In their interim report, the evaluators of TIVIT’s Cloud Software program strongly support the continuation of the program due to the considerable results it has achieved. During the program, different kinds of ways to get new business up and running fast have been created with great success.
The intention of the Cloud Software program is to create new business activity in Finland in the value chains of internet services and in the areas of sustainable development, user experience and information safety. F-Secure acts as the steering company of the program. So far, some of the companies that have participated in the program have doubled or even tripled their business whilst others have achieved savings of several million euros in just six months by streamlining their procedures. The Cloud Software program has also succeeded in boosting the growth of the entire field in Finland and in creating a new ecosystem that concentrates on the most profitable cloud services.
‘We have applied the agile development methods of the software industry in collaboration with companies and researchers. We have managed to create cost-efficient, client-centred ways of research that, in only a few months, begin creating added value for the participants. We also believe that these best practices will become more common and may be applied to EU research programs’, says TIVIT technology leader Pauli Kuosmanen.
One of the most important doctrines of speeding up developmental work has been having a flexible model of operation based on immediate customer feedback and concentration on a seamless user experience that starts right from the beginning of the design process.
‘Right from the beginning our guiding principle, praised by evaluators, has been our holistic touch..We have recognized and utilized all the essential competitive factors. Thanks to our customer- and user-based design model, we get the products on the market faster than ever before. Results show that thus far we have had great success in achieving the objectives of the program’, says Janne Järvinen, research manager at F-Secure.
TIVIT’s four-year Cloud Software program started in 2010. At the moment, it includes 22 Finnish companies and eight research centres. The program highlights the open distribution of the results needed to develop the entire field. All the central reports and publications are downloadable at: http://www.cloudsoftwareprogram.org/results.
Additionally, two magazines have been published about the key results of the program. They are downloadable at: https://www.cloudsoftwareprogram.org/cloud-magazine/cloud-magazine-2012 and https://www.cloudsoftwareprogram.org/cloud-magazine/cloud-magazine-2011.
The results of the program are evaluated by an international team: cloud service expert and serial entrepreneur Ake Edlund from Sweden, Professor of International Marketing Sami Saarenketo from Lappeenranta University, and Professor of International Software Development Rini van Solingen from Delft University, the Netherlands. Alongside his academic career, Rini works in the world of business as technology manager for Proware.
TIVIT Ltd ( Information and Communications Industry Research) is a Strategic Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation (SHOK). TIVIT builds new ecosystems of research and business in order to create new know-how, business and jobs. These are based on strategic research zones defined by 40 businesses, universities and public corporations of different sizes. TIVIT collects together projects from these fields to create determined research programs, raise the bar and the goals for innovation, affect international projects in the field and apply for overall funding thereby increasing the effectiveness of the operations. More information at: www.tivit.fi.
Further information:
Pauli Kuosmanen
Technology Manager
TIVIT
tel. 050 304 5934
Ari Turunen
Communications Manager
Cloud Software Program
www.cloudsoftwareprogram.org
tel. 050 381 9989
Janne Järvinen
Program Manager
Cloud Software Program
www.cloudsoftwareprogram.org
tel. 040 754 4738