Hello CEO: Marie Ceder, Visma PubliTech
Since July 1, 2021, Visma's operations for municipalities and regions have been gathered in a separate company, Visma PubliTech. According to CEO Marie Ceder, it is a top priority to contribute to a faster digitization of the public sector in Sweden.
- Municipalities and regions have a broad remit and, in the context of the pandemic and a troubled external environment, have been given even more tasks. "The most important thing for our customers is safety and a high degree of automation," says Marie Ceder.
70,000 IT specialists are missing. What action would you like to see from the industry?
Marie Ceder, CEO, Visma PubliTech- Working actively with diversity and inclusion is crucial to meeting the need; we are too narrow in our recruitment. The industry must also be a driving force in getting more people with different backgrounds to choose education in tech. One concrete example is that there are still only half as many girls as boys who start a civil or university engineering program.
How does your company work to secure the need for tech skills?
- Within the Visma Group, we have a trainee program that is a very good opportunity for young talents to try out several different roles / projects during an early phase of working life. I also hope that Visma PubliTech, with a gender distribution of 57% women and 43% men, can show that the traditional imbalance is being broken. The tech industry is crucial to the development of society and we need to build skills based on diversity.
- We also work with several universities and colleges around the country to showcase the many different career paths and opportunities available within a tech company.
What initiatives would you like to see from politicians and policy makers?
- For me, it is crucial that we maintain a close dialog between business, politicians and decision-makers. As a supplier of mission-critical solutions to the public sector, we are constantly responding to regulatory developments. It is therefore important that there is transparency, dialog and foresight so that we can make wise and long-term investment decisions. I would like to see broad consultation rounds when it comes to new legislation so that several actors can contribute with insight. It would also be desirable if investigations were carried out more quickly so that legislation can keep pace with technological developments.
- If we look at the need for tech skills, I think our policy makers can do more to make it easier for companies but also individuals to adapt and retrain in tech.
How do you work to prevent cyber attacks?
- I don't think anyone can say that cyber attacks can be completely prevented. However, we must of course continuously monitor, act and inform our customers if we discover a vulnerability, threat or attack. We also share our knowledge and have a dialog with customers about what they can do. Within the Visma Group, we have both central and local resources working with IT security and information security, and we work continuously with security frameworks and follow-up.
How important are sustainability issues to you??
- Visma PubliTech's vision is to strengthen the public sector with innovative solutions that contribute to maximized business benefits and a sustainable society. Our product development has a clear sustainability focus and we make conscious choices when it comes to data storage. Within the Visma Group, there are also several companies that offer software that makes it easier for our customers to work with sustainability and simplifies the collection of data from, for example, accounting and payroll systems.
- Diversity and inclusion are also an important part of our sustainability work. For a long time, we have worked hard to improve the balance between the sexes, and within Visma in Sweden we currently have a 50/50 distribution between men and women in several companies; within VIsma PubliTech specifically, the figure is 57% women, 43% men. But we are also working on increased inclusion so that we get people with different backgrounds. This is good for society, of course, but different perspectives also lead to better product development.
What benefits have you seen from membership of TechSverige?
- In addition to the employer service we get with the membership, I think that Techagenda for Sweden is a good example where we as an industry gather our insights to make a difference. Our industry is extremely important for Sweden's competitiveness and development!