The winners of the Mayor’s innovation competition are ‘LIRP – Library resource planner’ and ‘Rapid online proficiency test of the Finnish language‘
The Mayor of Espoo’s Innovation Competition had a high calibre of entries this year, with 57 entries representing a wide range of city functions and services. The EUR 5,000 prize of the Innovation Series was won by the Espoo City Library’s entry ‘LIRP – Library resource planner.’ The Potential Innovations category and its accompanying prize of EUR 3,000 was won by Employment Services’ entry ‘Rapid online proficiency test of the Finnish language.’
Innovations improve quality and sustainability of services
The Mayor’s Innovation Competition seeks innovations and potential innovations that have improved Espoo’s services and the city’s operating methods. In addition to city personnel, the competition is open to all Espoo-based companies. This year, 57 entries were submitted, which is significantly more than in recent years. Five of the entries were from companies, and numerous entries involved companies as partners. A total of 13 entries were selected for the final round. “The high calibre and large number of the competition entries speaks to the extensive expertise and commitment of the entire Espoo community. The innovations of city personnel and Espoo companies solve the city’s current and future challenges jointly and collaboratively in resident-oriented and customer-centric ways. In the best-case scenario, innovations are created that improve the quality and sustainability of services,” says Jukka Mäkelä, Mayor of Espoo.
The entries were assessed by a panel of judges representing different divisions of the City of Espoo, who were proud and pleased to see that the city’s range of innovations covers competencies ranging from hard technology to human-centred everyday solutions. The high level of the innovations shows the breadth and depth of the expertise of the Espoo work community.
LIRP streamlines library operations and improves customer experience
The winning entry of the Innovation category is ‘LIRP – Library resource planner’ of the Espoo City Library’s Collection Management Development Group. The inventory and collection management system enhances the work of library staff in several significant ways. The RFID functionality of the LIRP handles the scanning of masses of data efficiently. It allows the library’s materials and, for example, customer’s reservations to be processed quickly for the pick-up point, which improves the customer experience. The LIRP significantly saves staff time, which can be utilised for more customer-oriented tasks.
Finnish-language online test to speed up integration of foreign-language customers
The Potential Innovations category was won by a rapid online Finnish language proficiency test developed by city's Employment services. The half-hour test speeds up the assessment of the language skills of foreign-language customers and improve the availability of information on jobseekers’ language skills to the city and the future employment area. The city can utilise the test results in recruitment and employment coaches can use them in service guidance. The innovation is also a cost-effective option for assessing the Finnish language skills of thousands of foreign-language jobseekers.
In addition to the city’s Employment Services, the experiment was developed by the Digital Services Development and Knowledge Management unit of the Mayor’s Office, information security and contract experts of the Mayor’s Office, the Data Administration unit and an external partner, Reactored (Rouhia Ltd). Finnish language teachers from Omnia also contributed to the collaboration.
Honourable mentions to finalists
In addition to the main prizes, honourable mentions worth EUR 500 and EUR 250 were awarded to innovations that reached the final round.
Innovations category recipients of an EUR 500 honourable mention:
- Developing and digitalising material for religion and worldview studies (experiment)
- Information retrieval and source criticism “Battle” for grades 5–6
Potential Innovations category recipients of an EUR 500 honourable mention:
- Need-based solution model for digital support
- City of Espoo’s Nature Information System (Luoti project)
Innovations category recipients of an EUR 250 honourable mention:
- Lepuski 2.0 – Two-step planning reservation (idea competition)
- Cycling lessons for adults
- Have a safe working day! (visual introductory guide to occupational safety)
Potential Innovations category recipients of an EUR 250 honourable mention:
- Revolution of building energy consumption
- Property management induction and recruitment promotion games
- Metaverse and Espoo: Innovative carbon footprint calculator to support sustainable development
- Weighted family day care model
Espoo innovations have potential to succeed in national competition
The Mayor’s Innovation Competition has been organised in cooperation with Excellence Finland since 2012. Excellence Finland goes over the entries for Espoo and proposes the best for the final round.
The competition entries also take part in the national Quality Innovation Competition organised by Excellence Finland. Two Espoo entries, ‘LIRP – Library Resource Planner’ and ‘Lepuski 2.0 – Two-step planning reservation (idea competition)’, were selected for the final of the Quality Innovation Award competition. The winner will be announced on 7 November 2024.
Enquiries:
- Jukka Mäkelä, Mayor, City of Espoo, tel. +358 46 8773953, jukka.makela@espoo.fi
- Minna Salaspuro, Specialist, City of Espoo, tel. +358 40 6368978, minna.salaspuro@espoo.fi