DESIGNING FOR SERVICES 2018

ESPOO
BUSINESS
SERVICES
Towards A Client-Centered
Service Offering

Agnesa Vavrinova
Eeva Lehto
Helén Marton
Katariina Kantola
Larissa Weiner
Yen-Tsen Liu
INDEX
3 Introduction

4 Research
5 Interviews
6 Workshop
7 Research Findings
9 Ideation Process
9 Idea Validation
9 Conclusion And Limitations

10 Visibility & Accessibility

11 Establish Espoo Business Services
11 Meet The Clients Where They Are
11 Illustrate The Value Of The Service

14 Internal Communication & Alignment

15 Facilitate A Common Understanding Of The Organizations
And Their Employees
15 Establish An Internal Information Channel For Sharing
Current Work
15 Establish A Working Group That Meets Regularly
15 Create Unified Guidelines For Collaboration

18 Practical Value For The Customer At All Stages

19 Simplify Overlapping Services Within The Wing
19 Connect The Wing To Other Relevant Public Services
19 Become A Bank Of Other Valuable Resources
20 Support Networking For Success
20 Support Learning From First-Hand Experience
Introduction
The Designing for Services course at Aalto University
assigned students to tackle some of the complex,
service related challenges currently faced by the
city of Espoo. Specifically, our team was tasked with
addressing the opportunities and challenges associated
with the relocation of six organizations into the A Grid
facility, a start-up accelerator hub found at the heart
of Otaniemi campus. These six organizations are the
following:

• City of Espoo Economic and Urban Development unit

• Espoo Marketing (including Visit Espoo)
• Enterprise Espoo
• Helsinki Region Chamber of Commerce
• Espoo Entrepreneurs
• The Finnish States Public Employment and Business
Services

All of the above organizations serve businesses of

varying sizes located in the Espoo area. The initiative
to move in together creates momentum to rethink the
collaboration of these organizations, as well as how
public services are provided to businesses in the city.
Our final proposal outlines an actionable strategy to
enhance and consolidate the organizations’ service
offering, and unify them into what we call Espoo
Business Services. This report outlines the strategy,
and gives an overview of the process of research,
analysis and development that served as a basis for
the proposal.
Research
From the original design brief, we learned that the
organizations are eager to find new ways of sharing
resources and knowledge in order to provide better
services for their clients. However, we needed to better
understand the current organizational functions, as well
as to learn first hand about the experiences and needs
of businesses they are serving. We conducted primary
and secondary research to do just that.

1. Interviews
2. Workshop
3. Analysis & Synthesis
4. Findings
 Research

INTERVIEWS

We interviewed five organization

representatives, six entrepreneurs,
the community manager of A Grid, and
a representative from our biggest benchmark
(NewCo). The interviews provided us
with a basis for understanding both the
organizational realities as well as their clients’
needs and experiences.

When interviewing organizations, we focused

on learning about their current work,
existing collaborations and future visions
about the new work environment at A Grid.
Interviews with users on the other hand,
focused on learning about their journey of
establishing a business, their relation to the six
organizations, the services they had used and
their experience with them. Most interviews
were conducted in person and in the context
of the individual, following a pre-prepared
discussion guide. The interviews were semi-
structured, in which the guides served as
a basis, and emerging topics were addressed
with questions during the interview.

8
Research
WORKSHOP
In addition to the interviews, we conducted
a workshop with representatives of the
organizations. We used the Atlas Game as a
tool to start a dialogue on topics related to
moving in together and forming new ways of
collaborating. The Atlas Game is a design game
that acts as a tool for discussion and shared
decision making, and provides triggers for
sharing experiences and combining knowledge
(Salmi 2018). The game rules helped keep
the conversation on topic and thus allowed
us to better facilitate the discussion. Each
participant had their turn to respond to
prompts, but the topics were also discussed
with the whole group. In design games, rules
are open for reinterpretation to enable finding
a meaningful focus (Vaajakallio & Mattelmäki,
2014), we modified the game to fit our purpose
and the setting.
Workshop outcomes
The workshop generated plenty of
valuable information. We learned about the
organizations’ needs, expectations and hopes
for better services, better visibility, eliminating
redundancy and better effectiveness. We
found out that the goal of moving together
was not about saving money on rent, but more
about saving time and resources by working
9
together. The participants also articulated few
priority areas for our project, namely:
• designing a model for the customer access
point, improving the physical or digital
accessibility of the companies as an entity.
• model for the collaboration between the
companies
• designing and facilitating matchmaking
activities and processes to define the
future ways of working.
The representatives expressed that they found
the experience valuable, as the discussions
between the organizations to date have been
mostly limited to space-related practicalities.
Having everyone in the same room provided
a good opportunity to establish common goals
and to share thoughts and ideas with each
other.
References
Kirsikka Vaajakallio & Tuuli Mattelmäki (2014)
Design games in codesign: as a tool, a mindset
and a structure, CoDesign, 10:1, 63-77, DOI:
10.1080/15710882.2014.881886
The Atlas game (lecture) by Anna Salmi
The Atlas Game, Hannula, 2014
 Research
ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS
As an outcome of our research, there was a
great amount of qualitative data that needed
to be processed and evaluated. We were able
to do so through analysis and group synthesis
methods: P.O.I.N.T. analysis and affinity
diagramming. This enabled us to extract the
data, look for themes and relationships, and
to formulate these clusters into insights. This
process was iterative, and occurred in two
rounds in tandem with our data gathering.
To make sense of the interview and workshop
notes, we externalized our data into
information bites by using P.O.I.N.T. analysis.
P.O.I.N.T. stands for problems, opportunities,
insights, needs, and themes. With this method
we clustered our observations of the interview
and workshop notes into these five initial
categories in order to create our general
understanding of the data. Finally, we shared
our findings within our team in order to move
forward to the next phase of synthesis.
While our first round of synthesis happened
in a discussion form, in the second round we
utilized the affinity diagram method. The affinity
diagram is a tool to process large amount of
qualitative data, which can be used in different
fields of study for several purposes, including
not only data analysis, but also problem
framing and idea generation (Lucero, 2015).
We used affinity diagramming to make sense of
our findings made during the P.O.I.N.T. analysis
by organising them into an understandable
whole.
To proceed with affinity diagramming, we
kept clustering the notes by discussing their
connections. The grouping of notes was
based on their qualitative similarities, but
without making self-evident groups, such as
“problems” or “miscellaneous”. Subsequently,
10
we formulated our insights by determining
descriptive statements for the groups.
In the last stage, we documented the insights,
and looked for supporting quotes from the
interview and workshop notes.
RESEARCH FINDINGS
Through the research, analysis, and synthesis
we gathered a holistic, three dimensional
picture of the Espoo business organisations
and their potential customers. This was
necessary for us in order to understand the
current situation of the Espoo organisations,
as well as the experiences, expectations and
needs of the starting entrepreneurs. Our
exact research finding are embedded into
the next section of the report, which presents
the strategy proposal titled Espoo Business
Services. Here, we briefly present
the frameworks and visuals that helped to
make sense of the information, narrow our
focus and move from insights to ideation.
Organization ladder – Visualizing our initial
findings
Through thorough research we understood
the role of each organization and developed a
“ladder” to visualize the organizations’ clients
and the services offered to them.
Chamber of
Commerce
Espoo
Entrepreneurs
Enterprise
Espoo
Espoo
Marketing
TE-Services
Espoo Econ. &
Urban
Development
Unit
Research
For example if a private individual would
like to start a business, they would go to TE-
Services or Enterprise Espoo, or possibly both.
There they can get advice on how to create
a business plan, apply for a start-up grant
or get education on entrepreneurship. After
establishing a company as a small to medium
size business, an individual could get training
and advice as well as create networks through
Enterprise Espoo, Espoo Entrepreneurs or
Chamber of Commerce. When an the business
grows, they might want to consult the Chamber
of Commerce, which serves large businesses
by helping with getting a talented workforce,
navigating and influencing upcoming
policy changes, and taking advantage of
networking opportunities. In addition to these
organizations, there are two organizations
supporting this ladder, the first of them is
Espoo Economic and Urban Development Unit
which helps entrepreneurs and businesses to
succeed in a variety of ways, for example via
marketing and events. This unit works also on
a higher level with the ministries. The second
one is Espoo Marketing. The main purpose of
this organization is to attract new companies,
visitors and investments to Espoo. These
two organizations have less direct face to
face interaction with the clients, instead they
function more as a backbone for the other four
organizations.
Three levels of intervention
Espoo City
A Grid
Wing
11
Once we formulated our insights, we were able
to recognize opportunities for possible design
interventions. As an outcome of this,
we found that there are three levels to
intervene on. The first level of intervention is
focused on the internal communication and
collaboration within A Grid wing, with an aim
to align the six Espoo organizations and propel
them to reach the shared goals. The second
level we identified for intervention was the
interface between A Grid community and the
wing. This level provides space to rethink how
the six organisations fit in with the rest of A
Grid, and how potential clients find and use
their services. The third level of intervention
would have an impact within the whole city of
Espoo. On this level an entirely new service
concept such as “Espoo Business Services”,
could be developed with a goal to attract and
serve all shapes of businesses in Espoo.
Business journeys and service offerings
99,8% of companies in Finland are micro,
small & medium enterprises, often referred
to as SMEs (Statistic Finland 2016). We
also learned from the interviews that the
bigger the company, the fewer services they
usually require from the six organizations.
Therefore, in our research, we mainly focused
on mapping and understanding the services
according to the life cycle of SMEs (See the
Business Lifecycle Map on page 10). We
gathered all the services provided by the six
organizations from the clients’ point of view
and compiled them into a table that showed all
the service offerings and in which stages of the
business they are provided. From the mapping,
we were able to pinpoint some overlaps as
well as opportunities. For example, we spotted
overlaps among the advisory services and
identified opportunities for services yet to be
developed. It became apparent, that there is
already strong support provided in maintaining
and scaling up phase.
BUSINESS LIFECYCLE MAP
 Research

We also created another way to visualize Reference

the offerings of the six organizations. (See Lucero, Andrés. (2015). Using Affinity Diagrams
the Stakeholder Ecosystem Map below) to Evaluate Interactive Prototypes. 9297. 231-
In this rendition, we are able to see each 248. 10.1007/978-3-319-22668-2_19.
organizations’ individual offerings, as well
as generate a map that shows the overlap in
between. We identified that the functions that
are overlapping most are in the areas within
consultancy and advisory services.

STAKEHOLDER ECOSYSTEM MAP

Check this link for more details:
https://goo.gl/QaPAS9

13
 Ideation
We started the ideation process following the
second round of synthesis, after we had an
understanding of the data. The ideation phase
took off first with a focus on creating divergent,
wild ideas which were not to be judged yet at
this stage. These initial ideas were evaluated
and elaborated in the next, convergent stage,
where the terms of feasibility and adequacy
were taken into an account. In addition, we had
a chance to validate our ideas separately with
the representatives of the Espoo organisations’
side as well as with starting entrepreneurs.
Ideation process
In the beginning of the ideation, we created
“How might we…?” questions from our insights
and generated ideas that served to answer
them. We wrote or sketched ideas individually
until we had a sufficient amount of ideas.
To eliminate inadequate ideas, we first sorted
them into the three levels of intervention:
internal communication and alignment,
interface between A Grid and the wing, and
the new service concept targeted for the
whole City of Espoo. Then we placed the ideas
on a matrix of high to low cost, versus high
to low potential value, eliminating those with
14
high cost and low value. The remaining ideas
went through multiple iteration rounds of
critiquing and development. The final ideas
were named, illustrated using a sketch, and
complemented with supporting insights, quotes
and observations.
The ideas were sorted again to the three
identified levels. With this exercise it became
clear that the best solution would be a design
strategy which has impact on all these levels.
We formulated a holistic strategy which aims
to collaboratively create a customer focused
entity that will provide value for businesses
at any stage, while providing a return on
investment for the ecosystem. The multiple
ideas we produced were to serve as concrete
steps within this strategy.
Idea Validation
In order to get feedback on our ideas, we
arranged validation sessions with both our
clients and starting entrepreneurs.
In the session with representatives of Espoo
organisations we asked them to comment on
and evaluate our ideas. They picked the ideas
which they thought has most potential, as
well as least potential for them. Surprisingly,
Ideation
the feedback revealed that some of the ideas
presented were already in use in some of the
Espoo organisations, which emphasizes the
current situation of low visibility. Our team
wasn’t able to find these initiatives despite
the tremendous amount of research. Thus,
it became clear that better visibility and
accessibility, as well as better communication
alignment need to be immediately addressed,
in order for the organizations to build the
foundations for new services that provide
practical value.
Separately from our clients, we approached
young entrepreneurs to gather their feedback
on the ideas. Here, we asked them to evaluate
the ideas based on how well would they
provide practical value in relation to the
journey of establishing and running a business.
The overall idea of having one place with low
threshold to visit, where it is possible to get
help with all of the matters related to early
stages of entrepreneurship got good response.
Our service concept ideas connected to this
were, for example, Startup Starter Pack and
Drop-in Thursdays. The second point which
was emphasized was related to the concept
of Mentoring Program, where entrepreneurs
spoke about their need for a safe place where
it is possible to ask questions without a fear
of being judged, or without a possibility of
potential clients hearing what you discuss
15
Conclusion and Limitations
During the research process, a wide range of
methods were used to uncover insights from
both the organizational and user points of view.
Different forms of visualizations were used
to make sense of information, focus ideation
and help in devising the final proposal for the
project.
The process however had its limitations.
Within the six organizations we were only able
to reach a limited number of individuals, and
mostly those in higher ranks. Additionally, we
were not able to reach any representatives
from one of the six organizations. Within the
limited timeframe we were not able to access
the wide range of perspectives we would
have preferred. This holds true with the client
interviews as well. We relied heavily on our
own networks when identifying and reaching
out to small companies and startups. This
meant that most of the interviewers were well
connected to supportive ecosystem of services
mostly offered by Aalto University. Further
research is needed to identify the needs
of marginalized groups to ensure that the
service caters to a wide range of citizens and
businesses in Espoo.
Introducing
Espoo Business
Services
Based on the research outlined in the previous section, we
developed the final proposal which we call “Espoo Business
Services (EBS) – Success for companies and jobs for people”.
EBS is a customer-focused entity that provides value
for businesses at any stage, while providing a return on
investment for the ecosystem. In order to reach this ambitious
vision, a strategy has been developed to help the
six organizations get started. The strategy is divided into three
pillars, which consist of several actionable steps. Below, we
describe each pillar, the actions within and illustrate them with
palpable ideas.

Practical Value For The Customer At All Stages

Visibility & Internal Communication

Accessibility & Alignment
 PILLAR I

Visibility &
Accessibility
“I can’t use services that I don’t know exist.”
– Espoo entrepreneur

The first pillar addresses issues related to Visibility and

Accessibility. This is a fundamental pillar that brings together
the fragmented services offered by the six organizations, but also
integrates important services offered by other organizations.
First, the services offered to businesses need a common image
that is visible and comprehensible. There is also a need to develop
various channels to enhance the reach, making services unified
and easily accessible. Below we outline five actionable steps that
will help the organizations make progress on this front.

ACTIONS
1. Establish Espoo Business Services
2. Meet the clients where they are
3. Illustrate the value of the service
4. Improve service navigation
5. Lower the threshold for starting
a relationship
 I. Visibility & Accessibility
ACTION 1
Establish Espoo Business
Services
“Everyone has different work to do so [there is]
no need to change everything. We just need a
collective image.“ – Espoo Marketing
The first action is to create a unity in image,
which requires the establishment of the
entity within the city called “Espoo Business
Services”. This can be achieved by building
on the existing Espoo city branding and
doesn’t necessarily require a new brand of
its own. Within this overarching brand, the
organizations would retain their own name,
their own identity while at the same time
belonging to a bigger whole which is the City
of Espoo Business Services.
ACTION 2
Meet the clients where they are
Second action is to make changes in order to
meet clients where they are. We heard from
entrepreneurs that they find out about the
services mostly from google, social media,
conversations with friends and by attending
events. EBS needs to establish their presence
in these key places where their clients are
already present and active, in order to
streamline their access to the offerings of EBS.
Idea
Espoo Business Services Web Page +
Social Media
First, a webpage within the Espoo City website
19
titled Espoo Business Services needs to be
created. This page could list the available
services sorted by user needs (for example
by using the stages of the business lifecycle),
rather than organizing the services based
on the organizations that offer them. The
page would become an easy-to-access and
comprehensive online entrance to all the
services offered in the business wing and
beyond. There is also a need to be present on
social media, by creating a profile and posting
events on the platform.
Benchmark
City of Boston
https://www.boston.gov/starting-business
The City of Boston developed a “starting a
business” page, in which all the relevant content
and services are brought together on one page.
Note how they feature outside services onto the
page, as well as information on financing, other
city department contact and how to contact
an expert. Within the contact an expert page,
frequently asked questions and answers are
listed to provide outstanding service and save
resources on answering frequent questions.
Iamsterdam
https://www.iamsterdam.com/en/business/
startupamsterdam
The start-up-related services are integrated in
a single page “Starting a business in
 I. Visibility & Accessibility
Amsterdam” as one of the service categories.
They list all the services and give a very
clear picture of by providing a short but
comprehensive introduction paragraph. Some
of the other service categories are related to
investment and startups as well, such as study
and living. Because all the public services of the
city are integrated here, the reach is enhanced
successfully.
Idea
Startup Fair Booth
The physical presence of EBS can be
established by attending events frequented by
SME’s, such as startup fairs, as one easy-to-
access entity. This way the potential clients can
be reached easily and be familiarized with all
the business related services on offer.
“Events are attractive for the practical
information and networking.”
– Helsinki Entrepreneur
ACTION 3
Illustrate the value of the
service
The third action is to illustrate the offering
and value of the services provided by using
storytelling. The organizations clearly have
a lot of valuable services to offer, and these
20
make a difference in the successes of the
organizations they help. This however is not
communicated clearly at the moment. The
stories and case studies developed for this
purpose then can be circulated using social
media to ensure it reaches potential clients.
The content can also be used to illustrate the
value of the organizations to other relevant
stakeholders, such as current or potential
funders.
“We know we have a lot of positive impact... but
we have problem getting word out about what
we do and what we can do.”
– Employee in the wing
Idea
Success Stories Blog Posts
A blog page can be embedded into Espoo
Business Services webpage, or promoted
via the Medium platform. It would feature
compelling short stories about EBS’s work and
impact, while pointing people to the services
that they can use.
ACTION 4
Improve service navigation
Because of the magnitude of services offered
by the organizations, the service navigation
both online and on-site is critical. When we
mapped all the services provided by the six
 I. Visibility & Accessibility

EMPLOYMENT BUSINESS PREP FUNDING/ MAINTAINING SCALE

IDEA REGISTRATION (SURVIVAL) UP

Consultancy Information Network & ecosystem

& advice publishing coordination

Marketing & Education Issuing & endorsing

communications & training documents

Financial Event
Lobbying Policy making
benefit services

organizations from the clients’ point of view, Benchmark

we were able to pinpoint some overlaps as Newco Helsinki
well as opportunities in the services offered. https://newcohelsinki.fi/en/
For example, we spotted overlaps among the
advisory services and identified opportunities Our neighbors in City of Helsinki are
for services to be yet developed. It became actually already successfully supporting
apparent, that there is strong support in service navigation. Newco Helsinki brings
maintaining and scaling up phase. together all the services for startup
companies in Helsinki. They provide a
Insight: The organizations’ current services simple quiz online asking the visitors
are fragmented and not client-centered, several simple questions in order to help
resulting in services that are not cohesive them find services for their needs. For
or easily navigable. example, the quiz asks the visitor to select
“Need to make it easy for people to come, what they are interested in: to start a
[to] access.” – A Grid community manager company, immigration, or services for
entrepreneurs.
Idea
“Find The Right Service” Quiz
To aid service navigation on-site at the A Grid,
a similar tool in form of an interactive screen
could be used. This would help clients find
services they need, and could integrate a book
on the spot functionality. This inviting interface
would also make the relevance of the wing
much clearer to those passing by.

21
I. Visibility & Accessibility

ACTION 5 Idea
Lower the threshold for starting Drop-in Thursdays
a relationship

We learned from client interviews that the

phase of starting a business is a long process
for many entrepreneurs, especially moving
from the idea phase to having a business
plan and registering a business. Many of the
current face-to-face services offered require
the entrepreneurs to be at a more advanced
stage, making the offerings inaccessible for
those in the early stages. Creating some free
form and open access points will ensure that Following again the example of NewCo in
the threshold for the services becomes lower. Helsinki, drop in services allow individuals to
talk to someone without heavy preparation or
Insight: Seeing a person often requires an commitment. Regularly hosted drop-in days
appointment and a business plan, which is not with 20-minute slots without pre-sign up would
well suited for those in the starting up phase lower the barrier when using the services.
of their business.

Summary

To summarize, visibility and accessibility pillar

can be built successfully by ensuring that
there is a unified face for EBS and that the
potential clients are reached smoothly, and by
improving the service navigation and lowering
the threshold for becoming a client of the
organization(s).

22
 PILLAR II

Internal
Communication &
Alignment
Currently there is no significant collaboration between the
organizations, even though there are definitely unexploited
opportunities present. For effective and purposeful collaboration,
the organizations need to get to know each other, what they do,
and how they work. In addition, currently collaboration means
different things to everyone, and the employees don’t know how
they could make it happen in practice.

Insight: The organizations don’t know how to approach each other

because they lack overview of each others’ working cultures and
functions.

“– for example I would like to guide my customer to use Visit

Espoo or Espoo Marketing. I could find the contacts, but I couldn’t
be sure if they want me to give their contacts directly.”
– Employee in the wing
Insight: No common understanding of what collaboration is,
and consequently no agreement on how to make it happen.

“I would say that we are in that kind of point in ignorance, we don’t

know what [the] other [organizations] know”
– Employee in the wing

In order to make Internal Communication and Alignment happen,

there’s a strong need for organizational cohesion. The following
actions can help kick-start this process.

ACTIONS

1. Facilitate a common understanding

of the organizations and their
employees
2. Establish an internal information
channel for sharing current work
3. Establish a working group that
meets regularly
4. Create unified guidelines for
collaboration Support networking
for success
II. Internal Communication and Alignment
ACTION 1
Facilitate a common
understanding of the
organizations and their
employees
Firstly, facilitating common understanding
of the organizations and their employees is
necessary.
“When we don’t know what others are doing
we might do double work, and using more time
to find out.” – Employee in the wing
Idea
“Our Crew” Wall
One way to tackle this head on is to host a
workshop where all employees interview one
another to find out about each other and their
work. The content gathered would be digitized
and a photographer on site would capture
everyone’s portrait. The tangible result of
the workshop would be the creation of casual
employee profiles, that can be printed and
placed on a physical wall in the
A Grid wing. The information could also
be made searchable by creating an online
database for internal use.
25
ACTION 2
Establish an internal information
channel for sharing current
work
The next urgent action is to work on
establishing an internal channel where
information and current work can be shared.
“Information flow and internal communication
are difficult, since we are not in the same place
every day.” – Employee in the wing
Idea
Show-and-Tell Fridays
Weekly shared events, such as Show-and-
tell Fridays could bring all the organizations
together over tasty food. The set-up and
organisation of the event can be a rotating
responsibility of a cross-organizational group
of employees to further the impact of the
initiative. This way the employees who usually
not on the same team get to work together and
get to know each other.
First, the focus of these events will be to get to
know each of the organizations by featuring
general presentations of each. This will help
in establishing a basis of knowledge about
each other’s functions. After each organization
presented, the focus of these events could
shift to presentation of ongoing projects and
initiatives, as well as the pitching of new ideas.
 II. Internal Communication and Alignment
ACTION 3
Establish a working group that
meets regularly
Currently, there are no formal avenues
to discuss and develop collaborative efforts
between the six organizations. However,
creating a systematic intervention that could
enable this is needed, if the larger strategic
goals are to be achieved. Therefore the
third action in order to reach organizational
cohesion is establishing a working group
consisting of people from all six organizations.
Idea
Working Group
The working group would consist of a mixed
group of employees with varied authority
levels from each of the organizations.
The goal of the group would be to coordinate
and discuss shared ongoing initiatives.
“[We need to] share not only square meters
and computers and stuff, but what we do.”
– Employee in the wing
26
ACTION 4
Create unified guidelines for
collaboration
As the organizations start working together,
a set of guidelines will be needed to document
and agree on terms of the collaboration. This
is critical in order for creating alignment and
explicit agreement between the organizations.
Idea
Guidelines
The working group could be tasked to initiate
and create guidelines for collaboration.
Questions related as responsibilities,
communication, data sharing and other critical
aspects would be addressed. This booklet
could also serve as an important reference
point for future employees and development.
Summary
To summarize, internal communication
and alignment can be achieved through
organizational cohesion that develops through
making employees aware of each others tasks
and roles, sharing information and putting
a cross-organizational group in charge of
coming up with shared guidelines
of collaboration.
 PILLAR III

Practical Value
For The Customer
At All Stages
Once Visibility and Accessibility, and Internal Communication and Alignment
have been addressed, the organizations can move on to providing practical
value for the customers at all stages of their businesses.

Insight: Current business services are fragmented and not client-centered,

resulting in services that are not cohesive or easily navigable.

On the whole, the services offered to businesses are fragmented and not
easy for the customers to navigate or understand. However, to provide
practical value for the customers at all stages, it is critical to make
existing services more cohesive. When the services are cohesive and well
orchestrated, there is also an opportunity to provide new services for those
starting up their businesses. We heard over and over that entrepreneurs
are looking to get actual help, not just advice on legal, financial, and other
business matters.

ACTIONS

1. Simplify overlapping services within the wing

2. Connect the wing to other relevant public services
3. Become a bank of other valuable resource
4. Provide tailored and practical service packages
5. Support networking for success
6. Support learning from first-hand experience
 III. Practical value for the customer at all stages

ACTION 1 Although the organizations provide a great

Simplify overlapping services
within the wing
Eliminating the overlapping services is the
first step that would help to enhance the
collaboration and break the silos within
the wing. The streamlining of the current
service offering should be based on a solid
understanding of the current services.
variety of services, they are not able to offer all
the necessary services related to running
a business. For example, registration and taxes
are both important functions, but these cannot
be administered within the confines of the six
organizations. In order to establish a seamless
customer experience, EBS should actively
seek to connect their customers to the parties
providing these services.

Mapping the overlapping services Idea

POP-UP Registration
In order to better understand the current
service offerings, we built an interactive
infographic featuring the organizations and all
their service offerings. The information in this
infographic can be clustered two ways. First,
one can see which services are provided each
of the organizations. Second, the graphic can
be sorted based on service categories. This
view highlights the service overlaps between
the organizations. We observe that most of
the overlap occurs in the consultancy and
advisory services. The cross-organization
working group could be tasked to utilise the The wing could connect to outside
map and reducing overlapping services. organizations, and bring them in for pop-
up events within AGrid. For example, a
See the appendix for the full list of services client representative from the authorities
offered under each service category. responsible for registering a business will
be present at AGrid on a set date. EBS can
promote the event on multiple channels, and
handle the booking of spots. This way, clients
ACTION 2 needing practical help with registering their
Connect the wing to other business can see someone face to face for
relevant public services advice conveniently.

“I wish there was a quiz or form on the

immigration site where I could draw my
circumstances and they will tell me what
my future is like, what I qualify for...”
– Entrepreneur

28
 III. Practical value for the customer at all stages
ACTION 3
Become a bank of other valuable
resources
Insight: Espoo Business Services may
become “orchestrator” rather than being only
“provider” of services. It is more effective
direct clients to excellent existing services,
rather than replicating them.
The third action is to become a bank for other
valuable resources. There is a wide variety
of businesses in Espoo, and they have a
wide range of needs. For example, there is a
clear need for services related to education.
However, there is an abundance of available
services offered by other actors, such as Aalto
University and the private sector, and there
are plenty of resources available online. With
shrinking public budgets, the role of the Espoo
Business Services is more about curating
and linking these services to the interested
businesses and individuals.
Idea
Resources Page
During our interviews, we heard from young
companies that they are uncertain of scaling/
growth and they may not have the right skills to
tackle the associated challenges. The EBS page
could promote existing and useful resources,
thereby ensuring that companies find the help
they need, even if it is not offered by the City of
Espoo directly.
29
ACTION 4
Provide tailored and practical
service packages
“It would be good to get services tailored for
young (1–year) entreprises.” – Entrepreneur
While every new company is unique, they
all share a need for essential information
and certain services. Service packages
tailored to client needs could provide great
value to clients while reducing the need for
unnecessary face to face meeting.
Idea
Business Starter Pack
For example, customizable starter packages
could be provided for those just starting their
business. The package could include a limited
time discount for services such as accounting
from trusted companies, how-to information
packages and invitation to take part in the
mentorship program for example.
ACTION 5
Support networking for success
Insight: It is difficult to identify the right talents,
contacts, and services but critical for success
of a company.
“The wrong people can ruin a startup.”
– Entrepreneur
 III. Practical value for the customer at all stages

Successful networking is crucially important in which more experienced entrepreneurs

for growing business. Young companies have could be paired with those who are starting up.
a need for various contacts to develop their
business – for example, hiring, marketing, Idea
and manufacturing. From the entrepreneur Peer to Peer Mentorship Matchmaking
interviews, we heard about the difficulties
they face in this arena, and that, currently, the
network expansion happens quite organically.
There is an opportunity for EBS to provide
new services to help facilitate networking,
especially around hiring new people.

Idea
Hiring The Right People Event Series

This could be executed by pairing up more

experienced companies or individuals with less
experienced ones or by establishing peer-to-
peer support groups. The community would
serve as a safe space in which struggles can
be shared and companies can learn from one
another.
EBS could organize a recurring series
of events, which would consist of short
presentations by HR professionals, followed
by employer/employee matchmaking rounds.

ACTION 6
Support learning from first-hand
experience

“– everybody is going to go through times

when you are like: we haven’t done anything,
we haven’t moved forward at all. So it is
important to have a place to say that without
a fear of being judged.” – Entrepreneur
During the idea validation, we got a strong
positive response to the idea of peer to peer
and mentorship matchmaking. There is an
opportunity for EBS to facilitate the creation of
such peer communities of young businesses,
Summary
In order to achieve the creation of practical
value for customer at all stages, the six
organizations need to simplify their services
and find ways to curate external services to
their customers. By doing so, there would be
space to create new services that provide
practical support and help the growth of the
businesses.

30
 Practical Value For The Customer At All Stages

Visibility & Internal Communication

Accessibility & Alignment

Conclusion
Success for companies, jobs for people

Each pillar that we outlined in this section of the report was

identified based on the insights and research that we conducted.
They represent key areas for action, without which it will be
difficult to fully benefit from the potential that the co-location of
the six organizations may bring. The actions within each pillar
provide guidelines and concrete examples of how the pillars could
be built. The hoped outcome is that companies of different sizes
would enjoy and benefit from a more holistic and valuable service
experience, making the creation and scaling of their businesses
a more successful adventure.
Roadmap for developing the pillars

We created a general timeline to help outline the order of the

actions within each pillar. Communication and Alignment and
Visibility and Accessibility form a base which will later enable the
creation of practical help. Therefore most of their respective steps
need to be taken first.

Immediate Goals Short Term Goals Long Term Goals

Visibility & Accessibility

Internal Communication & Alignment

Practical value for the customer

A more detailed roadmap could be found on Appendix 1.

Ensuring and Measuring Success

In order to ensure that the strategy and actions result in the

desired outcome – success for companies and jobs for people
– it is necessary to carefully pick and track several measures
of success. While each individual action needs their own key
performance indicator, the ultimate measures of success based
on which EBS should be evaluated are:
4
1. Annual change in employment
created by SMEs in Espoo 3
2. Longevity of Espoo companies
3. Number of SMEs in Espoo scaling
2
4. Number of large companies
finding home in Espoo
1
Appendix
• Full Roadmap for the strategy of pillars and actions
• Service offering categories
 Appendix 1
Full Roadmap for the strategy of pillars and actions

Immediate Goals Short Term Goals Long Term Goals

Awareness Lower The Barriers:

s
es re
in he of
Bus sw e
o nt lu
po e va ice
cli e e rv
Es e th s
il sh s th te ce e n
b c
a a
h re tra rvi rov atio
ta ice us e p g
Es erv Im avi

Visibility &
Accessibility
Re hey Ill he s
S t t n

Organizational Cohesion:

e r
in on e r
d el l fo m f th hei
g ui r
e n
na nel rk om o d t
d nt a o a c ding s an
i fie tion a i n ch nt w e
at an on
un ra ish io re c ilit erst zati
abl at cur
an abo t m Fa nd ani yee
ve oll Es for ring u rg plo
Ha r c in ha o m

Internal
Communication
& Alignment
fo s e

Service Cohesion: New Services:

s r r
e er he fo r
th id ot s m g es the
r ov g g ng o d a o
he s in pr g
to ice
v p in win ki fr ce an ck f
in r p e or d pa k o es
ot ice ice w se la th t w ing rien e
r e n c
te v e rv s h e lic ver in ne rn e
ra er h rt l a ilo rvic a ba our
s
e st le s t s se t t ub y o it rt d
ea exp t e e e
n ec nes n ec t p p lif s w p po ss de l s m er
ch ab tem n si n a n e e p po an
Or vail sys m ic Su ucc h ovi tica e co abl
B lu
a co Co bu Co elev Si erv s Su rst- Pr rac

Practical value
for the customer
at all stages
e to r s fi p va
Appendix 2
Service offering categories
Consultancy & advice
• Advice on legal matters (Espoo
Entrepreneurs, Chamber of Commerce)
• Business advice & support (Espoo
Entrepreneurs, Chamber of Commerce,
TE-office)
• Advice on funding, finance & accounting
(Chamber of Commerce, EntrepriseEspoo,
TE-office)
• Advice for starting entrepreneurs
(EntrepriseEspoo, TE-office)
• Advice for entreprise development (TE-
office)
• Start-up plus service (EntrepriseEspoo)
• Start-up advisory (EntrepriseEspoo, TE-
office)
• Business clinic (EntrepriseEspoo)
• Online business plan tools
(EntrepriseEspoo)
• Career consulting (TE-office)
• Providing network of experts
(EntrepriseEspoo, EEUDU)
• Phone consultancy/advice service (Espoo
Entrepreneurs, TE-office)
• Employer services (Chamber of Commerce)
Education & training
• Coaching for Employment (TE-office)
• Arranging training courses (Chamber of
Commerce)
• Helsinki Business college/Suomen
liikemiesten kauppaopisto (Chamber of
Commerce)
Financial benefit
• Membership perks/discounts (Espoo
Entrepreneurs)
• Financial grant allocation (TE-office)
Event Services
• Organizing seminars (Chamber of
Commerce)
• Organizing matchmaking events (Chamber
of Commerce, Espoo marketing)
• Recruiting congresses (Espoo marketing)
• Congress services (Espoo marketing)
• Congress organizing assistance (Espoo
marketing)
Information publishing
• Company newsletters (Chamber of
Commerce)
• Providing info on education and job search
(TE-office)
• Forwarding information (EEUDU)
• Business search info portal (Espoo
Entrepreneurs)
• Information platforms (Espoo
Entrepreneurs, TE-office)
• Information databanks (TE-office)
• Search engines (TE-office)
• Book publications (Chamber of Commerce)
• Local sight and services info for visitors
and travel agencies (Espoo marketing)
Issuing and endorsing
documents
• Issuing foreign trade related permits
(Chamber of Commerce)
• Providing model contracts (Chamber of
Commerce)
Lobbying
• Promotion of business interest in
government (Chamber of Commerce)
• Lobbying for the interests of SME (Espoo
 Entrepreneurs)
Counsultancy and Advice
• Promotion of interests of unemployed and by organizations
job seekers (TE-office)

Enterprise Espoo
• Business Advisory (ie business plan),
Marketing and Communications Biz Plan Tool
• City marketing (Espoo marketing, EEUDU) • Business clinics/advisory:
• Taking care of stakeholders’ marketing • Innovation
(EEUDU, Espoo marketing)
• Public procurement
• Boosting Espoo’s appeal locally and
• Internationalization
internationally (Espoo marketing, EEUDU)
• Law
• Building Espoo’s image (Espoo marketing,
EEUDU) • Marketing
• Tourism promotion (Espoo marketing) • Change of ownership
• Business
• Extensive startup advisory
Network & ecosystem
coordination
Espoo Entrepreneurs
• International cooperation and networking
(Chamber of Commerce, EEUDU) • Telephone advice service:

• Maintaining and growing stakeholder • Employment law

network (EntrepriseEspoo, Espoo • Company law and general advice
Entrepreneurs, Espoo marketing, TE-office,
• Contract law
EEUDU)
• Taxation and VAT
• Maintaining internal network (Espoo
marketing, EntrpriseEspoo, Chamber • International trade
of Commerce, EEUDU, TE-office, Espoo • Insolvency-related
Entrepreneurs)
• Environmental matters
• Matchmaking (f. ex. investors & networks)
(Chamber of Commerce) • Inheritance and ownership

• Attracting new companies to the • Training

ecosystem (Espoo marketing, EEUDU) • Social security for entrepreneurs
• Market
• industrial and competition law
Policy making
• Making of industry policies (EEUDU)
Chamber of Commerce
• Coordinating the policies
• Legal advice (labour, company, tax and
contract law)
• Advice on accounting and financial
management
• Business support
• Counselling services on international
workforce (managing a multicultural
workforce, and provide guidance in finding
the right authorities and relevant services,
checklists, service catalogue, intercultural
toolkit, successful multicultural company
campaign/competition, events)
Overall counsultancy and advice
offerred by the six organizations

Overlapping Services
• Law Employment, Company, Contract,
labour, tax, Internationalization, industrial,
competition
• General business advice
• Taxation and VAT / accounting

Additional Services
• Business plan
• Innovation
• Public procurement
• Marketing
• Change of ownership
• Extensive startup advisory
• Insolvency-related
• Inheritance and ownership
• Training
• Social security for entrepreneurs
• industrial and competition law
• Market
• financial management
• counselling services on international
workforce (managing a multicultural
workforce, and provide guidance in
finding the right authorities and relevant
services. (ie counseling, checklists, service
catalogue, intercultural toolkit, successful
multicultural company campaign/
competition, events)
DESIGNING FOR SERVICES 2018

ESPOO
BUSINESS
SERVICES
Towards A Client-Centered
Service Offering

Agnesa Vavrinova
Eeva Lehto
Helén Marton
Katariina Kantola
Larissa Weiner
Yen-Tsen Liu