Finnish technology magazine Tietoviikko (Tivi) recently wrote an article about how we have managed to regain growth in Finland despite a challenging start to the year. Harri Vepsäläinen, CEO of Nortal Finland, attributes this success to our strategic focus on certain selected sectors and core systems that are critical to customers’ operations.
Vepsäläinen comments that we experienced a slight revenue setback last year, and at the beginning of this year, it seemed like 2024 would be quite challenging. However, the first half of 2024 has shown significant improvement, with revenue growing substantially compared to the same period in 2023.
The majority of our customers in Finland are large organizations operating in industry, energy, public administration or healthcare. The development of systems in these industries has continued despite the generally weakening economic situation in Finland.
– Harri Vepsäläinen, CEO at Nortal Finland
These are critical core systems for the operations of these organizations. There has been very little discussion about cutting back on development.
Vepsäläinen mentions in the article that he has observed a change in customer behavior, with clients requiring more precise justification than before for the payback period of system investments. He mentions as an example that due to the current economic climate, customers are reducing investment in non-essential improvements to their user-facing applications. Many feel that their digital services are already sufficient and are deferring further enhancements.
Vepsäläinen concludes by highlighting that Finland is a key market for Nortal, contributing to 14% of our global revenue, with the U.S. being our largest market, providing nearly 20%.
“We see that as the world’s largest IT market, the U.S. will become a significantly more important market for Nortal in the future,” Vepsäläinen comments.