OSTP Finland

OSTP Finland is part of the OSTP group, which has operations in Finland and Sweden. OSTP is one of the world's leading manufacturers of stainless, welded process tubes and tube sections. OSTP Finland is the group's largest unit, operating out of Pietarsaari and employing over 220 of the entire group's 500 staff.

“OSTP Finland is part of the OSTP group. Before 2013, OSTP was part of Outokumpu, so back then we were using Outokumpu systems. When we separated, a clear need to acquire our own information systems arose, of which the HR system was the most important,” says OSTP’s Site HR Manager, Ulla Kauppi. “The emphasis in choosing a new HR system was in its suitability for a company of this exact size and the possibility to extend the system to the group’s other sections”, Kauppi states.

“Another important point was user-friendliness and the possibility to tailor the system to our own needs. We were also looking for a comprehensive solution that could be used as HR master data. We chose Sympa ‘s HR because we felt the system matches our needs exactly – the ease of use and the cloud service were especially attractive. At that moment, Sympa was also the most cost-effective solution available,” Kauppi explains.

“The most important goals for the system were that it had to be user-friendly, comprehensive and, naturally, cost-effective. At a practical level, the goal is to integrate as many processes as possible into one system,” tells Kauppi.

“At the moment, Sympa has been fairly widely implemented: personal, employment and payroll information, employment contracts and work certificates, vacations and absences, job descriptions, preparation for performance reviews and the actual reviews, evaluation of expertise, training, training enrolment, work permits (e.g. work safety certificates, hot work certificates, forklift certificates), working equipment (e.g. computers, phones, access rights), exit interviews and the early support model discussion form. The aim is to include recruitment as well, and I’m sure we can think of a lot more uses for Sympa,” Kauppi concludes.

Two-phase implementation

“The implementation project was split into two phases, which proved to be an excellent solution. The first phase was challenging for us because of the tight schedule. We had only four months to have a usable personnel, employment and salary system by June 2014, and this implementation also included integration with an external payroll management system,” says Kauppi.

Thanks to Sympa’s excellent project manager, Tuomas Makkonen, the implementation went far better than expected. The starting point was, obviously, that we make use of best practices as much as we can and think about tailoring the system later. After the first phase, specification continued for the rest of the functionality, with the system being complete in May 2015. The project was fantastically cost-effective thanks to Lync conference calls and the project managers being involved in another implementation project nearby,” Kauppi explains.

A tool for the whole organisation

“Sympa HR was first taken into use by OSTP’s HR team, and was then extended to the general management. Based on positive feedback from the managers, we quickly made the decision to implement the system for our office staff. We haven’t yet extended the system to all of our employees, but that is a possibility in the future as well,” says Kauppi.