The needs of newspaper and magazine publishers for increasingly advanced digital solutions can be felt at the consultancy and software firm Visiolink, which in 2013 invested heavily in new competences – on both the technological and employee levels. Despite heightened global competition and more mature purchasing patterns among media companies, Visiolink has maintained and expanded its position by focusing on the innovation of products, concepts and services.
"A more mature market is in need of our solutions on several levels," says Visiolink's CEO Jens Funder Berg. "First and foremost, media companies want stability, quality and safety in their digital orders, which must ensure that digital newspapers and magazines hit the streets every day. Furthermore, there is constant focus on digital product development and innovation. And finally, everything must be able to be documented via business intelligence and big data, so that digital initiatives can be launched based on facts."
Visiolink therefore continues to expand its position, as the company's clients now include the most important European newspaper and magazine publishers of some 750 titles from eight countries.
"Our primary role is to continue as technology providers, but with a more mature market and new digital possibilities, the need for us to also provide conceptual innovation is increasing, so we're becoming more involved in business models and commercial issues," Berg explains.
Visiolink's leading position with clients in Scandinavia, Germany, Ireland and Holland ensures that the experiences and lessons learned by the media companies can come to benefit the entire industry, as Visiolink invites media professionals to its Visiolink User Group and Masterclass conferences, where clients eagerly share their experiences with their counterparts from different countries and media branches. "One of our big competitive advantages clearly lies in our significant market share in Europe. In many ways, digital challenges are the same from media house to media house, and most companies are more than happy to share their experiences; for example, our Norwegian clients can learn from their counterparts in Southern Germany, while our Dutch clients might be able to learn a thing or two from Finland. Furthermore, our internal competence building ensures a high level of quality in the products and services we deliver, particularly when we can test new concepts and services in cooperation with a wide range of media market actors," Berg notes.
New knowledge costs
Throughout 2013, Visiolink regularly invested in new competence areas with a view to supporting the ever-changing situation of media companies, and to satisfy the resulting needs that may arise. It is clear that digital newspaper and magazine solutions for publishing on smartphones, tablets and web browsers have gone from 'nice-to-haves' to 'must-haves.' And that is why Visiolink further professionalised its organisation in 2013 by, among other ways, hiring new employees in the areas of business development, product management, business intelligence and, not least, by expanding the Visiolink Customer Care division. "In order to secure future growth, we've undergone a large-scale restructuring which entails even greater focus on the needs of our clients, and which in turn means we're also focusing on the needs of the media companies' customers, or readers and advertisers. Basically, we're taking even greater responsibility throughout the entire value chain," Berg states.
A targeted growth strategy will ensure that media industry clients will continue to receive concrete technological and commercial benefits from a Visiolink that is expecting stable growth throughout 2014. "We're seeing a continued influx of international media houses, but that's not solely where our focus lies," notes Berg, who concludes: "We would of course love to secure new clients, but it's even more important for us to create even closer partnerships with our existing clients, all of whom are ready to take the next step into the digital future."
According to CEO Jens Funder Berg, Visiolink's growth is based on the following factors:
- Professionalism and knowledge sharing that are cultivated in close collaboration with the media industry; an interplay supported by both client and user-driven innovation.
- A result model based on four parameters: performance, focus, motivation and competence.
- Unflagging enthusiasm: we salute excitement and initiative in our busy working day.
- Job satisfaction: our employees are our most important resource. When we are satisfied on the job, we work more creatively and efficiently.
