Varha built a data-driven management system – How DSharp’s automation adapted to the needs of a wellbeing services county

Varha, the Wellbeing Services County of Southwest Finland, is implementing a large-scale system unification, bringing data from dozens of background systems across 27 municipalities into a shared data platform. The goal is to efficiently produce data for operational units, research, administration, stakeholders, and national data collections. DSharp’s automation brought the desired fluidity to managing the county’s data landscape.

Varha provides social, healthcare, and rescue services for 27 municipalities — taking over responsibilities previously handled by local authorities and hospital districts.

Varha needed real-time, comparable data from its functions to ensure smooth and secure operations. This required harmonizing fragmented data scattered across numerous systems and consolidating it into one place. The project has progressed in two phases: initially, data from different systems was compiled into a measurement data repository, and in the second phase, a full-fledged data-driven management system — a shared data platform — is being built.

Laura Virtanen, Varha’s Lead GIS Specialist, explains that collecting the necessary data for such a broad initiative required smooth collaboration between different experts and prioritization of what information to bring together:

“In this first phase, superusers who transitioned from the municipalities played a crucial role, providing us with the necessary data from various systems. The work was largely based on Excel files, which we began combining and shaping from the outset. These files were read into the data warehouse, where we used DSharp’s tool to link them to the developed conceptual model for measurement.”

In the second phase, integrations will connect directly to source systems and a conceptual model based on shared operational concepts will be built. Manual Excel handling will be replaced with automation. Because the systems and operating models in social and healthcare services — including rescue — are constantly evolving, the systems being developed must also remain flexible:

“The conceptual model describes the entirety of Varha’s operations. We want to understand and define the world we currently operate in. When we unify data from different systems under common concepts, we can provide perspectives on that data from multiple angles — whether by customer group, organization, or service. We’re creating a data foundation for analytical use here — including data-driven decision-making, research, and education.”

The data compiled into the new warehouse is classified using agreed-upon concepts. These concepts must also align with broader national and international classifications in health and rescue services. For example, THL (the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare) is a key partner for Varha. THL uses a significant portion of the data produced by Varha and refines it further for use by entities such as the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. This requires consistent and harmonized data production:

“We use DSharp Studio’s modeling and automation in the second phase. We’ve defined the information production process that guides our work. Not all data is meant to be modeled — that wouldn’t be cost-effective. So, we constantly make choices about what data is most essential at this point. We model and build the platform iteratively — expanding it continuously.”

Reliable Data Management

Because this is a Wellbeing Services County, ensuring robust data security is especially important. Henri Sara, Varha’s Lead Data Architect, describes the new data warehouse as a secure way to handle large volumes of information:

“Thanks to DSharp’s conceptual model, we can connect data based on concepts across systems. What matters most is that data can be smoothly consolidated across system boundaries.”

The new system requires multidisciplinary expertise. Varha’s experts meet regularly in modeling sessions to assess their data needs. This ensures the data compiled into the system serves the entire Wellbeing Services County and that the conceptual model genuinely reflects the needs of operations:

“One of the strengths of DSharp’s tool is that we can build the model from an operational perspective and integrate data from multiple systems — in various formats — all within the same tool, with data updating automatically. It speeds up and simplifies our work.”

Varha’s new data-driven management system enables more versatile reporting and monitoring, making data-driven leadership easier throughout the organization. The system supports detailed data traceability, improving reliability. The data warehouse retains historical data and shows where each figure on a report originated.

Sara believes the new platform opens up significant opportunities for wider data utilization across the county. The broader the data foundation becomes, the more possibilities it creates:

“The lifespan of data is often longer than that of the systems managing it. Modeling allows us to preserve that history and use it more effectively. When data-driven management and data governance are practiced at every level of the organization, it’s crucial to maintain transparency around how data flows and where it ends up.”