Focus on Finland

Software enabled digital transformation

In a recent presentation Janne Järvinen, Mission Lead for Digitalisation at Business Finland, cited that “intelligent future connectivity (5G/6G) has a pivotal role in ensuring Finnish technological leadership. It needs to be combined, however, with robust data economy and key technologies like artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and quantum technologies. These are our key assets towards software enabled digital transformation leading to increased productivity and competitiveness.” In this article, Janne explains Finland's software vision and how it shapes the future.

Software manifesto

“Software is a subject that is dear to my heart,” Janne admits, “having done my PhD in software engineering, and it is clear to me that software is becoming increasingly important in Finland for industry. In fact, it’s ranked fourth in our list of exports.” In a vindication of Finland’s emphasis on software-intensive products and services, a McKinsey report 'What’s driving the Nordic countries’ software export surge' this year stated that Nordic business in software will grow significantly towards the end of the decade. This is also reflected in the country’s high level of education and competency, and where the focus of the software education and research is now even more closely related to the needs of industry. “All the software professors are working very closely with industry and there have been many industry-driven research initiatives. I personally led two of those even before coming to my current job,” Janne adds. “I think that collaboration on these topics is quite typical for Finnish research and industry as we are true believers in working together. I, along with others, have been encouraging the software research community to come together and now there are 42 software professors who have joined forces to produce a software manifesto for the future for Finland, pinpointing the areas where they see the need to focus in the coming years. With generous funding for the basic research in Finland – equivalent to 50 software related doctoral theses – this is a very clear sign that we need to prioritise software.”

Generative AI on the agenda

Digitalisation is top-of-mind in Finnish policy. “It’s a complex topic that has many, many sides to it,” Janne says, “but I personally believe that digital is the way to go for a country like Finland, as we have this high rate of development and produce added value. We are among the best, if not the best, in all the digitalisation related indexes. So I was actually happy to see that in the current government programme, digitalisation is well represented. With government support in carrying these initiatives forward, that gives us further leverage in practice, in areas like artificial intelligence, which is a major disruptive factor in the software industry that will change many things.” At the time of speaking, Janne notes that “tomorrow we will witness the start of a campaign from Business Finland on this generative AI topic, with a dedicated session on how AI will change software engineering in practice. It’s on many, many people’s agenda at the moment.”

European opportunities

Janne is convinced that in striving for these goals and ambitions, European platforms like Eureka and ITEA are key to achieving them. “We cannot do all this by ourselves and nor do we want to do that. It’s vital that we have these instruments that enable us to work together, across the national borders.” Business Finland has a separate unit that interfaces with customers in that sense and stays informed of what’s happening at European level and promotes the benefits of involvement to industry. “One good example,” Janne notes, “is Bittium (also featured in this magazine), which has shown that this is not only possible but also that they can get benefit from this collaboration. We like to see our role as facilitators in enabling this type of opportunity. For example, in our data economy programme we charted all the different possibilities on the data economy from Europe for Finnish companies. Because there are a number of different instruments, it might be difficult for a small company to navigate. So, we did a deep dive study on the most promising areas and tried to lower the threshold for a small company to enter and profit from becoming part of a wider network, gaining first-hand experience of working in these projects and demonstrating their expertise in practice. For example, I recall a startup company that immediately saw being part of a brokerage event and other such events as a promotion opportunity to raise its profile and visibility. And I also try to encourage companies to join the events outside Finland and volunteer for some activities like being a speaker. Because when your name is known, it’s easier to find partners in a consortium. Personal connections are important.”

Collaboration is the key

“And of course,” Janne says in closing, “ITEA is no longer just European. It’s becoming more global. Just look at South Korea, Canada and other countries around the world that are involved in ITEA. I definitely think this is a good thing and I am keen to promote it. Coincidentally, I’m going to a dinner with a delegation from South Korea later. I truly believe that collaboration is the key. And what better way than face to face at the dining table.”

More information:
https://www.businessfinland.com/