To address the issue, Digia organises a free system integration course on seven weeknights in April with the intention of finding new employees for the company.
Integration business operations is one of Digia's fastest growing business areas, where new talent is almost always in demand. Finding this talent, however, is easier said than done as Finnish schools and universities offer a very limited range of programmes with the focus on integrations.
Digia director Teemu O. Virtanen believes that the minuscule role of integrations in the IT programmes stems from the traditional view in which integrations are "the unavoidable necessity" of system projects.
”The approach is that integrations are a part of the whole service. However, the way integrations are done and managed has a huge impact on the cost efficiency of the projects and the functionality of the finished product. Against this backdrop, the role of integrations in IT education is very small, " says Virtanen.
According to Virtanen, companies have started to see the importance of integration in the past few years. Companies have adopted more and more digital processes and the amount of usable data has grown exponentially. How the systems and the information provided by them can help the management and the development of new services is where integrations come in.
"The hotchpotch of system dependencies resulting from individual system installations is an expense item and a hindrance to development, whereas centralised integration makes it easier to use the available information. Companies have already seen this, but schools and universities are yet to catch up," says Virtanen.
At Digia, business operations rely on a highly skilled Finnish workforce. For this reason, the number of skilled recruits available on the job market makes a difference.
"What we do requires our employees to be able to communicate with our clients seamlessly. Integrations are connected to every system that a company or organisation has, and so the integrations will reflect all the changes in the company's operations. For this reason, the planning and execution of integrations require extensive knowledge of the working environment," explains Virtanen.
According to Virtanen, the use of Finnish talent does not mean extra costs for the clients, but instead the opposite.
"When help is close and working with the client is seamless, the operations become more profitable too. The cost comparison will also bear close scrutiny," says Virtanen.
"With management of the information related to the core systems of a client organisation, there are also security issues to consider, which is why many of our clients want their IT partner to be based in Finland," concludes Virtanen.
The Digia integration academy offers an extensive overview of integration tools and techniques, as well as an introduction to how Digia, one of Finland's leading integration companies, uses them. The training programme is a starting point, after which participants have the opportunity to begin working with integrations and expand their skillset in a hands-on manner.
Further information:
Teemu O. Virtanen
Director, Information Logistics
Tel. + 358 (0)40 849 1159