Nortal increased revenue in 2019 to €86 million

According to Nortal’s Founder and CEO, Priit Alamäe, 2019 was a good year for the company, demonstrating strong financial results across all home markets as well as concluding a €50 million bond issue to bolster expansion efforts in the upcoming years in Germany and the Nordics.

The most significant contributors to growth in 2019 were Germany, the U.S and Finland. “Our portfolio is well-balanced both in terms of geographies as well as sectors. We continue to invest in long-term strategic relationships with our customers for whom our people can create a tangible positive impact. These are the success factors that have created sustainable growth,” adds Alamäe.

Following the acquisition of Seattle-based software engineering company Dev9 at the end of 2018, Nortal secured expected synergies, diversified the portfolio and drove new business opportunities in the U.S via integrating businesses in 2019. “Our customers, many of whom are in the Fortune 500 list, are now served by an integrated global delivery organization on both sides of the Atlantic.”

Among other growth drivers, Alamäe names extensive leveraging of data, a user-centric approach, strong substance knowledge and software delivery automation as factors that played a significant role in 2019 growth and will continue to do so in 2020 as well.

2020 Outlook

“The economic outlook for 2020 includes substantial uncertainties due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic crisis. However, our business has proven to be resilient, and we are well positioned long-term due to our competence and customer mix,” states Alamäe.

The pandemic has also proven to be a major catalyst for change in 2020, according to Alamäe, accelerating the need for digital transformation across both public and private sectors and increasing the importance of business agility to be able to act fast in times of uncertainty.

“The investment in digital transformation has proven to be an invaluable insurance policy for the organizations that have taken it seriously over the years. We can now see that e-commerce, digitalization of supply-chains and production, e-services in government and the availability of digital medical data are critical to the functioning of any government or organization, rather than nice-to-have features,” adds Alamäe.

Building stronger strategic relationships

In 2019, the company invested in building a stronger strategic workshop culture enhanced with design thinking.

“It has become an integral part of how we work with our customers and build strategic relationships. Bringing together domain expertise, a strong understanding of the technology development curve and a user-centric approach, allows us to both define the problems and explore the solutions in a fresh, meaningful way,” adds Alamäe.

Tapping into global capabilities for local impact

Over the past years, the company has organizationally transformed its ways of working into a distributed delivery setup – allowing for agility and enhancing collaboration as well as knowledge-sharing across the teams from Tallinn to Seattle, from Helsinki to Dubai.

The Nortal distributed delivery model is the foundation for compiling cross-border high-skilled teams on short notice to address customers’ specific business needs efficiently.

“At the end of Q1 2020, our distributed delivery model was further successfully tested by the global quarantine and proved to be extremely resilient and efficient, allowing us to keep  meeting deadlines and exceeding quality expectations while working remotely from home offices,” says Alamäe.

Focus on employee engagement and professional development

The company continues to focus on employee engagement, well-being and professional development, as well as contributing to the development of strong  professional communities in all of Nortal’s home markets.

“The best customer experience requires highly skilled people who are inspired and on top of their game. Our people are intrinsic when it comes to creating value for our customers, so each year, we invest an equivalent of roughly 20% of our profit into people development. This includes internal trainings, professional development and community building,” states Alamäe.