Social and Healthcare Survey: Up to 3 Billion Euro Annual Productivity Benefit for Wellbeing Services Counties Through Hyperautomation

Press Release February 6, 2025 at 08:30 am EET

Hyperautomation could enable up to 3 billion euros in annual productivity benefits across Finnish wellbeing services counties. The nationwide estimate is derived from the results of a recent productivity survey conducted in four wellbeing services counties.

HELSINKI (5.2.2025) – A recent survey commissioned by Digital Workforce Services Plc examined the role and benefits of hyperautomation in improving the productivity of social and healthcare services. The survey was a first-of-its-kind conducted in Finland’s wellbeing services counties and its results suggest that hyperautomation could enable an annual productivity improvement worth up to 3 billion euros in Finland’s wellbeing services counties. Hyperautomation refers to the utilization of automation tools and artificial intelligence to automate entire workflows or parts of processes.

The funding for wellbeing services counties amounts to 26.2 billion euros in 2025, nearly one-third of the state budget. While wellbeing services counties are critical to Finnish society’s functioning, they face significant challenges such as cost pressures and workforce availability issues. Simultaneously, the demand for many social and healthcare services continues to grow. Utilizing new technology-based solutions is crucial for ensuring social and healthcare organizations can meet the service needs without compromising quality.

The estimated 3-billion-euro productivity improvement was derived from the annual productivity improvement potential reported by the four wellbeing services counties that participated in the survey. The reported percentage of productivity improvement was extrapolated to all wellbeing services counties, and the corresponding monetary value was calculated based on the estimated improvement in work productivity and personnel costs.

The comprehensive survey was conducted with four wellbeing services counties (Kanta-Häme, Ostrobothnia, Lapland, and South Karelia), each estimating hyperautomation’s productivity impact as a percentage across their various service areas. The four organizations’ combined productivity potential was calculated at 417 million euros. The euro calculation applied the improvement percentage from the wellbeing services county that provided the lowest improvement estimate.

The survey’s respondents included 125 management team members, middle management representatives, and experts from various parts of the organizations.

Significant Productivity Potential Through Hyperautomation Identified in All Service Areas

The survey examined hyperautomation’s productivity benefits across different service areas: primary healthcare, specialized medical care, social services, and support and administrative services. According to the management teams of all participating wellbeing services counties, hyperautomation would enable over 20 percent productivity improvement in each service area. The most significant productivity potential was identified in the support and administrative services of wellbeing services counties.

The responding management teams mentioned manual data processing due to fragmented and diverse systems as the most significant data processing challenge. Additionally, key challenges included insufficient support from existing systems for care and customer pathways, and challenges posed by current information systems in developing and adapting processes and workflows to meet changing needs.

“The survey aimed to gather information about our organization’s key personnel’s understanding of work automation-related productivity opportunities. We will use the information obtained in the survey as part of our digital transformation program. Increasing automation plays a significant role in promoting the productivity of the wellbeing services county,” says Juuso Tamminen, Director of Effectiveness and Information Management at South Karelia wellbeing services county.

Some Productivity Measures Can Be Implemented in a Few Months says Digital Workforce CEO

The survey identified several practical efficiency measures made possible by hyperautomation across primary healthcare, specialized medical care, social services, and support and administrative services.

“Finland’s weakening dependency ratio is a significant challenge that requires a productivity leap in social and healthcare services. Hyperautomation offers quick and cost-effective solutions that can significantly streamline workflows and reduce manual knowledge work. Some productivity improvement measures could be implemented in wellbeing services counties in just a few months, supporting short-term goals as well. Solutions should be developed while listening to personnel, allowing them to improve work meaningfulness and service effectiveness. Automation can enhance access to care or service guidance and ensure that long-term illness monitoring is implemented in a timely and risk-based manner. Due to the great potential, we consider it important that Finland moves from individual experiments towards more comprehensive utilization of hyperautomation,” says Jussi Vasama, CEO of Digital Workforce.

Key targets identified for the application of hyperautomation include facilitating doctors’ and nurses’ information processing work, streamlining chronic and long-term illness care protocols, and automating related monitoring data processing. Additionally, improving customer and service guidance, automating HR and payroll workflows and processes, and automating financial administration processes were mentioned. Besides productivity benefits, these and other applications achieve other advantages, such as improved patient safety and service effectiveness, and more individualized and timely care. Errors are also reduced, and expert workload is eased.

Read a summary of the survey : PDF

For more information:

Jussi Vasama
CEO
Digital Workforce Services Plc
+358 50 380 98937

About the Survey

The survey of productivity effects of process development and automation in wellbeing services counties’ healthcare services was conducted by management consultants Pekka Manninen (M.Sc. Tech) and Markku Suokas (Medical Doctor, MBA), commissioned by Digital Workforce Oy. The survey included the wellbeing services counties of Kanta-Häme, Ostrobothnia, Lapland, and South Karelia. Respondents included members from wellbeing services counties’ management teams, primary healthcare, specialized medical care, social services, and administrative and support services. Management team members from participating wellbeing services counties provided responses through interview surveys, while others responded to an online survey. The survey was conducted from May to December 2024. The survey will continue and expand in spring 2025 to cover other wellbeing services counties.

About Digital Workforce Services Plc

Digital Workforce Services Plc is a leader in business automation and technology solutions. Its Outsmart platform and services, including Enterprise AI Agent solutions, empower organizations to transform knowledge work, reduce costs, accelerate digitalization, enhance customer experiences, and strengthen their competitive edge. Over 200 large international organizations rely on the company’s services to drive transformation through automation. Digital Workforce has particular expertise in automating healthcare and social care pathways, advancing long-term condition follow-up, improving patient safety, and enhancing the productivity of healthcare professionals. Founded in 2015, Digital Workforce employs over 200 business automation specialists across the US, UK & Ireland, and Northern and Central Europe. The company is listed on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market Finland.

https://digitalworkforce.com

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