Municipality of Kempele's web service renewal

The Municipality of Kempele identified a clear need for a comprehensive update of its digital services. Residents expect faster and more seamless access to information on current affairs, events, and digital service channels. The old content management system had reached the end of its lifecycle, and content production was perceived as clunky.

One of the biggest everyday challenges was related to the Suomi.fi Service Information Repository (PTV), where municipalities are legally required to describe their services.

“We had descriptions of the same things on our website and in the Service Information Repository, which created extra work. We wanted to unify this so that once the PTV is in order, we can directly display up-to-date content from there on the new website as well,” explains Pasi Takalo, Project Manager for the Municipality of Kempele, regarding the starting point.

All services seamlessly on the same platform

In the renewal, the previously completely separate Visit Kempele tourism site was brought in as an integral part of the municipality’s public main site to ensure a unified user journey. Although the tourism section is technically located on the same municipal site, it clearly stands out as its own entity thanks to its brand colors and tailored navigation.

The entirety was implemented as a multisite solution, which technically includes two separate sites: the public main site and the staff intranet. The same technical foundation and architecture significantly ease the work of administrators and make management straightforward.

In UI design, the focus was on accessibility, loading speed, and a fresh look. Instead of heavy external font libraries, the site utilizes the devices’ own system fonts. The sizes and spacing of elements were implemented to scale dynamically, guaranteeing an optimal reading experience regardless of screen size.

Thanks to an insight from our designer, an “Are you looking for these?” quick link menu was added to the site’s main navigation. It offers residents a shortcut to the most frequently searched services, such as Wilma or school menus, further improving the smoothness of digital interactions.

PTV integration revolutionized content creators’ work

An exceptionally flexible PTV integration emerged as the technical crown jewel of the project.

Traditionally, leveraging PTV data across the municipal sector has been inflexible, but in Kempele’s case, we raised the bar.

An advanced PTV block was developed for the WordPress editor. It allows content creators to select exactly which individual pieces of information about a service or service channel are displayed – for example, just the opening hours or a phone number.

The presentation order of the information can be freely changed by dragging and dropping, and service channels can be renamed to better fit the context of the site. In addition, PTV data can be enriched by placing local images between blocks or by displaying PTV information inside accordion menus.

The data synchronizes automatically via the API once a day. If necessary, the administrator can fetch the latest updates manually with a single click.

“People who previously maintained the web pages have shifted to updating the PTV content directly. When they make changes there, the information updates automatically on both the Suomi.fi portal and the municipality’s own website. In terms of workload, we have gained significant relief,” Pasi rejoices.

Domesticity and data security at the core

It was important for Kempele to build an entity that is fast, secure, and operates on Finnish servers. This goal was met by utilizing a WordPress environment hosted by Seravo.

“Digital sovereignty is a very current theme. We are increasingly thinking about keeping data in our own hands within the country’s borders. We specifically wanted to utilize domestic expertise,” the project manager notes.

Technical fluidity was also brought into the municipality’s internal everyday life. Single Sign-On (SSO) with Microsoft credentials was implemented on the intranet side, making the management of roles and user rights secure and easy. In addition, the site’s CMS was harnessed to feed the municipality’s physical info screens via tailored RSS feeds.