Citec attitude 2 2010 by Citec Group

CITEC

NEWS AND STORIES WITH AN ATTITUDE FROM CITEC

2 • 2010

FOCUS ON WIND POWER

Relying on professional documentation.

EFFORTLESS BUILDING Power plants rise efficiently with modules.

UNBEATABLE ENERGY Energy and attitude make the boxer. Meet Citec’s own Inkamari Välitalo.

EDITORIAL

Attitude makes a difference!

he success of a company is largely based on the ability of people to work together. Therefore, good collaboration between colleagues and between managers and employees can never be understated. In the same line, cooperation between the customer and supplier is always important. Even in our private lives, good communication simply enriches us all. It’s all about working well together. So, what is attitude or the right attitude? Attitude is an opinion about something or someone. A good attitude, above all else, shows respect for other peoples’ views, not only when listening to them, but also when trying to understand their specific situation. Attitude also plays a significant role when it comes to constructive and creative thinking, which is crucial to problem solving and mastering challenges. Attitude is one of the keys to successful communication. An example from business life: an email with a complaint raises emotions; first you feel a little angry and go on the defensive. The result is that the issue is escalated negatively. However, by taking on the issue with the right attitude, the first thought could be, for example, that “this must be a misunderstanding, I must check this”. Most conflicts and discontent are based on misunderstandings. Face-to-face meetings or video/ phone conferences conducted in a constructive atmosphere solve most issues. Naturally, a real problem must be carefully analyzed and handled objectively. There must be an honest willingness to find a solution that both parties can comprehend that has a long-term value dimension. Criticising someone on incomplete grounds is disastrous for an atmosphere of cooperation. Giving negative criticism is quite acceptable, however, if the receiving party interprets it as constructive feedback. Thus, instead of the term negative criticism we can use constructive criticism. Cooperation is also based on the idea that giving is receiving. Most people work that way. Daring to trust people can mean taking a risk, but it can undoubtedly also be seen as a great gift. At Citec, it is very important to share one’s competence, experience and information with others. Trying to include rather than exclude will pay off eventually. Cooperation and helpfulness is a winning behaviour, and a generous attitude means success! This is one reason why Citec’s magazine, devoted both to our personnel and customers, is called Attitude. Pleasant reading! Rune Westergård CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD

CONTENTS

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12 CITEC

PUBLISHER Citec, P.O. Box 109, FI-65100 Vaasa +358 (0)6 324 0700

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MER CITEC CUSTO

attitude@citec.com EDITORIAL BOARD Rune Westergård,

MAGA ZINE

Michael Smirnoff, Katriina Valli, Ben Power, Petra Nylund, Peter Appel, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Smirnoff PROJECT MANAGEMENT Petra Nylund EDITOR Johan Svenlin PRODUCTION

IN THIS ISSUE

Botnia Information and Citec LAYOUT Glenn Nylund, Annika Lillkvist, Janne Nylund

6 Max energy in one hit

12 Time to focus

18 Stunts for real

Boxing is the sport where you discharge all your energy in a few minutes. But behind every hit lies endless hours of training.

The Switch has decided to become the leading supplier of generators and converters for green electricity. To be able to focus they need a professional partner in documentation.

“You’re the star – we’ll do the stunts”, is what Citec promises. For stuntman Kimmo Rajala this has been the reality for 25 years.

PRINT Fram 2010

14 The spider in the project web

22 A reliable partner, please.

Citec Information provides services

An honest partner you can trust. That’s what Citec’s customers appreciate the most, according to a new study made among customers of both Citec Engineering and Citec Information.

11 Super-sized building bricks Take building bricks for children, then super-size them. Perhaps it’s not quite as simple as that, but module building is efficient and minimises tough on-site work.

Assignments in on-site services are increasing at Citec. The site-engineers have the challenging task of ensuring all project parties pull together.

COVER PHOTO Janica Karasti COMPANY KEY FACTS Citec Engineering offers multidiscipline engineering and consulting. related to technical communication. The total number of employees is 1,000 and the turnover for 2009 was approximately 50 million euros. Citec is headquartered in Vaasa, Finland and has offices in Finland, Sweden, the UK, France, Russia and India.

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CITEC STUNTS

Consulting for Södra Cell

Citec Curling Challenge 2010

n Södra Cell, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of paper pulp, has chosen Citec Engineering AB to provide technical consulting services to four of Södra Cell’s paper pulp mills in Sweden and Norway. “We have a solid competence with many references from the paper pulp industry, and this longterm agreement means that we can invest in growth and consider increasing the amount of offices in Sweden”, says Hans Paulsson, Managing Director of Citec Engineering AB in Sweden. The assignment includes mainly construction services in mechanics (piping, machine design, strength calculations) and project management.

n It was drama all the way to the last stone when Citec arranged its fifth Citec Curling Challenge competition on 25th March in Karlstad, Sweden. Citec Engineering’s and Citec Information’s teams played against teams from Stora Enso, Rolls Royce, Metso Fiber, UMV Coating, Cambrex and the last year’s winner Crem International. This year’s winner was named as the organizer itself, Citec. “Great fun!”, stated the guests and organizers after the competition.

SEAFARER. Rolls-Royce Marine is a global leader in products and systems for commercial and naval customers.

Global contract with Rolls-Royce

4 QUESTIONS

LEADERS IN PULP. Södra Cell chose Citec Engineering for technical consulting services.

The future is bright

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n Citec Information AB has won a two-year contract with RollsRoyce Marine for provisioning of training material for all products developed and manufactured at Rolls-Royce in Norway, Finland, Sweden and the U.K. “Rolls-Royce Marine has been looking for a supplier to build our global training solution. We have been very satisfied with Citec’s competence within technical communication in previous projects over the years, and we highly value their agility as a company”, says Garry Jepp, Vice President, Capability and Capacity, Marine Services Operations, Rolls-Royce Marine.

Arun Thiagarajan is advisor to the Board of Directors for Citec Finland.

Citec at Russian Power Exhibition n In late March both large and small players from the power and energy sector gathered at the annual Russian Power Exhibition in Moscow. Citec’s stand attracted many visitors and important new contacts were made. “We had several interesting enquiries and were able to show Citec’s competence in the energy market. Russia is an interesting market for Citec”, says Magnus Forsbäck, Managing Director of Citec Engineering, Russia.

n Tell us a little about yourself! I am a consultant and sit on several boards in India and Denmark. I was born in Calcutta, India, and today I live in Bangalore. I took a degree in electrical engineering from Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan in Stockholm, Sweden, where I also studied economics in Uppsala. My career started in Sweden at ASEA, and I stayed for 30 years in the group, in Sweden as well as in India. The IT industry is also familiar to me,

CERTIFIED. Citec Information India, here represented by Sandhya Ravishankar, Olli Kytökari and Vinaya Rao, gained excellent scores in the ISO 9001 audit.

ISO 9001: Audit with splendour n Citec Information India has passed the ISO 9001 certification audit with splendid results. According to DNV India a company seldom passes the first certification audit with not even minor nonconformities and so few observations. “The constantly increasing cooperation between locations has really underlined the benefits of a standardized way of working. For example, each new industry domain in India benefits from tested and documented methodology. We are avoiding inventing the wheel over and over. This translates directly to better service to our customers”, says Olli Kytökari, Managing Director of Citec Information India.

since I’ve worked for the IT service provider Wipro and HP. What is your relation to Citec? Ever since the companies were founded I’ve been connected with both Citec Information India and Citec Engineering India. For two years now I’m also attending Board meetings of Citec Finland as an advisor.

Citec Information Finland passed the recertification audit and was granted the certificate for the next 3-year period. Also Citec Engineering India has passed the ISO 9001 certification audit, performed by Bureau Veritas. The core team in the process consisted of Mukul Bhatia, Nasir Mulani, Krishnan Muthukumar, Ajay Juvekar, Shreerang Ketkar, Pankaj Jayswal, Ganesh Sondur, Sunil Gawde, Umesh Shrikhande, Janne Laaja and Sanjay Kale. The Indian certifications are yet another step towards a uniform global Citec with a strong common way of working.

What is your personal view of Citec? Both Citec Information and Citec Engineering were very early in recognizing the need to shift some work to a country like India, with well-educated employees and lower costs. While this is common in engineering, it is still new in the field of technical documentation. Both companies have competent organisations in India which, when combined with

the resources in Finland, make an unbeatable combination of competence, cost and availability of resources. This needs to be built on for the future.

FUN WITH CITEC. Björn Östlund from the Cambrex team at Citec Curling Challenge.

and more companies will look for outsourcing areas that are not their absolute core business. This provides good opportunities for us.

How do you look at Citec’s future? In difficult times both Citec Information and Citec Engineering have bright futures. The need to compete in a difficult environment means that more 2•2 010 C I T E C AT T I T U D E

SPORTS: BOXING

Janica KarastI

ENERGY AND ATTITUDE MAKE THE BOXER Training six times a week. Matches where all that energy should be discharged in just a few minutes and where every hit can be the deciding one. Inkamari Välitalo has what it takes.

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SPORTS: BOXING

Janica KarastI

MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE. Välitalo is described as a terrier in the boxing ring. She can go far, if she also keeps a cool head.

Fighting is almost a trance.

e all have unexpected depths. Inkamari Välitalo discovered a new one in herself quite unexpectedly a few years ago. She’d been working as a Technical Writer at Citec Information in Oulu for some time and sitting at a desk all day was causing tension in her back. “A friend recommended fitness boxing. I went along and it really did help with the tension in my back muscles”, she tells. But her back wasn’t the only thing enjoying the boxing. Välitalo liked the training and after a couple of years she felt that she wanted to learn more. So she contacted the boxing club Oulun Tarmo in Oulu. “I’d never sparred before and it looked very frightening. I couldn’t imagine myself boxing with a person.” But temptation won over fear and the experience was completely different from what it had seemed. Inkamari became hooked. Last spring she won a silver medal in the national championship in her weight class, 48 kg, for the second time in a row. This might sound like an easy road to the top, but even if Välitalo wasn’t a couch potato at the beginning, that wasn’t the case. Although she had always been an active sport enthusiast, it was when she started at the amateur boxing club that she started training for real: six days a week, boxing training mixed with running, swimming and yoga. And add to that, living without a car. Every week she rides up to 100 kilometres on her bike. “I love training. You get an unbelievable endorphin kick from training hard”, Välitalo says.

BOXING IS ONE of the oldest sports in the world. Amateur boxing differs from professional boxing in that the amateurs wear head protection and a shirt during matches and they don’t fight for money. Female amateurs go for four rounds of two minutes each for a match. The referees carry a large responsibility since they give points to the boxers and watch over their safety. “I feel safe in the ring and completely trust the referees and judges to halt the match if needed”, says Välitalo. And sometimes matches are stopped. In big competitions, matches are decided by lottery and as a first timer Inkamari was paired with a very experienced boxer. “It was scary. But the match was halted since the opponent was totally superior.” It’s not unusual for boxers to hurt themselves. C I T E C AT T I T U D E 2•2 010

Janica KarastI

Bruises and nose bleeds are everyday occurrences that Inkamari also deals with on occasion. It naturally follows that a boxer also feels fear, but once the round begins, the feeling goes away. “I don’t think about anything when I’m in a match. Who the opponent is makes no difference. I fight, I move, and any sense of time vanishes. It’s almost a trance, a different reality. All I hear are the voices of the referee and my coach.”

WHAT DOES IT take to be a good boxer? Technique, fast moves? “Sure, but a certain attitude is the most important thing. You need to be tough and brave and never give up. Good boxers are good for very different reasons, often because of a combination of traits.” Välitalo herself has been described by her training partners as a pit bull terrier; an aggressive fighter who never gives up. This is something which is hard to imagine when you meet and talk to her though. And even if she’s quite pleased with these qualities, she still wants to improve. “I need to develop. Someone who’s just aggressive is doomed to lose. Boxing requires cold nerves and a cool head during the fight.”

INKAMARI VÄLITALO Profession: Technical Writer, Citec Information Lives in: Oulu, Finland Boxing club: Oulun Tarmo Significant achievements: Finnish Championships, silver medal in 2010, 2009. Personal goal: Gold medal in Finland, perhaps international championships.

VÄLITALO IS IN a minority in the world as a female boxer. In Finland active competitors are so few that it’s easy to keep tabs on your opponents and have an idea of who they are. And as is to be expected, Välitalo has met a varied range of attitudes towards female boxers. “Many are positive, others doubtful, some think it isn’t suitable for a woman. Myself I think that boxing suits a certain type of person, regardless of their sex. You need heart, determination and courage. I find it surprising to discover that I have all of those qualities.” Her own development has been on the rise lately and she still plans to continue boxing. But for exactly how long she isn’t sure. She’s 31 now and amateur boxers must stop competing at 35. She thinks it unlikely that she’d take the step to professional boxing, even though she will continue to fight. “But you should never say never.”

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ENERGY: SIEMENS

ENERGY: MW POWER

F AST DELIVERY TO A DEMANDING SITE

MODULE PLANNER. Citec Engineering and MW Power continue cooperation on power plants based on standard modules. “Today the focus is on bigger power plants”, Patrick Malmsten says.

B uilding a power plant in Nigeria is a challenge in itself because of the country’s infrastructure. Furthermore, fulfilling Siemens Sweden’s fastest planning timetable ever takes the challenge to a new height. Johanna Forsman

TRUSTED ENGINEERING. “With proven experience from rapid projects we got the challenging task of planning a power plant for Siemens in Nigeria”, says Fredrik Lindén at Citec.

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n oil-rich Nigeria, industries grow quickly and in Ibese, about 100 kilometres northwest from Lagos, Siemens will build a gas power plant to provide a new cement industry with electricity in record time. The power plant will be equipped with three single cycle gas turbines with a total capacity of 113 megawatts. Citec Engineering is delivering the total planning and engineering work for the civil, electrical and piping design of the power plant. “It’s an interesting project, partly TRUST. “In a demanding project because our cooperation with Siemens it’s important that we can is developing well, and partly because rely on our partner keeping to of the project’s timetable”, says Fredrik their promises and work on a Lindén, Project Manager, Thermal long-term basis”, says Rune Power at Citec. Grönborg at Siemens. The schedule is the tightest ever for Siemens Sweden: Citec began the design work on December 18, 2009 and the construction work, such as site preparation and piling started in May 2010. The foundations will be built while other areas are being planned. In October 2010 the gas turbines will arrive on site and will be placed on the foundations. “It’s very important for us that we can rely on our partner in a project such as this. The delivery time is extremely short and the demands from our customer are great and change during the project. The project also means a breakthrough for us in this part of Africa”, says Rune Grönborg, Project Manager at Siemens in Sweden. The fact that both Siemens and Citec have experience of projects with multicultural connections and demanding conditions comes in handy in Ibese. The security situation in Nigeria also places demands on the project. “Since it’s difficult for our people to live in the community, we must keep to the building site and the guarded accommodation that we chose”, Rune Grönborg says. He is very satisfied with the cooperation with Citec up until now and Fredrik Lindén agrees. “Because both Siemens and Citec are driven by partnership thinking, our cooperation develops quickly. We are both working in the same direction and we respect and listen to each other”, Lindén says.

Johanna Forsman

Excellence in module building POWER PLANTS RISE EFFICIENTLY WITH STANDARD MODULES.

imply put, module building a power plant is comparable to Lego or some other type of toy building set: prefabricated units are connected quickly and efficiently together at the building site. Quality is guaranteed and the demands placed on on-site building are minimised. A fine example is the cooperation between Citec and MW Power on a Biopower plant in the Czech Republic where the end customer, Less & timber, uses wood chip, bark and saw dust as fuel. The Biopower (BP5CEX) power plant has an installed capacity of 5.5 mw electrical and 10 mw thermal. Citec did most of the design work for the power plant.

“THE PROJECT WAS very successful in terms of efficiency, schedule and

cost. Above all we are satisfied that we could benefit from the feedback from our previous joint projects and avoid mistakes”, says Rajiv Arora, Director Project Management, Biopower line at MW Power. MW Power is a joint venture by Metso and Wärtsilä, specialised in medium and small scale biopower and heating plants built with standard modules. Module building has many benefits. First, the work process on the building site is minimised, which brings both time and

cost benefits. Moreover, the modules are manufactured in controlled factory conditions and the previous manufacturing experience is made good use of. Factors under the heading of “unexpected problems” are also minimised, compared to construction on the building site.

“MOST OF THE INTERIOR of a power plant can be built in module-form beforehand, but the parts you choose to do in modules are the ones you can standardise for future projects. In all module building you also aim to minimise welding on site”, says Patrick Malmsten, Project Manager at Citec Engineering. He was also very satisfied with the cooperation between MW Powers and Citec on the Less & timber project. “Adequate resourcing for planning is crucial for the project’s progress. Together with the design, enough early input makes the planning fast and agile”, he says. Rajiv Arora emphasises the importance of a successful planning stage: “It is absolutely crucial that planning goes well, since it prepares the ground for all that follows.”

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ENERGY: THE SWITCH

THE ART OF READING A WIND POWER PLANT A small but rapidly-growing company on a global market needs to focus on what it does best. The Switch is determined to become the leading supplier of generators and converters for green electricity and counts on Citec for their documentation.

hen the three innovative players in the renewable energy market – Rotatek, Verteco and Youtility – joined together to form The Switch in December 2006, the clear focus from the beginning was to become the leader in wind power technology. During its short history, The Switch has supplied three gigawatts for the production of green electricity, which in electricity production corresponds to two modern, normalsized nuclear power plants. “China invests huge amounts in wind power. We have delivered over 90 % of our products to customers in China”, tells Mika Jantunen, Product Manager, Converters, at The Switch in Vaasa. The Switch concentrates strictly on its main activities and carefully chooses its cooperation partners for different posts. The important documentation has been arranged by Citec. “It’s best to let professionals handle those parts of the acitivity that we in The Switch don’t manage. Documentation is one of them”, says Mika Jantunen. “We concentrate on our own product development and get professional documentation handling from Citec”, adds Sari Vallinmäki, Manager, Product Engineering, at The Switch. The daily documentation work at The Switch is

made by Citec’s documentation experts as part of the project teams at The Switch’s production units in Vaasa and Lappeenranta. “They are so integrated into our project teamwork that if we didn’t know they are from Citec, we wouldn’t notice it”, says Mika Jantunen.

DISTRIBUTION OF WORK. “Citec’s competence in documentation is well suited for The Switch, who consequently concentrates on its main activity – converters and generators for renewable electricity”, say Pia OjanperäKetola at Citec Information and Sari Vallinmäki and Mika Jantunen at The Switch.

THE DOCUMENTATION CREATED during product development and in production is used as a basis for, among other things, those service manuals that Citec compiles at The Switch. Because The Switch’s production is largely exported, mostly to China, the operating instructions must be as generic as possible. “We always take into account the needs and wishes of our end customers so that the manuals will have the right composition of information”, explains Pia Ojanperä-Ketola at Citec. “It is important to our customers that a manual has useful information and that irrelevant data is removed”, explains Mika Jantunen. STANDARDS AND REGULATIONS also vary by country. Citec has expertise on various national and international standards and directives. “It’s good that you have that resource. We can trust that our user documentation fulfills the regional requirements”, says Sari Vallinmäki. THE SWITCH HAS its own service

personnel both in Finland and China, but the need grows as more power plants are taken into use. “We also train our customers more and more in the service work so that the end customers can keep their power plants running for several years. The service manuals are an important tool for them both in training and in the daily service work”, states Mika Jantunen.

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Katja Lösönen

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PRESENTING: ON-SITE SERVICES

THE SITE-ENGINEER

IS THE SPIDER IN THE PROJECT WEB

FOUNDATION FOR A GIANT. One of the biggest waste incineration plants in Finland will rise here within three years. Site-engineer Kaj Björkqvist will be the Construction Manager in the project.

ON-SITE SERVICES The number of assignments in on-site services has increased constantly over the last few years for Citec Engineering. According to Tommy Krohn, Business Area Manager, Thermal & Civil, this is quite in line with Citec’s target. “We aim to become a total service provider taking care of larger pieces of the project, including the total responsibility on the building site”, Krohn says. He believes that Citec will soon reach the point where it can offer complete multidisciplinary design in-house and take care of the entire construction management. “It’s what our customers want; a partner that can take full responsibility for the building site so that they can concentrate on their core activities.” On a personal level, onsite responsibility places high demands on those in charge. Besides a solid knowledge in engineering, the site-engineer or site manager must have both linguistic and social competence as well as knowledge of health and safety issues.

Korsholm, Finland: constructing a giant n Kaj Björkqvist from Citec Engineering wanders around a terrain resembling the landscape of the moon, which is the building site for Westenergy’s new waste incineration plant. The earthwork is in full swing and excavators are shovelling gravel to make a foundation for the 170 metre long building. Björkqvist explains what C I T E C AT T I T U D E 2•2 010

his job as a site-engineer entails: “I control the schedules, making sure that everyone knows what they need to know and coordinating all the companies and people involved in building the plant.” The plant is scheduled for completion in 2013 and includes four sub-projects connected with

four countries: a Swiss boiler, a French fuel gas cleaner, a German turbine supplier and a Finnish building contractor. The subprojects are further divided into smaller parts. It goes without saying that global thinking and a deep understanding of the building process are a must. Moreover, Björkqvist points out,

that you must be able to deal with people. “Teams and individuals must work together and all have to understand their roles. If everyone plays their part really well, we shall have the palace we are aiming for.” The total responsibility will lie with the site-engineers even if they

do not need to know everything themselves. “As for me, it means that I either solve the problems if I can or know someone who I can forward them to. Of course it’s tough sometimes, but it gives me great satisfaction when a project succeeds”, says Björkqvist.

LIKES CHALLENGES. Tiago Correia is used to tough building conditions. He has worked on a power plant in the Amazon jungle and now he is the site-engineer on Madeira’s main power plant under construction in the heart of the capital, Funchal.

Meanwhile in Funchal, Madeira: n Madeira is a rocky island with its capital, Funchal, lying in a narrow valley. And there, in close proximity to the settlement, grows Vittoria 3, the new power plant that will eventually provide the entire island with electricity. Tiago Correia looks at the building under construction: “There’s no doubt it’s a challenging building site. Nature and settlement both limit the space. The power plant will be very small compared to its engines, so to make everything fit in we are forced to make it taller. Also, when this close to housing we need to make sure that the noise, visual impact and traffic do not get too disturbing”, he says.

The island’s topography has set special demands from the beginning. Shipping the power plant engines along the serpentine roads from the harbour was impossible. Instead, a jetty was built on the nearby shore where the engines could be unloaded and transported directly to the building site. Correia works for Citec Engineering and is the siteengineer for a power plant that will be run by three dual fuel engines. It will be the main power source for Madeira’s 220 000 inhabitants and is scheduled for completion in 2010. Correia came to the island with his family in December 2009 when the

foundations were being laid. He came directly from two tough power plant project assignments in Peru’s Amazon jungle. “This job suits me. I like challenges and taking responsibility.” According to him, adaptability is the most important thing for a site-engineer. Working places and conditions in building projects change constantly. “For me, with a background in civil engineering, this job has been very educational. I have learnt a lot from most of the engineering areas, which is necessary in handling the job well”, says Correia.

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HANDLING FEEDBACK: CASE ELY

N EWS FROM THE ROADS

4 QUESTIONS

Roads cannot speak but drivers can. The state Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (ELY) turned to Citec when they needed to find the best way to channel the daily road network condition reports from motorists and professional drivers.

With a will to grow

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inland has an extremely long road network, which is subject to extensive wear and tear from the four seasons. Since the majority of users of any network know how the services are supposed to work, feedback is delivered promptly when issues arise. “We receive dozens of reports from private and professional motorists every day. Although most of them call us to report problems and damage, we also receive email and electronic forms”, tells Juho Jokinen at Pirkanmaa ELY centre, which is responsible for the customer-service relating to Finland’s road network. Although the information received from road users is worth its weight in gold, it used to be scattered and difficult to access. Therefore, last autumn Citec was asked to restructure the information, which was starting to be stored in the wiki-environment, in order to create a more uniform and manageable system. “We used consultants to ease our processes in handling the feedback coming in”, tells Juho Jokinen.

Virpi Onkamo led the team from Citec and, as usual, started the project with a careful analysis of the situation. The problems were identified and, in order to make the customers’ input more efficient, contents and functions were constructed out of the wiki-based environment that had been taken into use earlier that year. “Social media provides great opportunities when it comes to simplifying both the way customers can provide feedback and how we can improve customer relationships. Our system is not a toy; rather it’s an important tool for the personnel in product development, production and maintenance”, says Virpi Onkamo. The whole project was pushed through within a month, and when the unit was combined with another organisation as part of a larger restructuring of the national road management at the

Bjarne Peth is a member of the Board of Directors for Citec Engineering.

other Eastern European countries. In 2005 I became a board member at Citec Engineering and I’m presently also on the board of a few other companies.

Tell us a little about yourself! I was born in Vörå in Ostrobothnia, Finland. I studied at the Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki, where I took an MBA in 1972. Since 1981 I have run my own management company and I have a special interest in starting and building new businesses. My company is internationally oriented and lately we have been working a lot with projects in Russia and

How would you describe Citec to a person who doesn’t know the company? Citec is an entrepreneurial company with strong involvement from the owners. As history shows the

turn of the year, the new system could easily be transferred to the ELY centre. The ELY staff handles all the road reports from the whole country. “Today the system is used by about 20 people in the ELY centre daily, but the number of users will increase. The new wiki-based system is also much easier to update and offers a more flexible user experience than our old HTML-based system”, tells Juho Jokinen. Routines and information flow are also clear now. “Every incoming report is analysed and tagged and every file is handled according to its tag and forwarded to the appropriate unit or person. If a report contains information about damage on a particular stretch of road, local staff or a contractor goes to inspect the damage and repair it”, says Juho Jokinen.

will and competence to become better and grow is the company’s guideline. Citec Engineering is very international and the employees are well educated. Client satisfaction and improvement are always in focus at Citec. What, in your opinion, are the challenges facing Citec? Citec as a group is so big today that maintaining and

developing professionalism is a demanding process, taking Citec’s multidisciplinary focus into account. Human interaction based on modern effective design systems will be a demanding management task during the coming years.

to hobbies. Among other things I coach young people in HIFK athletics. I try to teach them how to practise the right way and practise enough – something I had to learn as a young boy. I practise sports myself as much as possible and I also like game hunting and fishing.

What do you do when not working? Just like Citec, I am multidisciplinary when it comes 2•2 010 C I T E C AT T I T U D E

LIFESTYLE: STUNTS FOR REAL

HANGING TOUGH. Kimmo Rajala needed his athlete skills in the Swedish action comedy Pillertrillaren.

LIFESTYLE: STUNTS FOR REAL

EVEN A STUNTMAN

KNOWS HIS LIMITS He has been burned, hung from great heights and jumped from 42 metres onto an air cushion. Kimmo Rajala has the longest and heaviest resume among active stuntmen in the Nordic countries – because he knows his limits.

ou have no doubt seen sick leave after knee surgery. Nothing him, even if you don’t dramatic, he points out. recognize the face or “I had some time between two films even the name. Since the middle which worked out fine to get an old of the 1980’s, Kimmo Rajala knee injury operated on.” has been involved in about 500 During his 25 year career as a film productions as a stunt stuntman he has managed to avoid man and stunt coordinator, serious injury and even the recovery including TV and commercials. from the knee surgery will be short. He In a few months time, when likes his job and will soon be going at you see George Clooney driving full speed again with a fully-booked like a madman in the film The calendar for half a year in advance. American, it is actually Kimmo Rajala behind the wheel. “EVERYONE WHO WORKS in stunts is “He managed the gun crazy which is exactly as it should be! shooting just fine himself, but We get a kick out of doing things that in some car scenes I got to sit in STUNT DOUBLE. Don’t accuse George Clooney no one else has done before.” the driver’s seat”, says Kimmo Being a stuntman requires you for driving like a loony in the action drama Rajala when talking about the to have the right mix of acrobatics, The American, opening in September. Stunt filming, parts ofEVERYDAY which were JOY. courage and technical know-how. You man and coordinator Kimmo Rajala was the made in Sweden. need to be able to rig the trick so that it If you wan’t one behind the wheel. When Citec Attitude got looks real and still minimizes the risk to be happy, hold of Kimmothere’s Rajala,ahe of accidents. The needs of the film always come first and lotwas at home in Stockholm, on you can do to make it happen.

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LIFESTYLE: STUNTS FOR REAL

Nordisk Film A/S

ACTION IN YSTAD. Kimmo Rajala handles the stunt coordination in the TV-series Wallander, where he also perform stunts for Kenneth Branagh’s character Kurt Wallander.

the spectacular daredevil stunts have to be balanced against the risk in order to prevent the production suffering. “Filming follows a strict timetable and it’s a disaster for both your own stunt career and the filming if an unsuccessful, reckless stunt delays the production. You have to know your limits or the phone stops ringing.”

KIMMO RAJALA’S OWN stunt career began by chance when his wresting club was visited by a group of filmmakers. “They needed people for a fight scene in a film. I was an elite athlete and used to fighting and being thrown about. Filming opened up a new exciting world for me and I felt right at home there.” To start with, doing film stunts was a hobby, but after a couple of years it became his profession. Over the years he has learned to quiet down the voice of reason that’s screaming ‘don’t do it, don’t jump!’ “I’ve done all the hard things you see at the movies, but of course you have to trust that everything’s been prepared carefully by experts and then focus on the job itself.”

IN HIS JOB as a stunt coordinator it is his responsibility to see that the other stuntmen and stuntwomen have the right conditions to do their C I T E C AT T I T U D E 2•2 010

tricks. He gets the script with tasks to solve and meets with the director and the producer to discuss the general limits. After that he contacts the pyrotechnics or other experts that will be needed for the job.

“AS THE STUNT coordinator, I’m responsible for

the action scenes, almost like a director. Because of that I need to be familiar with all parts of the film production, from shooting to editing. I need to guard my back with several alternative scenes that they can then work with on the editing board.” Computer generated images have become everyday things in film productions and that also has an impact on the stunts. With the computer’s help it is possible, for instance, to separate the actor and layer several different takes. “Even in the 1990’s they still did a lot of height scenes where the stuntman or the actor hung from thin 1.5 mm lines, all of which needed a lot of planning and safety considerations. These days you can do the scene with cables if you like and fix everything in post production.” But animation does not mean that stuntpeople are out of work. “No, it has to look real. In some doomsday films computer animation has taken over and the film looks like a PlayStation game. It’s sad to see.”

Kimmo Rajala goes to almost a dozen film premiers a year to see films he’s been involved in. “It always feels a little daunting to see how it came out. You hand the job over once it’s done and then others get power over it. Sometimes you’re disappointed when a scene isn’t cut the way you thought it should be, but for the most part I’m happy.” He prefers to see films at home on DVD. “Then you can pause and go back to see how an action scene has been done. You get a little obsessed with the job”, Kimmo Rajala notes.

PLAYING WITH FIRE. Kimmo Rajala was the stunt coordinator in the action packed Millennium Trilogy, where the female character Lisbet Salander, played by Noomi Rapace, has a special relation to fire.

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CUSTOMER SURVEY: THE CITEC BRAND

What kind of Citec do the customers want?

“A satisfied customer is a brand realized”

HONESTY AND RELIABILITY ARE KEY QUALITIES

Johanna Forsman

A new study made among the customers of Citec Engineering and Citec Information clearly shows that most place the highest value on a reliable partner. They feel that Citec meets its brand promise, “the one for the job”, quite well, even if Citecians themselves could be more active in selling their services.

4 QUESTIONS

he study is a qualitative study made at the beginning of the year among a chosen number of customers in 17 different companies and in several countries. Besides the top priority qualities of honesty and reliability, a number of other qualities were also noted as valuable to Citec customers: initiative, the right competence, on time delivery, close and long-term partnerships, and price. In comparison to competitors, Citec customers appreciate the fact that Citec personnel are able to provide the kind of know-how that they themselves are missing. Other advantages include Citec’s ability to create tailor-made solutions and Citec’s close proximity to their location. Citec Information is associated with competence and professionalism by its customers and is considered to be flexible, responsible and open for new ideas. Citec Engineering, by comparison, is associated with friendly personnel and is seen as a loyal partner. Citec Engineering customers highly

Carl-Axel Schauman is a member of the Board of Directors for Citec Information.

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value that the company delivers correct, tailor-made engineering and strives towards long-term partnerships.

MORE ACTIVE SALES. “The one for the job” is a slogan that customers think suits Citec well. Examples of this, for instance, are seen in the flexible, friendly, open-minded personnel and in their willingness to tailor solutions and solve problems. Customers also feel that Citec has the competence that they themselves are missing in certain areas of expertise. However, some did indicate that a Citec that sells its services more actively would be even more “the one for the job”. Especially Citec Information customers would like Citec to actively offer solutions to them. As for how the customers see “Citecians”, i.e. the personnel, they were described as positive, professional, confident, hard working and nice. Some did say that Citecians are too humble, considering what they can do, and that they could be more motivated in their roles.

Some general conclusions that can be made on the basis of the study are that Citec should communicate openly, continue to maintain close customer contacts and have the ability to serve customers in their own language and act as a responsible partner.

n Tell us a little about yourself! I was born in Vaasa, Finland. After completing my studies at Åbo Akademi University and Helsinki School of Economics I worked as an entrepreneur for a number of years. Since 1994 I have been working abroad; for the last 13 years in various senior management roles for the Oracle corporation. Currently I am responsible for the implementation

of Oracle solutions in central/ eastern Europe. How would you describe Citec to a person who doesn’t know the company? Citec has two distinct areas of focus: engineering and information/ document management. Having a clear focus enables the group, despite being only medium sized, to have world-class knowledge

GET-TOGETHER. Long-term relationships are built where people meet. Citec customer Pertti Snellman (on the left in front) together with Citec’s Fredrik Nyqvist, Stefan Häggård and Jukka Murtonen.

within its segments. Most customer relationships with Citec become long-term through outsourcing arrangements because Citec is able to support key business processes. Citec delivers high-quality services and solutions in a timely manner and cost effectively. Citec achieves this by creating a good mix of skills both in the Nordic countries and India.

What is your personal view of Citec? I see Citec as a dynamic group of companies with a proven track record when it comes to delivering high-quality services to world-class companies. Citec is continuously striving for innovative solutions in both content and delivery methods. I believe that Citec customers appreciate the reliability of delivery Citec provides as well as the open

n “A brand isn’t something you decide upon and then that’s it! Quite the opposite, the Citec brand is created every day by all of us who work here, from the telephone switchboard to the MD, through our actions outside and with each other”, says Michael Smirnoff, Director of Communications at Citec. The main idea and brand promise at Citec is to take full responsibility for the customers’ non-core business, so that they can concentrate on what they do best. “That’s where our symbol, the stuntman, comes in: we have the competence to do what our customers can’t or don’t want to do, so that they can concentrate on their core competence, and be the stars”, says Smirnoff. Since Citec delivers services that are created in cooperation with the customers, the Citec brand is strongly bound to each “Citecian” and how they act. “The brand image is a way of standing out in the market. Since there are many companies who deliver both quality and competitive prices, we offer more than just the basics: we stand for comprehensive responsibility for our projects and for innovation. There’s no better proof than a satisfied customer, in order to show that we’ve done what we’ve promised”, Smirnoff says. He points out that customers really appreciate Citec’s ability to take the initiative and offer them things that they had not yet thought of. And in every project communication is the key. “The study we made shows that we can be even better in communicating, in updating the parties involved on how the project is going, and in actively informing about problems and how we’re solving them”, says Smirnoff.

and straightforward way of doing business. What, in your opinion, are the challenges facing Citec? Some of the key challenges will come from maintaining our reliability, excellent quality of service and agility to handle a constantly changing business environment. Finding the right mix for on-site and off-site work for each client

will also be very important and will need to be openly discussed with the customers. The concept of strategic partnerships is crucial for future success. Ensuring that Citec has highly motivated and well-trained professionals will be the key differentiating factor.

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Every star needs a stunt double. And with Citec your performance will be ﬂawless. Behind the scenes, Citec’s experts will take full responsibility for tasks that are not your main activities. This leaves you free to take the leading role in your own ﬁeld of expertise.

You are the star — we’ll do the stunts.

the one for the job 26 years of proven excellence in Multi-Discipline Engineering and Technical Communication www.citec.com