TEHY, the Union of Health and Social Care Professionals, made the largest IT investment in its history and transferred its local trade unions into the mobile era. The necessary equipment was supplied to TEHY by a new partner, Businessforum.

Last year, TEHY purchased 350 laptops with the necessary tools, virus protection software, and accessories from Businessforum. These laptops were for the use of various local trade union branches all over Finland. TEHY wished to equip these regional offices with uniform computers with fast, problem-free connections. The procurement project was initiated in May, the TEHY union conference made a decision in the matter in June, purchase decisions were made in August, and the deliveries and training took place in October and November.

- This was the largest single IT purchase of all time for our organisation. What was critical for success was seamless cooperation with the supplier, as well as an outstanding internal project team, IT head Sami Kallioinen explains.

The representatives of the local branches had previously taken care of their organisation's communications through their home or office computers. Now the goal was to achieve well-functioning and uniform connections in the entire field.

The laptops were installed so that they were ready to use, the software was registered, and the devices were delivered to various parts of Finland to a total of twenty sites, where TEHY organised training for the users itself. In addition to the computers, the delivery included mobile handsets, through which the telecommunications take place.

TEHY had not partnered with Businessforum before, but in the competitive bidding, it turned out to be the best alternative. The familiar supplier that TEHY had used previously wound up in second place.

- The competitive bidding process was tight, and tenders were requested from half a dozen suppliers. Businessforum clearly had the best total package, including a price that was right. We have used the equipment of Fujitsu-Siemens previously as well, so the brand was familiar.

- Money is not the only thing that matters, a good partnership is also significant, Kallioinen adds.