Safetum modernizes risk management – focusing on user-centric design
Our collaboration resulted in a modern and intuitive risk management tool that streamlines the daily work of property managers and strengthens Safetum's position as a digital pioneer in the industry.
The property safety sector is undergoing a transformation where cost pressures and legislative changes challenge traditional operating models. Safetum, the industry’s leading expert, is responding to this challenge by investing heavily in digitalization and improving the customer experience. Together with us, Safetum has reformed its digital services with the goal of not only optimizing its own operations but also offering even better and more concrete added value to housing companies and property managers.
Background: expertise in a challenging market
Safetum’s mission is to improve fire safety in Finnish properties. The company offers a wide range of expert services, including rescue plans and risk assessments, primarily serving housing companies and commercial properties. While decisions are made at the housing company level, property managers are often the key partners in day-to-day operations.
The operating environment is constantly changing. Competition in the industry is fierce, and at the same time, housing companies are struggling with rising costs, making procurement decisions more deliberate than before. Recent legal changes, such as the fire alarm law reform coming into effect at the beginning of 2026, have increased the responsibilities of housing companies and tied up their resources.
In this challenging context, Safetum recognized the need to differentiate itself and strengthen its position by offering services that provide clear added value and simplify customers’ daily operations through digital tools.
Service design as the driver of the risk management tool’s renewal
We interviewed Safetum’s Chief Digital Officer, Martti Soininen, about our first renovation project. Where did it all begin?
“The renewal process was initiated by our investment in digitalization when I started as the company’s first Chief Digital Officer at the beginning of 2024. I conducted a comprehensive assessment by interviewing customers and staff, as well as analyzing the market. Based on this, we identified the key areas for development, and the first to be tackled was the renewal of the Safetum Service risk management tool and the risk assessment report.”
The need for renewal had already been identified within the company. “Our customers, especially property managers, had given feedback regarding the current service being difficult to use and the report being confusing.”
In choosing a partner, Hion’s strong vision for service design and usability was compelling.
Right from the first meeting, we got the impression that you would bring the exact service design and usability perspective that we were specifically looking for. We got the sense that you would provide insights and views on how to build a modern and easy-to-use digital service that looks the way a digital service should look today.”
This initial feeling was confirmed when we got down to specifics.
“When I saw the first visual drafts and presented them to the management team, the immediate feedback was: ‘Wow, okay, this looks fresh, and we’re moving in the right direction.’ We immediately felt that we were on the right track with your designers,” Martti recalls.
The risk management tool in a nutshell
The goal of the service is to facilitate the property manager’s fire safety management and the monitoring of necessary actions.
- The property manager accesses the tool by logging into the main Safetum service and navigating to the Risk Management Tool via the main menu.
- From the tool, they can see the security index for each housing company at a glance and can create tickets for newly identified risks.
- Risks are categorized by different topics, such as: fire load, fire safety equipment, signage facilitating rescue operations, etc.
- In the risk summary view, the property manager can see if there have been comments on risk tickets, and can also order services related to the risk with just a couple of clicks.
The property manager can designate the responsible party from a list and provide a detailed comment on the corrective action.
The corrective action can be marked as complete in the service, moving it to the repaired list and improving the security index.
Through the service, users can purchase services from Safetum, record supplementary information with the order, and actively improve their fire safety status.
Smoother and more meaningful risk management for property managers
The end result is a usable and visually pleasing solution. Although the core is a modern digital service, Martti highlights the PDF report as a specific success:
“We renewed the risk inspection report in this same project, as it remains a widely used and natural way for our customer base to review information. We’ve received a lot of positive feedback on the new report because it’s clearer and more informative than the old one. I believe we succeeded very well with that.”
Service usage is monitored through analytics, and areas for further development have already been identified.
“The number of visitors has been steady, and increasing it will require more communication, marketing, and user training from us in the future.”
Design perspective: User first, clarity above all
We set out to redesign the risk management tool using service design principles. The goal was to transform a “technical” and cumbersome tool into a modern, intuitive service aligned with Safetum’s brand.
- Customer understanding at the core:
- The process began with in-depth user research. Through interviews and prototype testing, we ensured that the service being developed meets the real needs of property managers and maintenance staff.
- Clear information architecture:
- We deconstructed the old service structure and redesigned the content hierarchy. Key functions, such as logging observations and managing responsibilities, were made easily accessible, significantly improving usability.
- Visual freshness and brand alignment:
- We created a completely new, fresh, and modern visual identity for the tool, which also serves as the foundation for the new digital brand.
- A new life for the PDF report:
- We did not forget the traditional PDF report. We redesigned its content and completely refreshed its visual appearance, making it clearer, more readable, and more informative than before.
Technical solutions: Modern, reactive, and integrated
The project involved renewing the existing risk management service using modern technologies and a pragmatic approach, where the user interface implemented by Hion was seamlessly integrated with the client’s partner’s backend system.
- Risk Management Tool (SPA)
- We implemented the tool as a modern and reactive SPA (Single-Page Application) solution, delivering a fast, application-like user experience.
- We utilized React and TypeScript as the core technologies to ensure a flexible, maintainable, and scalable end product.
- Responsiveness was key, as the tool also serves maintenance personnel working in the field on mobile devices.
- We ensured data accuracy and reduced errors with the Zod validator and optimized performance using TanStack Query state management, which guarantees efficient data handling and a swift user interface.
- PDF generation system
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- We built a custom backend service using Node.js and Puppeteer technologies. This allows for the creation of visually high-quality and dynamically compiled risk inspection reports directly from the service. The solution ensures that the reports’ pagination and layout are always polished.
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