USCO project workshop discussed future data-driven services and customer experience

The USCO (Using Digital Co-Creation for Business Development) project that was launched in January 2016 works to enhance the preparedness of Finnish companies and public organisations to use digitalisation in the development of customer-centred services, in particular.

The areas under review include both the organisations’ internal operations and interaction with clients. The USCO project looks at the utilisation of digitalisation from four viewpoints: the organisation’s leadership and culture, open innovation and agile pilots, well-being at work, and customer-centricity.

The project participants are Isännöintiverkko, Tax Administration, Keva, Kesko, Fennia, Silta Oy, Humap Consulting and Danske Bank. The research organisations are Laurea and the University of Tampere, and the project is funded by Business Finland.

New tools for designing data-driven services 

Dr. Mohammed Zaki from the University of Cambridge facilitated the Data-Driven Business Model workshop on the Leppävaara campus on Wednesday, 6 March. The workshop participants discussed how organisations can design data-driven services and plan the provision of digital services in the future. 

- The goal is to teach the workshop participants new tools which they can apply when pondering the future of data-driven services, Mohammed Zaki says.  

The workshop focused on the development of digital services and customer experience through digital, physical and social dimensions.

- With the on-going digitalisation of many services and implementation of new technologies, it is also important to take into consideration the significance of human contact and interaction. In hospitals, for example, being able to interact with hospital personnel is important to patients, since the interaction offers them empathy and they trust the personnel. 

- Digitalisation and, for example, increased use of robots involve a lot of research and add to our understanding of how people and artificial intelligence work together, Mohammed says. 

Workshop provided tools for utilising data

The workshop participants represented a number of different organisations. Director Laura Poikkimäki from Silta Oy says that they have all participated in the USCO project since the beginning.

- In my opinion, all the workshop discussions and the new tools we received are important, Laura Poikkimäki says. 

- We just discussed a cube model, in which the service provision and customer experience are viewed through different dimensions. This exercise gave us concrete tools for finding ways to provide the services, Laura says. 

Jaakko Ristola, Director at Keva, participated in a USCO workshop for the first time. Jaakko is in charge of projects concerning core data, data repository and reporting in his job.

- I am hoping this workshop provides me with a new perspective on how to better make use of the wealth of data we have collected and have here at Keva, both within our organisation and from the viewpoint of external clients, he says. 

- This morning our team designed a new service to help both employer and private clients to better manage their personnel in a data-driven manner,”Jaakko describes.  

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