How a dead end became a springboard

For twenty years, CaseM was the system for Finnish public authorities. Records management, archiving, collaboration – everything under one roof. Then the success model became a trap.

"Winning new customers felt extremely challenging," says Tanja Ora, Project Lead and Head of Case and Content Management at Fujitsu Finland. The platform – built on expensive third-party licenses, individually customized for each client – had come to an end. Too expensive to maintain, too inflexible for the market, too much technical debt for an update.

Management faced a challenging situation: Solutions should be found to ensure CaseM's business continuity.

A new path

Then a call from the Kyocera network brought an unexpected option into play. Jari Kivilahti, General Manager of Kyocera Finland, knew the problem – and someone who could help. "I immediately clicked with Gregor and then Michael and Nikola," he recalls of his first contact with OPTIMAL SYSTEMS. "They didn't have a single slide but many questions – interesting and new approach."

They didn't have a single slide but many questions – interesting and new approach.
– Jari Kivilahti

Dr. Nikola Milanovic, CTO at OPTIMAL SYSTEMS, drew on decades of experience with German public administration. "If you're more complex than German bureaucracy, then chapeau – but I don't think so. Nothing is." The room laughed.

What followed wasn't a typical sales process, but a conversation about potential. For Ora, this was the turning point: "Nikola made us feel like everything is basically possible. You need to have the same kind of mindset and vision – and this all came through with Nikola and the team."

Kyocera Finland’s proposal for a new approach took shape: OPTIMAL SYSTEMS provides the technological foundation with yuuvis® Momentum, Fujitsu brings the knowledge of the Finnish market. A revenue share model that gives both sides a stake in success.

The decision was made. Now a product had to be built.

Time pressure meets communication styles

"Ten years of development compressed into one year – that's quite a challenge," says Anass Jdaâ, Scrum Master at OPTIMAL SYSTEMS. But before the technical work could fully take off, the two teams first had to find their rhythm together.

"It took us a long time to find a common language – and I don't mean English," says Milanovic. "I mean really understanding each other."

Jdaâ experienced this firsthand: both teams work in English, but for neither side is it their mother tongue. Some requirements were interpreted differently, some concepts needed a second pass. "We first had to find common ground to understand what they actually meant and what we were supposed to build." The solution: regular visits in both directions, and early designs and prototypes that made ideas visible and tangible.

Getting to know each other's working styles was equally valuable. The Finnish team's preference for directness and clarity – skipping the small talk, getting straight to the point – turned out to be a real asset once the Berlin team had tuned in to it.

Making it work

Despite all progress, there was a moment when everything hung in the balance. A meeting, different expectations, the question of whether this could work at all.

This is the first time I meet a group of people who don't get mad at each other, even when things are difficult.
– Tanja Ora

"This is the first time I meet a group of people who don't get mad at each other, even when things are difficult," says Ora. "We want to find solutions instead of blaming each other."

"The collaboration is really pleasant – great people to work with, even under pressure," Jdaâ agrees.

And Kivilahti emphasizes: "From day one I felt that support hasn't just been promises but commitment."

Won before it was finished

Then something happened that nobody had expected: Fujitsu won their first customer for CaseM 2.0 – before the software was finished.

One year ago we thought nothing would happen. And now customers say we're about to have the best solution in the whole Finnish market.
– Tanja Ora

The second-largest healthcare center in Finland, one of 18 health districts in the country, chose to migrate. "Keeping this existing customer was really the first proof that we are on the right track," says Ora. "It made the whole Fujitsu believe in this project again."

Even more impressive was the feedback from an ongoing tender: a major public client described CaseM 2.0 as one of the best solutions they had ever seen. "One year ago we thought nothing would happen," says Ora. "And now customers say we're about to have the best solution in the whole Finnish market."

A record in seconds

CaseM 2.0 is one of the first major projects built on the Apps-in-the-Shell architecture from OPTIMAL SYSTEMS. "We're not just developing a product, we're also building out the foundation at the same time," says Jdaâ.

Finland's public sector works with strict requirements – the SÄHKE2 classification model defines exactly how records must be structured and authorized. For CaseM 2.0, this meant three different models for different customer sizes, from simple to strictly regulated.

The AI integration makes this complexity invisible to users: when creating a record, the system automatically recognizes the appropriate classification and suggests metadata. "Creating a record now only takes a few seconds," says Jdaâ. What used to take up to fifteen minutes now happens almost invisibly.

No more Excel ping-pong

One feature makes Jdaâ particularly proud: the new records plan management. The old process was anything but smooth – Excel spreadsheets going back and forth between consultants and customers for weeks, backend configurations where one wrong move could break everything, or simpler tools that were intuitive but couldn't handle complexity.

"Now we have a solution with powerful logic built in," says Jdaâ. "And you can't break very much." Complex classification structures can be managed visually, while built-in safety mechanisms prevent mistakes. After a brief introduction, it runs smoothly – even for non-experts.

A product for Europe

What distinguishes CaseM 2.0 from its predecessor is not just the technology. It's the thinking behind it.

"We don't need to do different products for different countries," explains Ora. "We can build one CaseM and deliver it across Europe." Instead of tailor-made individual solutions, a standardized product is being created that can be adapted to local requirements.

Deployment times show the difference: "It takes only a couple of minutes or seconds to deploy a new environment," says Ora. “We want to be like Spotify – quick and easy to use."

From the development side, Jdaâ echoes that ambition: "We're not just building a project, we're developing a product that will continue to evolve."

What remains

A phone call, a conversation, the courage to consider a new approach – sometimes that's how a new chapter begins. "Without Kyocera, we would never have landed a project like this," says Jdaâ. "This is a great opportunity for us."

For Milanovic, CaseM 2.0 shows what becomes possible when technology and the right people come together – entry into a new market, replacing an established player. But the project also means something beyond the product itself. "You see how our people grow – not just as developers but as individuals. New cultures, new ways of working, mutual respect. That changes us as an organization."

And Fujitsu? “CaseM 2.0 provides us with an excellent opportunity to significantly grow our market by offering a high-quality solution to our customers," says Ora. With CaseM 2.0, the company is back in the game – not just in Finland. The vision extends to Sweden, to the Nordics, perhaps to all of Europe.

The dead end became a springboard.