Kela
With the help of easy-to-use online services, Finns can find the social security services they need quickly and accessibly.
The client
Kela, the Social Insurance Institution of Finland, provides social security coverage for Finnish residents and many Finns living abroad through the different stages of their lives. Among the social security benefits offered by Kela are family benefits, health insurance, rehabilitation, basic unemployment security, basic social assistance, housing benefits, financial aid for students, disability benefits and basic pensions.
Kela wants to serve its customers in several channels and is constantly developing its digital channels, especially to make transactions easier. In 2021, the Kela.fi website had 56.5 million visits, and the Kanta.fi website had 42.4 million visits.
The challenge
The customer needed to clarify and improve digital touching points and transaction channels across the board. At the centre was a genuine desire to serve all users of the services equally.
The reform of online services aimed to parse each service’s structure to serve the needs of different target groups and respond flexibly to existing and tomorrow’s service packages well into the future.
The solution
Kanta.fi website had accumulated significant technical debt – the systems began to be rigid and difficult to use, and they no longer served all target groups equally. Kela.fi website’s starting point was better, and we could focus more on superficial improvements that create value for the end-user.
The design projects were based on a strongly user-driven operating model, and user testing was carried out continuously during the process.
As part of a broader web development team, we were responsible for website design, front-end development, and accessibility. The process followed the agile development model (Scrum), and we did the website development in a sprint format in a multi-vendor environment.
The results
We created the clarity the customer needed for the Kela.fi and Kanta.fi services, and we succeeded in implementing the accessibility of the websites. With the reform, transactions were transferred even more intensely online, where people could take care of their affairs faster and more efficiently. As a result, Kela’s customer service load decreased and user satisfaction with transactions improved.
Visitor statistics provide a perspective on the size of Kela’s online services. In 2021 there was
- 80 million logins to OmaKela e-service
- 56.5 million visits to Kela.fi website
- 42.4 million visits Kanta.fi services
The meaning
Kela’s purpose is to provide social security coverage for Finnish residents and many Finns living abroad through the different stages of their lives. To perform this task, it must offer its customers equal and accessible transactions in different channels, where services must be easily available. Therefore, the roles of Kela.fi and Kanta.fi services as information and transaction channels are socially significant for both citizens and service providers.
At the heart of the idea was the bigger meaning of developing services – ensuring that every Finn and those living in Finland can easily find the help they need online.
