MEET THE MEMBER – GOFORE
YardMate member Gofore, selected in 2017 as Great Place to Work no 1 in Finland and no 2 in Europe, opened this year an office in Turku, and they are growing. What does the company do and what makes it great – both for the employees and the customers? Read Kari Karru’s interview below.
Who are you?
I’m Kari Karru, one of the first employees in Gofore Turku office. I work here as senior service architect. Currently I work with many tasks related to building and growing our presence in Turku area and also in different customer projects developing customer processes and solution architectures. That’s what everyone at our office is doing regardless of their title. We are a team of experienced people who are eager to make Gofore Turku-office successful. We provide the same services in this region that our colleagues are providing from our other offices in Finland and Europe.
What is your company specialized in?
We want to make the world better through digitalization and by renewing ways of working. We help our clients ensure they have the ability to change in a changing operational environment. We do this by offering management consulting, service design, software development services and cloud infrastructure.
The world is changing faster all the time and in the future services will be constantly reinvented. Organisations have a constant need for change. There is a huge gap between the current operational methods and the methods that are technically possible. Closing this gap is digitalisation, and that’s what we are good at, on every level.
Tell us about your clients? Our customers come from all kinds of industries. In industrial area we have worked for e.g. ABB, Metso, Sandvik and VOITH. Common for our customers is the need to make things better and drive the change. We always work together with customer to make that change possible. We are not tied to any technology or technology provider. Our pool of ca. 500 experts, ensures that our clients gets the right expert and knowledge for their own individual needs.
What services or products do you offer to other YardMate members? In a big picture we want to develop ecosystems, make them transparent and interactive, share their members data and knowledge and by doing that build agile and sustainable business for all the ecosystem members.
So, if you need to renew your software solution, develop your service process, discuss company strategy, investigate possibilities of artificial intelligence, design new mobile application, etc. just name it, we will find a way to help you.
And even if you don’t know yet what to do, just have a gut feeling that something should be done, ‘tarttis tehrä jottain’, don’t hesitate to contact Kari at +358 40 838 0280, let’s find out together what to do.
What are your expectations for YardMate?
Our company is new in the region, so obviously we want to spread the word about our services. We also want to learn to know the business in Turku region and do our part in the success of marine cluster in Finland.
What are your future needs regarding personnel? Gofore has been growing profitably during all its existence. That means, we constantly need competent people to work with us. Just check our web-site.
To keep these experienced people happy and develop even more, we need to have interesting projects and tasks for them. We want to study new interesting technologies and ways of working – adapt them to ours and our customers’ business and make change possible.
Anything else you wish to say to us? The world is not ready yet and no one knows where the next disruption comes. By working together our businesses, Turku-area and whole Finland will be leading the way in the maritime industry’s future.
Gofore lives from change and changes itself, too. We met with Kari in their temporary Turku office of 10 senior-level employees. Once the building is ready in 2019, Gofore shall move to brand new premises with space for 30–40 people. ‘Be bold and active in recruiting’ said the management. Great advice, great company. We are happy to have Gofore in YardMate member team!
Photos by Gofore and Annika Perho