Digital Workforce is the strategic partner to the City of Espoo’s introduction of organization-wide process automation

Digital Workforce has been selected as the strategic partner to Espoo’s social and healthcare function in the introduction of organization-wide process automation. Over the last years, Espoo has developed a good understanding of how software robots work and where they can be used to create most value. Ropsu, the city’s first cloud-based digital worker has been working successfully in the city’s home care unit for elderly people since 2016. Now the city, known as the forerunner of digital solutions, prepares to ramp-up the use of digital workers across the organization.

Espoo’s robotic journey

Ropsu, Espoo’s first digital worker delivered by Digital Workforce, has worked tirelessly for over a year in the city’s home care unit for elderly people. The robot works in the home care unit’s resourcing process, where it calculates substitution needs and makes the necessary substitute work orders and entries to the city’s ERP system. Ropsu’s performance continues to exceed expectations, and its introduction has also increased the customer’s understanding of software robots and their applications. In Espoo, very soon after the pilot project started it became easy to identify new processes applicable for automation. These and many other processes will soon be executed by new digital workers. Ropsu’s work will also be further expanded.

Digital workers create value for both customers and employees

The new digital colleagues are highly anticipated in Espoo. The city’s experience with awards-winning Ropsu showed that when the nursing staff was able to concentrate on customer care, the most valuable and rewarding part of their work, their job satisfaction increased. At the same time, utilizing the digital worker made it possible to accelerate business processes and improve the quality and efficiency of service. The robot was not perceived as a threat, but as a long-waited help in a situation where the staff’s time was increasingly tied to recurring computer-based tasks. Applying the same logic, Espoo has been able to identify many other processes that can – when automated – enable the city staff to concentrate on creating true value for their customers.