When a skilled developer left the IT team at the Town of Keuruu for another role, the small team faced a major challenge. Finding a new top-level specialist would have been highly unlikely, so the team decided to fill the gap with the help of Tietokeskus experts. Together, they solve everyday IT problems and explore ways to further develop the IT infrastructure.
The Town of Keuruu employs around 750 people, with IT handled by a compact four-person team.
There is plenty to do: just in administrative offices, there are over 400 workstations, and even more in schools and educational facilities if student devices are included. Most of the IT team’s time is spent on maintenance and troubleshooting rather than development.
Keuruu’s IT team suddenly shrinks
Until last year, everything ran smoothly with internal resources.
“We had a very capable person on the team who wanted to develop himself and built a lot of automation for us. Then the usual thing happened: he left for even more challenging projects elsewhere. So we were left with a gap in expertise.”
– Markku Majaniemi, System Designer, City of Keuruu
Finding an equivalent specialist would have been extremely difficult and expensive.
“If someone is as capable as he was, they’re probably already working at a company like Tietokeskus. Getting such a person as a support employee for a small town isn’t realistic,” he summarizes.
The town therefore had to find another solution and started exploring which partner could handle the work as an outsourced service.
IT team now buys specialised expertise from Tietokeskus consultants
The approach began problem by problem. At that moment, Keuruu needed strong PowerShell expertise.
When searching for the right expert partner, they happened upon Tietokeskus.
“Tietokeskus happened to have a webinar on this very topic, and we attended. We felt that they had solid expertise.”
– Markku Majaniemi, System Designer, City of Keuruu
Once the collaboration started, it was easy to expand to other challenges. Today, the Town of Keuruu utilises Tietokeskus consulting and expertise whenever a challenge or development need arises that cannot be met internally.
The goal: maintain IT functionality and security
Together, they have focused on server performance and cybersecurity. When Microsoft ended support for 2008 servers earlier this year, the issue was efficiently resolved.
“Basically, it meant Microsoft no longer delivers critical updates, so the environment is no longer protected. This concerns not only security but also what the system can actually do going forward,” Markku says.
“It’s a bit like a car: if you can’t refuel it, eventually it stops running.”
With Tietokeskus, both SCCM and Active Directory were updated, ensuring continued IT functionality and security. Although it was a challenging project and the work naturally didn’t end there, according to Markku, these updates advanced development by several years in a single step. Daily IT operations and workstation performance have improved significantly.
“With the SCCM update, we gained the latest features and can now update all computers directly to the newest Windows. Installation time for a new computer dropped from two hours to about half an hour.”
Invisible work with visible impact
The focus is largely on basics, which are often more important than flashy user-facing features.
“What we do with Tietokeskus is mostly invisible work. We make sure our systems stay up to date and reduce security risks. These are exactly the important things.”
– Markku Majaniemi, System Designer, City of Keuruu
Currently, the main priority is ensuring cybersecurity. For example, Tietokeskus implemented Trend Micro Smart Protection to catch phishing emails and prevent malicious content from reaching employees’ inboxes.
“This way, there’s no risk of someone accidentally giving out their credentials to outsiders.”
One expert replaced by a team of consultants
Tietokeskus consultants operate under the unofficial motto that no one can know everything in IT. Their consulting team consists of multiple experts who collaborate, ensuring that if one doesn’t have an answer, the 300-strong Tietokeskus team does.
Markku sees this as one of the greatest benefits.
“The best part is the quality. Their expertise is very high, and it’s excellent that it doesn’t rely on a single person. They have several really good experts.”
Transferring knowledge and skills to the Town of Keuruu
Consultants aim not only to provide immediate help but also to coach and guide internal IT development.
The collaboration follows a “Learn by doing” model, where consultants continuously transfer expertise to Keuruu staff. In problem situations, a consultant will start a Teams call and demonstrate how to solve it, enabling the town’s IT staff to handle it independently in the future.
According to Markku, this has clear benefits.
“We want to maintain basic systems ourselves and build in-house expertise, rather than relying entirely on the service provider. That Tietokeskus can offer this is the main reason it’s so pleasant to work with them. They have the expertise and are willing to share it.”
The future looks cloudy – in the best possible way
The collaboration also aims to modernize the IT environment and move Keuruu further into the cloud.
“Our next project is full cloud adoption. We moved to hybrid a couple of years ago, with our own mail server, but the mailboxes are mostly in the cloud. Next year, we’ll give up our server entirely so everything moves to the cloud. We’ll need Tietokeskus’ help for this,” Markku adds.
Cloud adoption allows employees to work remotely, even from a mobile device, rather than being tied to a physical workstation.
Tietokeskus consultants also monitor cost benefits of moving to the cloud. Keuruu already pays for Microsoft licenses, which include cloud tools that could be used more extensively, reducing other software costs and freeing funds for development and personnel.
