Technology >> CEO Interviews >> February 12, 2001
JARMO KALLIOLA, born 1953, has been the President and Chief Executive
Officer of software product house Aldata Solution Oyj since 1997. He has
had a long and successful career within the IT-industry in Finland and
other Nordic countries. In 1985 he started his own IT company, Data
Check Oy, specialising in retail software which soon became market
leader in retail software in Finland. After three years of
entrepreneurship he sold his company to Alma Media Group and continued
as President of his previously owned company. Aldata was successfully
listed to the Helsinki Exchanges in 1999 after only two years of Mr
Kalliola's presidency. He was able to change the course of the company
from operationally unprofitable domestic software maker to a profitable
international software product house with state of the art products in
both conventional as well as m-commerce and e-commerce. Mr Kalliola is
also a member of Finpro's (formerly Finnish Foreign Trade Association)
Supervisory Body. Aldata is an innovative software product house
designing and marketing data systems for conventional retailing,
software for m-commerce and e-commerce, and data collection systems for
logistics, production and access control systems. Its strategy is based
on its own software development, focusing on selected market segments,
exploitation of Internet technologies and controlled growth. It operates
in Finland, Sweden, Norway, France and Germany where it has 455
employees. Aldata has software installations in 38 countries. Aldata's
net sales in 2000 totalled approximately EUR 50,7 million and its
expected sales growth is 55-65 % for year 2001. Profile
TWST: Can we start with a quick corporate profile of Aldata: what areits core businesses?
Mr. Kalliola: Aldata is a software product house. We make software for
the retail industry,