"IT plays a pivotal role in enabling and maintaining the decision making and communication of ministers and other government officials. Reliable and stable service production are of extreme importance at the top of government administration", points out IT Director Kari Kekki of Government Information Management Unit (VNTHY).

VNTHY's tailored Patja service was launched in summer 2005. According to Kari Kekki, the honeymoon since then has gone "well, if not very well".

"Things are happening and getting done. We have even started some development projects. For example, we have scrutinised the technical backups of the critical environment. Remote work and mobile services are also among the hot topics right now, which we are enhancing on many fronts as we speak. The Finnish EU presidency is around the corner and every little detail has to be in place on the day it begins in July."

VNTHY provides IT services to 13 ministries, among others the Ministry of Finance and the Prime Minister's Office. Its customers also include several other government administrative offices and organisations.

"The Finnish Government is at the core of our service production. Our customers are extremely demanding with needs that must be reacted to proactively. We function as the mediator between our customers and IT companies, implementing and executing the needs of our customers."

VNTHY's tailored Patja agreement covers the Patja services, in other words the customer support for the Government Information Management Unit, and the availability services of 130 servers for the Ministry of Finance and Prime Minister's Office. Also, VNTHY provides availability services to the Ministry of Transport and Communications, the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and the Ministry of Defence. The service covers 830 workstations in the Ministry of Finance, the Prime Minister's Office and VNTHY.

"We actually like working with IT related matters ourselves, but we really enjoy this arrangement, having Fujitsu around and freeing up our time to focus on our own core competence", Kari Kekki says.