"Anvia - company interview"

A week ago, I met my friend's husband, he is Finnish and my friend she is Vietnamese. His name is Antti Vanni, and he is working for Anvia as a saler and consultant, Helsinki store. Then I decide to have a small talk with him and interview him about Anvia company, for my study assignment.

Anvia is a big and well-known company in finland, which is working on providing internet broadband, voice and security services, as well as TV service. For business customers, Anvia is providing communication lines, communication solutions, cloud and data center services.
Beside, belonging to Anvia gorup is Anvia Securi  and Anvia TV working on internet security service and also produce some TV programs. Anvia Group currently has around 700 employees and its turnover in 2014 was EUR 106 million. Their office are available in Sejnajoki, Vaasa, Kokkola, Helsinki, Tampere, Turku and Oulu.

Now, their strong and main products and service are mostly about internet service and TV services. The main market now still FInland and Sweden. They dont have any plan for expand it now, just focus on Finland mostly and partly in Sweden.

According to my research, and my experience, I think the vital factor that made Anvia success is their customer relationship management, and also they provide very good service. I used to lived in Kokkola and used their service, I really like their service, with good quality and fast response whenever it got some trouble. Maybe, it is a main point that help them success.

The reason why I choose this, because I like their service and I have a friend who are working in their company, so it should be easier for me to make this interview.

In future, I may working for them, but I need to improve my Finnish, of course. They require speaking FInnish fluency which is the hardest thing. However, I think I may try and maybe, I can do it.

Do a last check that you have all tasks done!

Dear all,

Thank you for participating in the course this fall!
We hope you have gained new insights into Finnish society and culture.

Check that you have all assignments done and that you have added lables to your posts! It is easier to find the assignments then. I know from a quick glance that there are company interviews missing and also links to Pecha Kucha's. It is important for me to get a link asap, so that I can grade your work. No assingment = grade 0 for the assignment.
You find all the assignments under Task.

You will also need to fill out the learning goal questionnaire which you can find here 

There is also a course feedback form - same as in all classes - that I also would like you to fill out. It has questions related to workload, interest in subject etc. 

Wishing you a great winter and a relaxing holiday season (once you have all the work done!)

Best regards,
Linda Krokfors and Lena Kalliokoski

Sonera Company Interview

When Sonera was founded, it was the first time two previous incumbents in two EU countries merged. Historically however, the companies had already worked together on a number of different projects and complemented each other in various ways.  Sonera is the fifth largest Telecom operator in Europe today and continues building on its pioneering spirit and high technology expertise within both fixed and mobile communications inherited from its predecessors. Sonera is a provider of telecoms services and  in  sales of IT products .

The merger between Telia and Sonera became real in 2002, at the same time  the company and its share changed name to Telia-Sonera.

Telia-Sonera is Based on customer's numbers , he's the major  in Nordic mobile operator markets. The majority of Telia-Soneras revenue  are coming  from Finland and Sweden, in which it is the largest mobile operator in the north of Europe . Telia-Sonera has differents  brands under which it operates in different market areas. For example Telia-Sonera operates in Finland under Sonera brand and in Sweden and Denmark  under Telia brand.  In Norway Telia-Sonera operates under Net Com Brand being there the second largest operator.

Telia-Sonera is also present   in Baltic countries by having shares holding in local mobile operator companies such as AB Lietuvos Telekomas, UAB Omnitel and Latvijais Mobilais Telefons. Telia-Sonera´s indirect and direct interest in total mobile operator business in Baltic is remarkable. Telia-Sonera holds also 49% interest in Baltic fixed line operators such as as  Eesti Telekom and Lattelecom SIA.

Sonera's Market in the world : 

 Sonera is present in 18 countries in the world :

1-Afghanistan

TeliaSonera is a 12.25% stakeholder of the Afghanistan Roshan (telco) cellphone network.

2-Azerbaijan

From May 15, 2010 after Azercell made rebranding, it entered into a network of TeliaSonera.

3-Denmark

In Denmark TeliaSonera operates a mobile operator (Telia).

4-Finland

Sonera is the biggest mobile operator in Finland and also one of the biggest providers of landline telephone and Internet services. TeliaSonera also operates in Finland in the form of another company, Tele Finland Oy, which is a budget mobile operator.

5-Estonia

TeliaSonera owns 100% of Eesti Telekom. Eesti Telekom is one of the largest telecommunication companies in the Baltic countries and the largest telecommunications company in Estonia. TeliaSonera and the Estonian government reached a deal over the sale of Eesti Telekom in September 2009. In  2016, Eesti Telekom switched its name to Telia Eesti.

6-Georgia

Since 2007 TeliaSonera has owned 58.55% of the Geocell company, while Turkcell owns the remaining 41.45%.

7-Kazakhstan

TeliaSonera operates in Kazakhstan under the brand Kcell.

8-Lithuania

TeliaSonera owns 88.15% of Teo LT, the largest landline phone operator in Lithuania, which recently purchased Omnitel, one of largest mobile network operators in Lithuania. It was previously owned by TeliaSonera group.

9-Latvia

TeliaSonera owns 49% of LMT (24.5% as TeliaSonera AB and 24.5% as Sonera Holding B.V.). TeliaSonera also owns 49% of Lattelecom, which owns 23% of LMT, which owns Okarte, Amigo. It also owns 100% of Telia Latvija, a business cable operator and data center operator.

10-Moldova

TeliaSonera owns a 74,3% see-through stake of the Moldovan mobile operator Moldcell through Fintur Holdings.

11-Nepal

TeliaSonera owns majority stake in Ncell, the largest mobile operator in Nepal. However, on December 21, 2015 TeliaSonera has already announced it's exit from Ncell selling its 60.4 percent of the share to Malaysian telecommunications group Axiata.

12-Norway

In Norway Telia first entered after the deregulation in 1998 as a virtual supplier of fixed telephone and Internet services. This was sold to Enitel during the merger attempt with Telenor, but Telia re-entered in 2000 with the purchase of one of the two mobile network operators, NetCom. In 2006 it also bought the virtual mobile provider Chess Communication.

13-Russia

TeliaSonera owns 25.2% of MegaFon, the second largest mobile phone operator in Russia.

14-Spain

TeliaSonera owns 76.6% of Yoigo, the fourth mobile operator in Spain.

15-Sweden

In Sweden, TeliaSonera operates under the consumer brands Telia and Halebop. On the business side, Skanova Access and Cygate are also used.

16-Tajikistan

TeliaSonera owns merge of two operators as Tcell.

17-Turkey

TeliaSonera owns 38% of Turkcell, the leading mobile operator in Turkey. Turkcell owns 80% of BeST in Belarus and 55% of Astelit in Ukraine

18-Uzbekistan

In 5 years, Ucell, the Uzbek subsidiary, has increased the number of its subscribers from 400,000 to 9 million (2012). Meanwhile, TeliaSonera is under preliminary investigation by Swedish prosecutors for allegations of bribery and money laundering associated with the acquisition of their 3G license in Uzbekistan from Takilant Limited, registered in Gibraltar. Under these investigations involving four Uzbek nationals, hundreds of millions of francs have been frozen in Swiss banks.

Product and services :

The product and services which sonera provide are divided in 2 groups first of all we have the B2C (business to customers ) then we have the B2B business to business which is for the  corporates  .

B2C: 

Different products are available for this kind of customers, Sonera provide equipment (computer, mobile phone, print machine, wifi modem, tablet ect ...)  as service he provides also internet at home, phone package limited or unlimited  Tv, ect....)

B2B

Sonera focuses on 3 kinds of companies,  the one with less than 20 employees, less than 250 employees, and the one with more than 250 employees, the services are different from one to another but basically, the services which are provides are mainly, cybersecurity, database, Internet installation, specify application ect.....


Key of success:

A strength marketing, and a good communication  to the customers which give a good feedback.
A large operations of acquisition around the world .
  
Why i chose  this company :

Because this company  have a big potential in the north of Europe and for me i was important to learn about  the company how the work and what kind of products the provides .

Would you like to work in this field in the future:

Yes i would like to work in this field but in  the purchasing or in the sales as a manager  later .

My Visit to Sonera Kokkola:

I went to the agency of Kokkola wich is situate in the down-town close to Halpa Hali and i met  Jenna one of the customer advisor who explain  me the structure of the agency and how it's working .

First of all the have a manager who is the supervisor his responsibility is to apply the policy  and designed by the  holding he also brief the team of  the 4 customers advisor about their respective activity in the agency sales , welcoming customers , propose the different offer that the company have. He makes a report  each period of sales (1-3 month) to have the level of sales (Increase or decrease) for example if the sales are decreasing the active and adapt a new strategy  trough promotion and rewarding best customers to boost the sales for the next period . 

Jenna also  describe me  her activity during  one day , she starts  at 8H and leave at 6h in the evening,  when she comes , she  do the shelf placement then she check the mail  and letters from the offices, to verify all the order that customer trough Internet then  she makes the packages for delivering, and the rest of the day she welcoming customers in the agency  and help them to buy what the really want and need.   I also asked some strategic questions like how many customers the have in kokkola area , and  the turnover that the makes each period of sales but she told me that she could not give me this kind of answers because it's an confidential information about the company or the agency .

Concerning the  Hr Policy , Sonera use to recruit IT engineer and  student from business as customers advisor or manager of agency but the must some basic of Finnish language and be fluent in English, the company also accompany students who are writing a thesis and to apply to job and have a mentor for their thesis the must go on the carrier's website.  http://www.teliasonera.com/en/careers/ 
 
Credit photo 1&2 :  http://www.stanbril.com/5-tips-for-organizing-your-start-up/

PECHA KUCHA ABOUT A PAPER INDUSTRY - FINLAND

Paper Industry - Europe and Finland

Please have a look and comment for question if needed.
Thanks

Finnish music concern

The singer: Antti Tuisku is a Fininsh Pop singer. He is famous from MTV3's American Idol Contest, and then, now he is Finnish's best known artists. Some of his the most successful songs are: En halua tietaa, Tyhja huone, Juuret, Viilto, Atlantti, Hyokyaalto, Peto on irti and Keinutaan.
The concern was in Sellosali, which is in Leppavaara, Espoo, and that is his solo concern.
He has many different kind of songs, about many subject such as love, night life and differences of people. The song he sang on the concerns that I remember is: "Tyhya huone" and "Jaa tai mee" are the love songs, a bout the lost of love.
Another song he sang is: "Peto on irti" and "Keinutaan" are song about the night life which really touching me.
He also song some songs from famous finnish tv-series Vain Elamaa. These songs were not originally wittien by him, but other finnish singers and he made new cover version of it.

Finnaly, his concern end in happiness, and everyone really enjoy it. It is just such an amazing night.

DIE - D-I-E task.

Describe:

 The thing that I met 4 years ago when I came to Finland which made me really surprise that for each cans of water/beer or coke, I have to pay for an extra fees. Some of the cans cost around 0,15 cents, some bigger bottle which costs around 0,40 cents something like that. That sound make me feel so weird that, the tax for the drink here is already high, and why I have to pay for the bottle more ? Something call like "panti" fee. These thing never happen in our country, Vietnam.

Interpret:

After finding the answer for this, I knew that this is the policy that they want people keep environment clean and clear. You will get back your "panti" free when you return the bottle back to market where you bought. So it will make sure that you will not throw your cans away on the street after drink it.
=> Also, for this reason there is some students, and some old Finnish, they go out for Bar night, collect the cans on street, then sell it for money, which is quite similar to Vietnam, but just for really poor people, and they collect it according to how many kilos you have.

Evaluate:

I think this is really good way to protect environment. When I travel to Paris, I saw a lot of cans in Paris street, and it remind me so much about Finland, because how clean the street in Finland. For this policy, also myself sometime, I saw cans on the street, i just pick it up collect it and sell it later.

Khoa Do.

Briefly introduce about me - Khoa Do

Hei,

My name is Khoa Do, and im from Vietnam. I am doing my BBA in our school, Centria. Im a last year student. I've done this class before but I did not come to class exam, and now I have to do this class again. Anyway, a bit wait of time but I can study and review something, at least.
Hm, for this course, absolutely we will study lots of thing about Finland. Even Finland kinda a boring country to young people like us, but their culture is not so bad. For the thing that I want to study via this course, hm it must be History. Because I really interesting about this history between Finland and Russia. Moreover, getting more and more friend, sharing experience is my favorite as welll. I hope that via this class, I can have some more friends to share experience about Finland.

Looking forward to hear your response.

D-I-E task

First time, I came to Finland. I was so impressive by the silence of Kokkola. Because the population of my hometown - Hochiminh city - is over 8 millions people, it's so crowded but here I only see some people in the streets. Next, some cars will stop to let me cross street. Specially, the taste of food is so different from my homeland. I notice that the Finnish food is not seasoning while Vietnamese food is so spicy.

Company interview

For our company interview we chose Anvia, a Finnish internet and telecommunication provider. It is located mainly in the Ostrobothnian area and has almost in every city branches for customer service. We chose it, because it covers fields – information technology and business - we are as an IT and Business students interested in. Our contact person was Magnus Lagland, who is the Technical Customer Adviser in Kokkola.
We asked the following questions:

1. Which kind of service do you provide to your clients?
They provide Internet services. He listed some them, e.g. via fiber, docsis cable (copper cable). Furthermore, he described us the different offers as ADSL, SDSL and wireless, which is not anymore used. In Kokkola is a maximum speed of 70 Mbps available and copper cable is more used than fiber.

2. Which service is the most sold? Phone or Internet?
The most sold service is primarily Internet. Phone is just provided by order of DNA.

3. How many clients do you have?
He named us about 60,000 and 70,000 clients for the area Kokkola and Vaasa (Ostrobothnia). In total four millions in Finland.

4. Which benefits do Anvia offer?
Separating by customers, they offer 24/7 hotline service and guarantee working on problems within 48 hours (within 24 hours for business customers). Another service the offer, is an installation at a customer´s home for 49€. To some bigger customers they offer additional services, which are compensated by monthly fees.  For their employee they provide education programs what encourages the skills of each one.

5. How do Finns work?
According to Mr. Lagland, they are motivated and reliable and possess a high trustworthiness.

6. How is the Finnish job market?
If companies demand workers, they focus more on the applicant´s experiences, especially on work experience. In this area are warehouse workers and salesmen to work in the heavy industry demanded, he told us.

7. Can you give us an outlook about new technologies for the future?
Anvia´s goal for 2016 is to provide all private customers an Internet speed of 24 Mbps. Till 2017 they target to offer a maximum Internet speed of 700 Mbps for this area.

8. Does Anvia have any social projects or society engagement?
Among others, Anvia is engaged in the Vaasa sports team as a sponsor. Additionally, several times a year they collect clothes from households for people in need of care.

To sum up our impressions, it was a very interesting and instructive interview, which helped us to get a better understanding in Finnish Internet providers. Mr. Lagland told us more details about certain topics than expected. Therefore, we thank him for the precious interview, his time and for the answering our questions. 

Written by Nathan Castillo and Alexander Bohle

 Brink ´s Old Vicarage

It is an honest for us to meet Mrs. Katrina Isotalo, the owner of Brink´s Old Vicarage.

The old, beautiful building Brink ´s Old Vicarage is just outside the center of Kokkola. This place is has been the residence of the chaplain until recently. The vicarage was built at the beginning of the 19th Century and has been kept largely in its original state. 

The affordable and idyllic rooms of vicarage or enjoy the charming rooms and beds in the attic rooms is paid attention of us. This is a new experiment for the new coming like us. We also be welcome various groups. In the evenings everybody who wants to can enjoy the taste of “Finnish grilled makkara” and tell stories while watching and enjoying the flames of a fire. We not only improve the Finnish language skills, but also Finnish culture.

Mrs. Katrina Isolato spent more than 1 hour to meet and share with us about the place where she build up and what she expect from this place. 

Firstly, cheaper and flexible is one of the characters made her hotel be well known than another hotel. But cheap in price is not meant cheap in quality, her idea is make customers feels like home. The best and ready to service good meal to customers is the top-mission in this hotel. Customers have two options that enjoy their breakfast on dinning room or order direct from their room. The main food on the menu is porridge, which takes 30 minutes to serve. 

There are 2 different hotels. One has the name is villa carleborg, which include the breakfast. The second is brinkin wanha pappila, which was be prefer by customer because of the cosy room and good furniture. 

Although both hotels have its strength but same the service system, customer feedbacks is very important to her hotel, she always received the direct feedbacks in manager and employees and students.

Beside that, activities as sauna and sports also supply in the hotel to make sure customers can enjoy in the best way. Moreover, coffee shop or event are established on her hotel to grateful to customers.

With her, the key of success to establish the hotel are good price, profitable

and the revolution of the Internet. With good website design and the help from search engine the customers can search her hotel faster than ever.Also with well booking system.

Services her company provide accommodation.

  As an BM student, one of us – Chau Nguyen – would like to work in this field especially for this company. her major somehow related to this kind of job and Katrina’s company is also a potential company.here is some picture take in the brinkin wanha papilla hotel 5/12/2015

Keskikaista - company interview

           Keskikaista is an Internet service provider company, located at Kustaa Aadolfinkatu 1, 67100 Kokkola. This is a small size company which provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. Internet services typically provided by Keskikaista include Internet access, Internet transit, domain name registration, web hosting, Usenet service, and colocation. The main target markets of the company are households and organizations such as schools, small businesses which want to have the Internet services. The keys to success of the company is to ensure that the customer's needs are met and maintain a 90% customer retention ratio as well as practice disciplined growth.

           

           Actually, the reason why we chose Keskikaista to interview is that we are recently customers of this company. They have provided us several good services with reasonable price for students like us. We were impressed by their professional way of doing business. Below is a picture of us and Teija Hietala – an employee of Keskikaista, taken on 20/11/2015 in Keskikaista’s meeting room.

          As an IT student, one of us – Cuong – would like to work in this field especially for this company. His major somehow related to this kind of job and Keskikaista is also a potential company.

Lesson on 7.12.2015 COMPANY VISIT!!!

Dear all,

Our company visit to CABB has unfortunately been cancelled.

I have, however, arranged another company visit on Monday 7.12 - normal class time to Ab. A. Häggblom Oy.

We will meet outside the main entrance on Monday 7.12.2015 at 8:00! We will take a bus to A. Häggblom where we will learn more about the company and see their production. We will be back at 10:20!

Read about the company in advance and see you on Monday (as usual :-)

Linda Krokfors