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