Elenia

1. Quick facts

Location: Finland
Industry: Energy distribution
Company size: ca. 300 employees
Use case: Centralized contract repository, AI-driven insights, and ERP integration

Elenia is Finland’s second-largest electricity distribution company, providing network and energy services to over 442,000 customers across more than 100 municipalities.

With a 77,000-kilometre electricity network – 65% of it already weatherproof – Elenia’s mission is to electrify life reliably and sustainably. The company develops smart grid solutions, measures electricity consumption, and delivers energy data to suppliers, helping enable Finland’s green transition.

Contracts form the foundation of Elenia’s operations. They define responsibilities and obligations across procurement, construction, ICT, and supplier relationships. With thousands of active agreements managed across multiple business units, Elenia needed a more innovative, centralized way to manage its vast contract portfolio.

2. The challenge: When a complex system leads to difficult work

Before adopting Zefort, Elenia’s contract management relied on a legacy system that, although technically capable, was difficult to use.

“The user experience was simply poor,” recalls Jani-Petri Semi, Solution Architect at Elenia. “Finding contracts was difficult and time-consuming, version control didn’t work properly, and attachments were scattered. We couldn’t get a complete, coherent picture of our agreements.”

Due to the old system’s weaknesses, teams developed their own methods for storing and managing contracts. 

“People didn’t always upload the documents, and the contracts ended up in different places. It took time, caused uncertainty, and made it hard for the legal team to know what our real contract situation was,” continues Semi. 

The lack of centralized visibility meant it could take days to find or verify agreements – an unacceptable situation for a company with thousands of active contracts and strict regulatory obligations.

3. The requirements: A system that’s easy to start and effortless to maintain

When evaluating solutions, Elenia’s top priority was usability – an intuitive interface that would make it easy to both upload new contracts and maintain the growing archive. 

“We wanted a system that would remove friction from daily work and ensure contracts were properly stored, searchable, and accessible to everyone who needed them”, explains Semi. 

At the same time, modern features such as electronic signatures and API-based integrations with existing systems were equally critical. The company sought to eliminate manual exports and duplicate data entry by enabling seamless, automated information flow between tools, particularly during data migration from the old system.

Elenia also needed a way to bring all contracts under one roof, ensuring a single, reliable view of every agreement across departments and business units. 

Finally, Elenia aimed to leverage automation and AI to make better use of contract data. During onboarding, the company wanted to scan its entire contract database to verify that supplier contracts met ethical and anti-bribery requirements, aligning with CSRD reporting obligations.

4. The solution: Smooth onboarding, intuitive use, and smart automation

During onboarding, Elenia worked in close collaboration with Zefort’s experts. 

“Zefort took a big role in the migration, which included importing thousands of contracts and metadata into the new repository. They configured the system for us and ensured we weren’t left alone at any stage,” says Semi. “Our biggest effort in the process was preparing and cleaning the metadata – once that was done, the rest went very smoothly”.

Zefort’s advanced AI features helped Elenia review all existing agreements, ensuring key clauses and obligations were consistently identified and structured across the portfolio – a task that would have been extremely time-consuming if done manually.

“What once would have required roughly 20 people working for a week was completed by one employee in the same time,” Semi explains.

Once live, Zefort’s intuitive interface quickly won users over. Employees across departments began uploading and managing contracts independently, and having all contracts in one secure, easy-to-access place gave everyone a single source of truth.

Through API integration with Elenia’s ERP, the company automated data transfers and reporting, eliminating manual exports and repetitive steps. The integration also enables the company to pull contract value data directly from Zefort and compare it with realized values in the ERP, providing accurate visibility into supplier contract performance. The team also adopted Zefort Sign to simplify the signing process and fully digitize workflows.

5. The results: Greater control, reduced manual work, and stronger risk management

Since implementing Zefort, Elenia’s teams now experience a much stronger sense of control. 

“Our confidence in risk management has completely changed; now we know where everything stands,” Semi says.

What used to take days can now be done in minutes, and the intuitive interface has removed previous barriers to use. The system serves the users, not the other way around.

The benefits are also organizational: contract ownership has expanded beyond a few administrators. 

“Previously, only certain individuals uploaded contracts. Now, the people responsible for each agreement can manage them directly,” describes Semi. 

Overall, Elenia sees Zefort not only as a repository, but as a scalable, continuously evolving platform that enables smarter, safer, and more efficient operations – truly delivering on the promise of zero-effort contract management.

🔑 Key takeaways

• Challenge: Elenia’s legacy system was technically capable but difficult to use, leading to scattered contracts, manual work, and limited visibility across departments.
  
• Requirement: A user-friendly platform with effortless uploading and maintenance, seamless ERP integration, and AI capabilities to analyze and structure contract data.
  
• Solution: Zefort enabled smooth migration and automation through API and AI-powered metadata analysis, turning thousands of contracts into a structured, searchable portfolio.
  
• Impact: What once would have required about 20 people working for a week on average was completed by one employee in the same time, saving time, reducing risk, and improving control.
• Result: Elenia’s contract work is now faster, more transparent, and easier to maintain – with company-wide access and stronger risk management.