Finland took the lead in the 2023 Digital Barometer. The opportunities for utilising data and artificial intelligence are thus extensive, but we can still do better in harnessing data for business development.
The Digibarometer published in October provides a comparison of countries according to how they enable, utilise and benefit from digital technologies. The special theme for 2023 was big data, meaning the analysis and utilisation of large quantities of data.
According to the Digibarometer, only around one per cent of Finnish companies have created big data business models based on the collection, processing and sharing of data. This is a huge wasted opportunity, as data utilisation is a competitive advantage in today’s world. When we apply open data in processes, we can achieve significant benefits in terms of efficiency, innovation or customer experience.
At Fintraffic, we want to help companies utilise open data both within the transport sector and between the transport sector and other sectors. In cooperation with 170 organisations, we are helping to build a Transport Data Ecosystem that allows transport operators in Finland to combine forces and create innovative data solutions that can be used by all transport sector actors.
In the summer, Fintraffic carried out a study on the impact of ecosystem activities, and the work also assessed the value of the transport data economy for last year. The total value came to a massive €400 million. So there is potential! You can read more about the topic here.
Minister of Transport and Communications Lulu Ranne encourages Finns to reach higher – from their place at the top of the Digibarometer – towards optimum performance through a combination of competence, passion, ambition and speed endurance). It is easy to agree on this, and all these features are definitely present among the actors in the data ecosystem. In order to reach higher from our leading position towards concrete and ambitious action, we need more cooperation and common platforms for sharing and refining data.
Fintraffic offers high-quality interfaces for transport operators and data users in the transport sector. Our data platforms (such as the FINAP mobility service catalogue) are already being used by hundreds of data users and data producers. The number of API calls made each year to our interfaces has already topped 4 billion. In other words, there is demand for high-quality data.
Our data sources are already used in many services that improve the smoothness, safety and environmental friendliness of mobility. Examples of these include:
- Navigation services (HERE, TomTom, Waze) which provide real-time traffic information
- juliadata.fi (external link) (open data for rail traffic), which enables monitoring and forecasting of rail traffic
- The Freight Data Map (external link), which shows freight routes and cargoes
- The VR Train Map (external link), which gives train locations and timetables
- The Port Activity App (external link), which optimizes port operations and logistics
- Kelikeskus (external link), which provides information on the condition of road surfaces as well as images from road weather cameras
- Bauer Media (external link) (Radio Nova + other channels), which provides traffic information to listeners
- The Situation Room (external link), which brings together alert information from different authorities
- Several Alma Media services, such as etuovi.com (external link), which utilise traffic data to determine the location and value of apartments
- Suomi.fi (external link), which provides citizens with information on mobility services and their availability
- KELA (external link), which uses traffic data to calculate travel compensation
Do you also want to make use of open data in your business? Read more here.
It is worth familiarising yourself with the APIs and embedded content options offered by Fintraffic, as these enable you to easily integrate traffic information into your own service. Instructions and examples can be found here: https://www.fintraffic.fi/fi/liikennetietoahelposti
Feel free to get in touch, I’d be happy to tell you more.
P.S. This blog was written in collaboration with AI
Janne Lautanala
Chief Ecosystem and Technology Officer, Fintraffic
