Hello CEO: Gösta Thorell, iCore
In September, Gösta Thorell took over as the new CEO of iCore. With over 25 years in the IT industry, he emphasizes the importance of committed and transparent leadership as a driver of innovation and customer value.
- The journey up to today has been amazing with an evolution in the industry characterized by high competition, great need but also great opportunities with new disruptive technologies that have increased the value and speed of how and what we deliver.
What do you think is important for leadership, especially in the tech industry?
- Involvement, transparency and a genuine interest in what everyone can and wants to contribute. The tech industry is innovative by nature and solutions to challenges can often require different perspectives and experiences. Here, it is important to harness skills and talent, and align them with both customer requirements and the company's needs. Ultimately, it is about working professionally, long-term and close to the customer with their situation as a starting point. This requires constant dialog and development, both internally and with the customer. Encouraging and supporting this is an important task as a leader.
What is high on your agenda right now?
- The market in general and the iPaaS market in particular, which is developing rapidly. Our focus right now is to continue to future-proof the iCore platform. Over the past few years, we have invested significant resources in not only developing new features and tools, but also re-engineering core technologies. This now gives us great opportunities to quickly add new capabilities to our platform, not least in the field of AI.
How do you work with AI?
- AI informs most of our work. In product development, we have long utilized several different tools to streamline and improve our entire development process. Internally, we use AI to be more efficient in everything from administration to customer interaction, prospecting and marketing. Perhaps most importantly, we have started to develop our customer offering and services based on AI. One example is that we now have MCP servers that can serve AI agents to interact with the iCore platform in a controlled and secure way. During the fall, we have completed our first applications that provide direct customer benefit to several business processes depending on transactions and real-time data. A very exciting area.
What challenges do you see for iCore's further development?
- As a former engineer, you are trained to identify challenges, but above all we now see opportunities. However, the business world is constantly affected by the economy, which has been lukewarm for a long time now, and a sharp increase in competition that we must meet in the best possible way. We have a state-of-the-art platform and global muscle, but also an approach characterized by simplicity, transparency and a sincere desire not only to solve our customers' challenges, but also to help them find opportunities for improvement. When we combine this with a local presence and personal touch, we feel confident in our competitiveness.
What do you see as the benefits of iCore's membership in TechSverige?
- TechSverige has been around since I started in the industry and has been an important force in standardizing and simplifying business between suppliers and customers, not least through the wide acceptance of standard agreements. In addition to this, the networks are very important forums for developing the industry and not least TechSverige's work on driving the digitization agenda towards authorities and the education system. As an "industry fox", I want to thank you for all your work.
Founded in 2001, iCore has evolved over the years into a modern company with a SaaS-based integration platform (iPaaS) at its core, surrounded by professional consulting, service and support services. The company helps over 300 customers automate and streamline their business processes and make digitalization accessible to the entire organization, even outside the IT department. In spring 2024, iCore was acquired by the global IT group Volaris Group.