City of Helsinki “Help! How do I get a website up and running?” HiQ helped the City of Helsinki with WordPress development
From a maze of a thousand WordPress sites to a logical and consistent whole – Now, the City of Helsinki’s service websites are being developed systematically.
Reference was originally published in 2022. Updated 2025.
In 2020, the City of Helsinki recognized the need for a rational approach to managing its various WordPress-based websites and their development. At that time, the city had an estimated one thousand separate WordPress sites built and maintained by different suppliers for various city services and departments. Managing the overall picture, ensuring consistency, and overseeing development work was nearly impossible.
To improve the situation and gain a centralized overview, the City of Helsinki, after a competitive bidding process, enlisted *HiQ’s help. The goal of the collaboration was to develop the entire City of Helsinki’s WordPress ecosystem in a logical and systematic way.
*Ambientia’s public sector unit is now part of HiQ. Read more
Service requests handled through a competence center
Project Manager Anne Bergshoeff from HiQ explains that service requests related to website development are usually relatively small changes—such as adding a new feature or element or adjusting the styling of existing content. Often, these requests also include accessibility improvements.
“Previously, service requests came to us individually and sporadically. We would assess how much time they would take and what made sense to do, and then we would propose a solution to the client,” Bergshoeff describes.
“Now, we have a competence center model in place, where we have ‘loaned’ two developers to the city. Their task is to internally evaluate service requests before they even reach HiQ. This way, the city can internally discuss how each case should be handled.”
HiQ is the first supplier with whom we have an ongoing, very close dialogue—not only with the developers ‘on loan’ to the city but also with the project manager, service manager, product owner, and the competence center’s leadership.
Jukka Paldanius
Lead Consultant, City of Helsinki
Senior Specialist Jukka Paldanius from the City of Helsinki agrees:
“Now that service requests for websites are submitted centrally to the competence center, we have a better understanding of what different sectors are working on or planning to do. This allows us to guide the work more effectively and support development efforts.”
“We’ve observed this trend in the market as well,” Bergshoeff adds. “Many clients are building their own dedicated teams for IT services.”
“HiQ is the first supplier with whom we have an ongoing, very close dialogue—not only with the developers ‘on loan’ to the city but also with the project manager, service manager, product owner, and the competence center’s leadership,” Paldanius praises.
“HiQ’s developers work very closely with us. I feel that HiQ genuinely strives to keep track of where projects are going and proactively informs us about what’s coming next.”
Learning through collaboration
Special Planner Heidi Lindblom was responsible for the administrative coordination of the framework agreement between the City of Helsinki and HiQ (formerly Ambientia). According to her, the collaboration went smoothly.
“I have been pleased that HiQ has proactively suggested improvements to processes and development methods, such as handling service requests, communication, and streamlining administrative steps. It’s always positive when a supplier takes an active approach to development on the administrative side as well,” Lindblom says.
Lindblom points out that HiQ and the City of Helsinki have had to develop their ways of working together. Especially in the early stages, as this was a new service area with a new supplier, both partners had to learn together how best to move forward within the framework agreement’s terms and administrative principles.
It’s a clear service improvement that we now have a place where different city departments can be directed to create their own websites—either completely independently or with a partner familiar with the environment and processes.
Jukka Paldanius
Lead Consultant, City of Helsinki
“The city is a complex operational environment,” Paldanius adds. “Centralized WordPress development was a completely new concept, and our processes were in their infancy. At first, there was a lot of uncertainty on both sides, as even we didn’t always know the best way to proceed with certain issues—such as how to build a site in a self-service portal with a partner’s help. Once we got past the initial hurdles, the development work progressed at a good pace.”
Multiple successes in the self-service portal
The city already has a self-service portal, which allows various city departments to build simple websites independently while maintaining a consistent city-wide appearance. Important aspects such as accessibility are automatically considered. Since spring 2021, an Azure environment has also been developed, enabling the direct creation of more complex WordPress sites and the maintenance of testing and QA environments.
“HiQ has already implemented several sites in the self-service portal,” Paldanius says. “It’s a clear service improvement that we now have a place where different city departments can be directed to create their own websites—either completely independently or with a partner familiar with the environment and processes.”
Below are some examples of websites built through the self-service portal with HiQ (formerly Ambientia) involvement:
https://educationhubhelsinki.fi
- The first website created in the City of Helsinki’s self-service portal.
- Small modifications, customizations to the Helsinki theme.
https://brand.hel.fi
- Creation of new pages.
- Adding new content with a clear and user-friendly presentation, including a large number of downloadable files and contextual images.
- UI/UX design.
https://spouseprogram.fi/
- Extensive restyling and minor structural changes to improve usability.
- The end result is a visually distinct and more user-friendly website while maintaining its original structure.
“We had the pleasure of working with HiQ when updating the Spouse Program website. The experience was positive and encouraging throughout the project. Thanks to their professional yet flexible approach, it was easy for us to articulate our goals.”
“Additionally, we had the opportunity to follow the development process and go back to adjust our ideas if needed. Our team at the Spouse Program doesn’t have IT specialists, which made working with HiQ particularly enjoyable. They took the time to walk us through the technical process, explained everything in detail, and provided us with written update instructions. Above all, HiQ has been an efficient and reliable partner, delivering exactly the product we requested.”
— Jochen Faugel, Product Owner, Spouse Program
