The year 2018 was a busy period in the Finnish Patent and Registration Office (PRH).

Steady economic growth in Finland also boosted the demand for our services. There was a particularly rapid growth in the number of Trade Register notifications and it reached a five-year high.

We achieved all key targets set for notification and application processing times. In a particularly positive development, we achieved our target for the national patent application processing time (2.4 years) for the first time. Thanks to persevering development work, the processing times are now on a highly competitive level internationally.

The year was characterised by digital projects. Online submission of start-up notifications of housing companies, overhaul of the Register of Associations and association services, reception of financial statements online form, and improvements in the patent processing system were all under development during 2018. We made preparations for assuming overall responsibility for the Business Information System (BIS) and introduced our first applications based on artificial intelligence.

For many years, a high level of customer satisfaction has been one of our key performance targets. The results of the 2018 customer satisfaction surveys were again in line with our targets and they show that the long-term work to ensure better customer orientation has borne fruit. The work continued as part of the implementation of our new strategy.

We moved to a new multi-space office at the end of 2017 and in connection with the relocation, we introduced new technologies and working methods. Partially as a result of these changes, we were able to improve our work productivity and reduce costs.

The PRH is a specialised government agency and for this reason, the expertise, motivation, and wellbeing of our personnel are crucial. Consequently, we measure the job satisfaction of our staff members on a regular basis using the central government’s VM Baro survey. In 2018, the overall job satisfaction was at an all-time high and with these results, we are among the top central government agencies in this respect.

At the start of the year, we presented our new strategy for the period 2018–2022 titled ‘Excellent customer experience – best authority services in collaboration’. The work to achieve the objectives laid out in the strategy is in full swing and we will have a great deal of work to do in the coming years.