Suominen Corporation, like many others, found itself in uncharted territory when the coronavirus pandemic broke out in the spring of 2020 and forced businesses all over the world to send their employees to work from home. Suominen operates on three continents, which is why its staff had plenty of experience of digital interaction even before remote work became the new, global norm. Nevertheless, the company wanted to invest in better collaboration tools across the whole worldwide organisation. Advania helped Suominen to upgrade its Microsoft 365 environment and migrate from on-premise software to the cloud. The entire project from start to finish was designed and implemented remotely.
Suominen is the global market leader in nonwovens for wipes. It manufactures rolls of nonwovens for wiping and hygiene products, as well as for other applications. The company turned over EUR 458.9 million in 2020. With operations on multiple continents, the ability to easily share tacit knowledge between the company’s various offices and staff is crucial. Information sharing not only improves customer service but also allows staff to learn their colleagues’ strengths.
‘Our goal at the start of the project was to improve our internal communication set-up by introducing an efficient, modern and user-friendly internet-based platform’, explains Suominen’s Communications Manager Julia Koivulanaho.
‘Advania helped us to deploy M365 and some of its new and improved applications, and supported us through the transition’, adds Suominen’s Chief Information Officer Timo Rautakorpi.
Remote deployment and training coordinated by a dedicated team
Planning and executing projects of this scale is challenging at the best of times. Having to do everything remotely added a whole new level of complexity. Thanks to both parties’ unwavering determination to achieve the agreed objectives, the project nevertheless came together surprisingly painlessly. Suominen’s Senior Manager for ICT Nicolas Picchi is convinced that the success of the project was ultimately all down to effective collaboration and Advania’s expertise.
‘One of the best things about the project was getting to work with Advania. I was in charge of technical implementation at our end, and I was very much impressed by Advania’s expertise. They showed genuine dedication and desire to help us to get the project over the finish line’, Picchi says.
‘They even offered to train our end users after the new system went live. User training is especially important now that many of us are working from home’, Rautakorpi adds.
‘We have learned to know each other better’
Suominen embarked on the project in order to both improve internal communication and give its staff more efficient ways to work and share information.
‘We have already learned a lot about what other members of the Suominen family around the world do on a daily basis and what information they exchange with each other. We now understand better how important the ability to share information is for them. In other words, we have learned to know each other better’, Picchi says.
‘We got everything we wanted: a brand-new internet-based platform with all the features that we need. The system is easy to use, it looks good and our staff love it’, Koivulanaho says.
