet personalised help," noted Leena Lehmusto appreciatively.

Additional information available from

Mepco: Hannu Kaukonen, Deputy Managing Director, tel +358 (0)400 527 681, send e-mail

City of Turku:
Esa Tuomisto, Director of Government and Community Relations, tel +358 (0)50 559 0514, send e-mail
Mia Ylinen, Project Administrator, tel +358 (0)44 907 5715, send e-mail

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