ITERA
Year founded: 1998
CEO: Arne Mjøs
Number of employees: 573
Motto: “Make a difference”
What separates you from other companies? “We measure our success by our customer’s success.”
When it comes to storing their data, big industrial companies are lagging behind. Even today, some of the biggest players are storing their data on outdated systems, or worse, on paper.
Not only is this inefficient in a data-driven world, it is an obvious sign that the world’s largest companies need help digitizing — especially if they want to become more environmentally friendly and sustainable.
One of the companies guiding these giants into the 21st century is Itera. The Norwegian company specializes in digitalization, helping companies to become more data driven—that is, using data to make better, more informed decisions and ultimately, to become greener.
“Whatever we need in life we have on our phone — this is the process that we are going through when it comes to industrial data. Digitization is the answer to how to make the world a better place,” says Dennis Fjellseth, senior communications advisor at Itera.
The company’s nearly 600 employees are spread out among Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, as well as Slovakia and Ukraine, operating in 20 countries in major sectors including banking and insurance, healthcare, energy, utilities, and retail.
Nordic to the core
Despite its international reach, Itera derives its strength from its roots. Norway is one of the world’s largest oil and gas exporters. The country also has big ambitions to be an international leader in the fight against climate change.
Itera too reflects its home country’s seemingly odd marriage of an highly efficient oil and gas sector with the desire to become leading innovators of renewable energy technologies.
The company has partnered with Cognite, a data software company that specializes in the digital transformation of heavy industries around the world. Cognite is owned by Aker — one of the largest Norwegian oil and gas companies, and as of this year, one of the biggest investors in renewables.
In May, Cognite raised $150 million in new funding, putting the company’s value at $1.6 billion. It was one of the largest funding rounds for a European software-as-a-service company.
Cognite’s ‘Data Fusion’ system, a data operations and contextualization platform, makes data more accessible and obtainable to both people and AI-based applications. BP, Mitsubishi, and Saudi Aramco all use the platform in their operations.
Dennis Fjellseth, senior communications advisor at Itera.
BP uses the system to predict oil contamination in water using historical data and 200 physical and 100 virtual sensors in and around production wells and equipment at oil and gas facilities. The system allows engineers to immediately detect water contamination and to respond to the problem much faster.
This pioneering platform has contributed to the company growing threefold since November, according to Cognite. Growth that Itera has played a role in.
According to Cognite’s leadership, they chose to partner with Itera because they have the right competence in house to understand Cognite’s sophisticated platforms, how to maximize its efficiency and to push it and present it to other businesses on the market.
According to Fjellseth, Itera is also working with partners to develop a cutting edge scanner that can show the foundation of the earth all the way down to 1000 meters, identifying each different layer in real time, helping oil companies to drill more efficiently.
It’s also a viable tool in the renewable sector. In carbon capture, engineers need to understand the foundation and layers of the earth where carbon will be stored. This tool will help them do so.
“I know these two platforms will revolutionize the market. This isn’t something I’m trying to pitch, it’s huge.”
Unique business model
Itera’s success as a partner is due in large part to its unique business model. The company calls it their ‘hybrid delivery model’, that involves multidisciplinary teams working across borders. Instead of an army of employees, Itera is able to deliver its products and services by scaling its team to fit the specific needs of the client, in many cases sending their employees directly to the customer.
Itera’s employees went straight to BP Aker’s oil rig to help its engineers implement Cognite’s Data Fusion software. Their team included three Ukrainian IT specialists.
Yulia Malich, public projects manager at Itera, says this model makes Itera more efficient than its competitors because it allows them to both “help our customer to build a solution and then further sell the same solution to other customers.”
According to one senior level executive, Itera sends it Ukrainian employees directly to the client on average four times more often than the next outsourcing company. In 2019, these employees took almost 1,500 trips abroad, and their Scandinavian counterparts visited almost 500 times.
Their hybrid business model was recognized as providing the world’s best customer experience by the Global Outsourcing Association and for having the best Project Management Office in Europe by the PMO Global Alliance in 2020.
Going to Ukraine
As part of scaling their workforce to fit the client, the company has tapped into the fourth largest pool of digitally talented people just a few hours away in Ukraine.
The decision to open an office in Kyiv in 2008 felt natural to the company’s Norwegian leadership — in addition to Ukraine’s attractive pool of IT talent, the cultures mesh well, according to Malich.
Yuliia Malich, public projects manager at Itera.
“A very mature market in IT outsourcing, the diversity of people in the market — especially the rising high share of women — and an outstanding capability of Ukrainians to bridge well with the Nordic business culture,” were all reasons Itera came to Ukraine, says Malich.
But Itera isn’t just interested in recruiting existing talent. Itera actively cooperates with three universities in Ukraine — the National Aviation University, Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and the Kyiv Mohyla Academy to develop future talents.
For the company, working in Ukraine is also a part of its human rights policy — according to its leadership, the establishment of workplaces in Ukraine has contributed to the living standards of employees in the country.
