Market leaders come together – Avain Technologies and Cloudia begin partnership

Press release – 3 February 2016

The technology partnership between Avain Technologies and Cloudia will enable public-sector contract and tendering processes to be handled entirely electronically. This is a new move for the Finnish market leaders in electronic contract life-cycle management, procurement solutions and electronic signatures.

Cloudia, a company that specialises in electronic solutions for contract life-cycle management in the public sector, will improve its services by combining them with Avain Technologies’ electronic signatures. Electronic signatures will make electronic contracts legally binding, while the procurement process will become faster and completely paperless.

The Finnish Act on Public Contracts that will enter into force in 2016 requires procurements in excess of the EU threshold value to be carried out using electronic competitive tendering. Using a digital system will expedite procurement and increase transparency.

The service provided by Cloudia and Avain Technologies is the only one of its kind in Finland. It enables an entirely electronic process from procurement planning and competitive tendering to contract life-cycle management at the level required of the authorities. The solution also enables the providers of goods and services who are involved in competitive tendering to participate in the process electronically.

“Electronic signatures make the contract process more efficient without compromising on the information security of documents. The service represents a major shift as the paper-free handling of documents with the ability to request multiple signatures regardless of time and place will represent an opportunity for significant savings,” says Cloudia’s CEO, Are Saarinen.

“We are happy to have initiated this partnership because it enables further collaboration and expansion of the service entity into areas such as electronic archiving. Electronic archiving will eliminate the need to store documents on paper, making them easier to process,” says Avain Technologies’ CEO, Pekka Kuosmanen.

The service will be made available to customers in February 2016 and it can be integrated into organisations’ existing processes.

More information:

Pekka Kuosmanen, CEO, Avain Technologies Oy, tel: +358 50 520 3727

Are Saarinen, CEO, Cloudia Oy, Tel: +358 20 766 1072

Avain Technologies is a pioneer in digital data management solutions. The company’s electronic signature and archiving solutions enable organisations to shift to entirely digital operating models. The electronic services have been developed in close collaboration with users and they fulfil strong information security and encryption requirements. Avain Technologies, a Finnish company, has developed and produced high-quality software services for almost 20 years.

Cloudia Oy is a pioneer in digitalising contract life-cycle management. The company operates in Finland and the Nordic countries. Cloudia’s electronic procurement and contract life-cycle management solutions, which are based on cloud technology, enable organisations to carry out all of their procurement processes in accordance with the laws and obligations set at EU and national level. The easy-to-use system enables centralised, transparent procurement processes from competitive tendering to contract life-cycle management.