Arter’s values as a part of everyday life – Managing Director’s point of view

Arter’s corporate culture is regenerating. With the acquisition in 2019, our values have been updated as follows:

• Innovative,
• dedicated and
• entrepreneurial.

At the moment, in the fall of 2020, the values are in the internalization phase in different teams. We hold team discussions about our values through examples and joint workshops. At the turn of the year, we will hold a summary discussion with the entire personnel.

Values guide our decision-making and behavior, in other words, value management. However, there is no one right way or perspective in the realization of values, it depends on the situation, task and person.

Here are some of my own perspectives on Arter’s values. I have divided core values of innovativeness, dedication and entrepreneurial into their own sub-assemblies.

Innovativeness

Market-oriented

Historically, Arter has always been market-oriented. Market orientation as a value is vital, and we must maintain it. It is important that we stay on top of time, know our operating environment, explore the market, know where to go and keep looking into the future.

A good concrete example of market orientation is the development of ARC software. When it started, EA, or Enterprise Architecture, was a very new concept. However, our business instinct pulled us into that direction. Anticipating the legislature’s intentions lifted Arter aboard the GDPR wave and to success. We are now living in the lift of the second wave, the information management law.

Staying on top of time and following the market comes true through our values in terms of the proposals and solutions that our work produces. We use our knowledge of the market and the technology development in our own work and share our knowledge with our employees and stakeholders – what do our customers need?

Customer-focused

I think customer focus is synonymous with expediency. The customer experience arises from all of the customer’s interactions with Arter, such as marketing content, customer meetings, software installation, consultation, customer service, technical support and, of course, the IMS and ARC interface and their use. The basic task of customer-centric operations is to provide expedient service to the customer.

Why is customer focus so important? Because the customer is the enabler of everything: paying salaries, collecting profit margins and ensuring business continuity.

Although Arter’s customers have largely uniform needs, customers are not a uniform mass. Throughout history, Arter has been a relatively product-centric organization that has provided software products to customers without deeper customer relationship management. Customer service has been sales-focused.

At the moment, I think good examples of customer focus in our operations are defined customer responsibilities, product owners, customer groups, as well as UMA and SaaS Analyzer tools for monitoring and analyzing software usage.

Dedication

Result-oriented

As a basis for result-orientation, we have prepared Arter’s strategy and action plan for 2021. We will implement Arter’s strategy and 2021 goals into practice and into everyday life through goal discussions at team and employee level.

In addition to goal-oriented activities, it is necessary to address the situation if it seems that the goal is not being reached. This can be seen as unyieldingness and perseverance.

Result-orientation and the acquisition of new customers have traditionally been Arter’s strength. We intend to maintain it in the future as well: it is one of the drivers of growth.

Committed

I think in the value committed, Arter’s and the personnel’s states of mind come together. Commitment is a unified factor in those who work in our company.

Arter’s personnel, on the other hand, wants to work in an organization where their own and company values meet, the work is meaningful and developing.

We intend to reinforce a positive attitude through internalization of values, participation, interaction, feedback, encouragement and recognition.

Committed personnel are an absolutely important resource for the company, and we, as an employer, are also committed to the development and well-being of our people.

Entrepreneurial

Entrepreneurial

Entrepreneurial is a derivative of the word entrepreneur. With this value, we emphasize the soft side of entrepreneurship, such as actively seeking new business opportunities, taking initiative and being independent. Taking a considered risk to achieve a goal is in order. Entrepreneurship-related risk-taking and excessive stretching are kept in the sidelines.

Entrepreneurship can be seen going hand in hand with market orientation. It is all about knowing and following the market development of your industry, noticing when is the best time to offer customers something new or in which direction to develop a product.

Ambitious

Have you ever wondered why some achieve what they want and others don’t get to the finish line at all?

Ambitious people rarely cut corners. They want to pursue and achieve great things. Ambitious people have a strong desire to succeed and achieve something and they will not be discouraged even if there are obstacles along the way. They want to develop themselves and do not shy away from new responsibilities and challenges. They know when pursuing something, you have to work to achieve it.

In my view, what is essential for this value is the persistent pursuit of an ambitious goal – it will inevitably lead to development, both professionally and in terms of general competence, as we test our limits and explore new ways and rise again and again, even if we fall.

I think that regardless of the role, there is a touch of ambition in each of us. Ambitious people are united by purposeful, determined and passionate action.

At Arter, this value is also reflected on a daily basis as we work towards the strict goals given to us. Although at the beginning of the year the situation seemed almost impossible, now it seems that we are reaching our target for this year. I am very proud of all of us! As long as we continue to follow the same pattern, it is only up to us how high we strive!