Developing and fun teamwork across borders

The new, larger company will have around 240 employees, of which 200 are in Norway and 40 in Sweden. After the merger, the company will be an even more secure IT partner with a wider range and a stronger supply of skills to small and medium-sized growth companies.

We had a chat with Tommy Bjørnøy, Head of Security and Solution Manager in Norway, and Marcus Juvin, Technical Lead - Security and Compliance in Sweden, about the their cooperation, how the merger can contribute to the development of their customers and of course the traditional jokes across borders.

What kind of projects do you do together?

Tommy: Upheads in Norway is ISO certified in IT security since 2019 as a quality stamp towards our customers. At our weekly meetings, we go through what the customers are concerned with in security to find improvements. Our auditor within the ISO certification is actually Swedish and comes to us once a year.

Marcus: We work together to ensure that the Swedish part becomes part of the ISO certification for the upcoming audit so that we are aligned on security. All security is connected in ISO, and we will get the same ISO as Upheads this spring.

What is the nature of the cooperation?

Marcus: We have meetings every Friday where we talk about the past week, highlighting current security threats, if we have encountered any problems and how we could make improvements. Upheads in Norway generally have a very strong knowledge of security threats, while we in Sweden have control over the security of the 365 platform, so we give and receive a lot of tips from each other.

Tommy: Marcus is the only one from Sweden who participates in the meetings, so I see him as our extended arm to Sweden. From Norway, we have people from the data center, service desk, SOC and solution architect, and the collaboration is about finding solutions.

Marcus: When they have improved something in Norway, I get the information from Tommy, and then I make sure we have it in our environment.

What benefits do you see from the merger?

Marcus: Above all, we get a broader competence. We in Sweden have a rather small security team while the Norwegian part has a huge and broad competence and long experience. We have started to find new services that we can offer customers thanks to Upheads.

Tommy: Yes, we are looking at starting to deliver SOC to Sweden, which is strongly established in Norway.

Marcus: It will definitely be easier to establish SOC in Sweden when we can take advantage of a developed solution and adapt it to Sweden. Much of Uphead's security will be transferable to Swedish customers.

Tommy: Sweden has come further than us in AI with Martin Liljenberg and others. Liljenberg at the forefront. If we need help with a solution in AI, we contact Malmö, and the Swedish part has helped us move forward in AI.

What competences do you want to develop with the help of your staff in the other country?

Tommy: Marcus is very engaged when we discuss 365. I appreciate that. I want to immerse myself in AI and learn from what the Swedish part has done in practical applications. There is so much talk about AI and I would like to bring it down to something that our customers will be able to use in their businesses.

Marcus: Tommy is extremely knowledgeable about security and SOC, and of course I want to immerse myself more in SOC. Then the Norwegian part has its own data center that they offer to their customers and it would be fun to learn more about their own data center.

Tommy: It would be a good cooperation to organize security around AI. Maybe we could bring Norway's security expertise into Sweden's AI expertise.

Speaking of collaboration, have you all met?

Marcus: Yes we had a great and fun start when we all traveled to Verona in Italy to meet and get to know each other.

Tommy: It was two corporate cultures that met very well and there was a lot of craziness on both sides when 40 people from Sweden met 200 crazy Norwegians. It was almost like a honeymoon for us.

Marcus: But now the honeymoon is over so it's time to get serious.

But let's not be so serious. Can you each give us a funny story to end with?

Marcus: Stories about Sweden and Norway are often based on the other person being stupid. I actually heard one today about an escalator in Norway breaking down. There were 27 Norwegians stuck in the escalator for two hours until it started moving again.

Tommy: And in Norway we say Press the Swedish button if you have problems with your computer. If you are as stupid as a Swede, you just press reset, and you are up and running again.

Read more about the merger

Questions and answers

Interview with Uphead's President and CEO Bjørg Tomlin

Interview with WeSafe founder Peter Fritzon

Interview withfive Upheadsstaff in both countries