My background

Mee­ting IT chal­len­ges with softwa­re since 1992

Ent­repre­neur Timo Lintunen

Ini­tial­ly replacing cash regis­ters with computers

The first IT chal­len­ge in the busi­ness world was pre­sen­ted to me by an ent­repre­neur in Vääk­sy in the sum­mer of 1992, during the worst of the reces­sion, when he asked me if I would make him a pro­gram for making and sto­ring cash regis­ter receipts. He had a com­pu­ter and a mat­rix wri­ter, but not the neces­sa­ry software.

I deci­ded to make such a pro­gram as a hob­by, that’s how much I had lear­ned about pro­gram­ming. Howe­ver, the pro­ject tur­ned into a gain­ful acti­vi­ty when word of the softwa­re got around and a natio­nal distri­bu­tor was found who wan­ted to start sel­ling cash regis­ter softwa­re ins­tead of cash registers.

So in the autumn of the same year I foun­ded t:mi T. Lin­tu­nen. I star­ted to deve­lop a ver­sion of the softwa­re for wider use and the fol­lowing spring it was launc­hed. The POS softwa­re was cal­led Kassava.

A year later, when I gra­dua­ted from high school, it was time to start wor­king on the pro­gram­me in Hel­sin­ki. At the same time I star­ted tou­ring around Fin­land with poten­tial clients. The com­mercial and ser­vice sec­tors, whe­re cash regis­ters were alrea­dy used, beca­me familiar.

The­re was a wide ran­ge of requests - groce­ry sto­res for sca­les, hairdres­sers for ren­tal chair ope­ra­tions, kiosks for video cas­set­te ren­tal ope­ra­tions, and many other sec­tors for various sec­tor-speci­fic ope­ra­tions. Soon a natio­nal­ly renow­ned refe­rence cus­to­mer in the car acces­so­ries sec­tor was brought in to boost the busi­ness. In gene­ral, cus­to­mers wan­ted func­tions that were alrea­dy on the cash regis­ters and new fea­tu­res that could not be thought of on the cash regis­ters, such as invoicing, stock mana­ge­ment and ordering.

Tech­nical tra­de and repair shops

The busi­ness beca­me a limi­ted com­pa­ny, Kas­sa­va Oy, in 1995, with deve­lop­ment and mar­ke­ting direc­ted towards the auto­mo­ti­ve after­mar­ket and gara­ges. The after­mar­ket sec­tor was int­ro­duced to elect­ro­nic orde­ring by impor­ters and it was deci­ded that the time had come to choo­se which sec­tor to invest in. At this point, I also star­ted stu­dying along­si­de my job.

In 1997, it was time to deve­lop the first Win­dows-based softwa­re for smal­ler gara­ges. It star­ted to be sold by my new distri­bu­tor, a com­pa­ny enti­re­ly dedica­ted to the gara­ge sec­tor. The Win­dows softwa­re tra­de­mark Futur­Soft and the brand name Auto­Fu­tur were born. I rec­rui­ted softwa­re deve­lo­pers and moved into more of a design and pro­ject mana­ger role myself.

At the end of 1998, I foun­ded Futur­Soft Oy (Ltd.) with two new part­ners, which then deve­lo­ped a new gene­ra­tion of lar­ge-sca­le softwa­re. Long-term deve­lop­ment work focused on the spa­re parts and works­hop sec­tor, and later on the mac­hi­ne­ry and tyre sec­tors. During the­se years, the applica­tion, which star­ted out as a cash regis­ter softwa­re, was expan­ded into an full blown ERP softwa­re, which even­tual­ly inclu­ded more than 200 addi­tio­nal modu­les, 2500 com­pa­ny-speci­fic options and hundreds of screens. My own roles at Futur­Soft during the years were as Deve­lop­ment Direc­tor and Chair­man of the Board, along­si­de a very wide ran­ge of softwa­re com­pa­ny tasks.

In 2016, we sold Futur­Soft to the Swe­dish Vitec Softwa­re Group. At this point, the softwa­re was used by more than 1500 com­pa­nies in Fin­land, Swe­den and Esto­nia. This was the end of a 24-year pro­ject for me. Final­ly, I wor­ked for the new owner for a whi­le, which also gave me expe­rience of what it is like to work as part of a Nor­dic lis­ted company.

Busi­ness deve­lop­ment with softwa­re continues

From 2019 onwards, Lin­tu­nen Con­sul­ting (Win­dium Oy) will basical­ly aim at the same goal as I have been pur­suing in my pre­vious acti­vi­ties since 1992, i.e. the most efficient use of infor­ma­tion tech­no­lo­gy in client com­pa­nies. I want to deve­lop my clients’ busi­ness through infor­ma­tion sys­tems, but also through other sys­te­ma­tic deve­lop­ment work.

With my IT expe­rience and com­mercial trai­ning, I have a good feel for when to chan­ge infor­ma­tion sys­tems and when to chan­ge the way a com­pa­ny ope­ra­tes. Over the years, my con­ti­nuo­us needs ana­ly­sis and pro­ject deli­ve­ry are my core com­pe­tencies, which I con­ti­nue to offer as a ser­vice to my clients, this time as an inde­pen­dent expert. My par­ticu­lar areas of strength inclu­de various inte­gra­tions and cus­to­mi­sed adaptations.

So my work to make com­pa­nies more efficient con­ti­nues. Ins­tead of deve­lo­ping my own softwa­re, I will focus on ser­ving in the various off-the-shelf softwa­re envi­ron­ments as an inde­pen­dent ope­ra­tor, brin­ging new ideas to the deve­lop­ment of day-to-day ope­ra­tions. In IT, not­hing is ever finis­hed - the­re is always room for impro­ve­ment. That’s a les­son I’ve lear­ned during my years as a deve­lop­ment manager.

What kind of con­sul­tant and busi­ness coach am I?

People who know me often desc­ri­be me as deter­mi­ned, met­ho­dical and flexible. Accor­ding to one test, my strengths are hones­ty, per­se­ve­rance, jud­ge­ment, lea­ders­hip and fair­ness. I always comple­te my work with care and rare­ly hit a wall. Ulti­ma­te­ly, help can always be found by asking or otherwi­se fin­ding out. When neces­sa­ry, I will learn new things if the objec­ti­ve requi­res it.

At this age, I don’t stress about unneces­sa­ry things, but rat­her think that things tend to work out. I am also a coach, so it is my job to know how to set goals and, if neces­sa­ry, how to overco­me or overco­me the obs­tacles in front of them. Obvious­ly, I don’t make pro­mi­ses I can’t keep.

So my work is goal-orien­ted, but that doesn’t mean I work tooth and nail. It’s impor­tant for me to get to work with people, not just in front of a screen. Coac­hing ses­sions, for example, are a great cont­rast to wor­king at the com­pu­ter’s screen.

I’m also a very calm per­son, and I always try to find the best solu­tion for the who­le and for the dif­fe­rent par­ties invol­ved, rat­her than forcing things. As a coach, I have recei­ved prai­se from my clients for being pre­sent and for genui­ne­ly lis­te­ning with a sen­si­ti­ve ear.

CV - trainings

Basic educa­tion

Stu­dent, Vääk­sy upper secon­da­ry school (high school), 1994

M.Sc., Hel­sin­ki School of Eco­no­mics, 2007. High­lights from the specia­li­sa­tion pha­se of studies:

  • Softwa­re com­pa­ny management

  • Busi­ness deve­lop­ment through infor­ma­tion tech­no­lo­gy (e.g. busi­ness process re-engi­nee­ring), Mana­ge­ment consultancy

  • Busi­ness mana­ge­ment sys­tems (ERP), Mar­ke­ting infor­ma­tion sys­tems and cus­to­mer rela­tions­hip mana­ge­ment (CRM)

  • Elect­ro­nic commerce

  • Infor­ma­tion sys­tems design, Pro­gram­ming (Java), Data management

  • Selec­tion, apprai­sal and remu­ne­ra­tion of staff

  • Pro Gra­du the­sis: Growth stra­te­gies of financial and mate­rials mana­ge­ment softwa­re vendors

  • Bac­he­lor the­sis: Com­pa­ri­son of inter­na­tio­na­li­sa­tion and diver­si­fica­tion as a growth stra­te­gy for a softwa­re manufacturer

Stu­dent of Com­pu­ter Science at Uni­ver­si­ty of Hel­sin­ki: stu­dies in pro­gram­ming and data­ba­ses, gene­ral basic stu­dies. Gene­ral gene­ral know­led­ge of pro­gram­ming and data­ba­se sys­tems, gene­ral gene­ral stu­dies, gene­ral com­pu­ter science, Pyt­hon, SQL, SqLi­te, PostgreSQL, etc.

Trai­ning programmes

  • HHJ cour­se and qua­li­fica­tion pas­sed: appro­ved mem­ber of the Board of Direc­tors, Cham­ber of Com­merce, 2021
  • Cer­ti­fied Busi­ness Coach Trai­ning, mul­ti-discipli­na­ry, BCI Busi­ness Coac­hing Ins­ti­tu­te, 2020
  • “Digi­tal Uni­ver­si­ty” Digi­tal Pro­ducts Busi­ness Coac­hing, Into­loop Ltd, 2020-2021
  • CEO cour­se, 20 days, Con­sul­tancy Sep­po Hof­fren Oy, 2019-2020
  • Power & Grow Coac­hing: Growth Busi­ness Coac­hing, 15 days, Con­sul­tium Oy and Pri­me Advice, 2014
  • Uusi­maa SME Lea­ders­hip Coac­hing, 10 days, Balen­tor Oy, 2013
  • Inter­na­tio­na­li­sa­tion coac­hing for SMEs in Uusi­maa, 15 days, Fint­ra, 2000-2001

Sepa­ra­te trainings

  • Tie­tu­ri Oy: Requi­re­ments Defi­ni­tion, C#, ASP.NET, Agi­le Pro­ject Mana­ge­ment, Pro­ject Port­fo­lio Mana­ge­ment, AZ-900 Mic­ro­soft Azu­re Fun­da­men­tals, Busi­ness Process Deve­lop­ment, Busi­ness Process Mode­ling, Cer­ti­fied Scrum pro­duct owner, Scrum Fun­da­men­tals, Lean IT Foun­da­tion, Mic­ro­soft Pro­ject, Mic­ro­soft Visio, Mic­ro­soft SQL Ser­ver, Agi­le Met­hods of Softwa­re Development
  • Sula­va Oy: AZ-104 Mic­ro­soft Azu­re Admi­ni­stra­tor, DP-300 Admi­nis­te­ring Mic­ro­soft Azu­re SQL solutions.
  • Edu­house: DP-900 Mic­ro­soft Azu­re Data Fun­da­men­tals, seve­ral Cloud Pro cour­ses such as .NET applica­tion deve­lop­ment and JavaSc­ript development.
  • Waka­ru Oy: Ser­vice Desk Background Proces­ses, ITIL 4 Foun­da­tion, PRINCE2 Foundation
  • Other trai­ners.
  • Lean Six Sig­ma Yel­low Belt (Leanvalmennus.fi), Trai­ners’ House coac­hing pass­port trai­ning package.
  • I am an acti­ve atten­dee at pro­fes­sio­nal events, inclu­ding recent­ly Pro­ject Days, Devops, AIOPS, Process Days.

Contact us

Address

Keilaranta 1
FI-02150 Espoo
Finland

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