Amos Ahola is a Senior Manager, Communications & Branding at Wärtsilä, the global leader in advanced technologies and complete lifecycle solutions for the marine and energy markets. We asked Amos about Digital Workplace, Valotalive and Communications overall.
“One of the guiding factors in the Wärtsiläs Operative Excellence is “Make it visual” – in practice this means ensuring that information is communicated in the most efficient way when possible.” – Amos Ahola, Senior Manager
Wärtsilä powered up its Workplace Communications by adding Valotalive to its channel mix, reaching thousands of employees around the world, many of which weren’t earlier in the scope of corporate communications.
Wärtsilä Oyj
Wärtsilä consists of three businesses; Marine solutions, energy solutions and services. In 2016, Wärtsilä’s net sales totalled EUR 4.8 billion with approximately 18,000 employees. The company has operations in over 200 locations in more than 70 countries around the world. Wärtsilä is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki.
Amos Ahola on Digital Workplace
Kaijus: How do you see workplace communications today overall and what might be the main challenges?
Amos: Nowadays there is an abundance of digital communication channels for various purposes, most of them resulting in smaller, and hence more relevant target audiences. This comes at a price, as the most important global messages have to fight for their place in the sun as well. The other challenge is that there are always employees which cannot reliably be reached with any means of communication.
Kaijus: What is your take on digital workplace & what are the main opportunities for Wärtsilä regarding the digital workplace?
Amos: In my view, the digital workplace is means to change the culture of a working environment from a hierarchical and process driven towards collaborative knowledge work, which unlocks business opportunities and increased employee productivity.
Valotalive in Wärtsilä’s Workplace Communications
Valotalive Workplace Digital Signage is powering approximately 300 Wärtsilä’s info screens in in over 70 countries globally. In addition to the info screens Valotalive provides applications suchs EHS datavisualisation and My Content Gallery to Wärtsilä’s global intranet.
Using Valotalive Wärtsilä is automating content from various sources, such as social media, intranet, EHS management system and CRM system. New content can be provided to the automated content flow from corporate communications using the instant posting app My Content.
Kaijus: You are using Valotalive in Wärtsilä, how would you describe the service and what have been the benefits of it?
Amos: Valotalive is a SaaS Digital Signage service, for which we had a no-brainer business case. Our implementation is a tiered communications method, meaning that there is always new content provided from corporate communications, which local communications can supplement when and if they so see beneficial.
Kaijus: We have talked about data visualisation a lot. You are using apps on your info screens that visualise data i.e from health & safety or crm systems. What is the role of data visualisation in Wärtsilä’s communication?
Amos: One of the guiding factors in the Wärtsiläs Operative Excellence is “Make it visual” – in practice this means ensuring that information is communicated in the most efficient way when possible.
Kaijus: What has been the impact of Valotalive to Wärtsilä?
Amos: Less headaches, better targeted communication, less cost.
Kaijus: Would you recommend Valotalive to your colleagues in other companies?
Amos: If you are in a need to enhance your workplace communication, I can without a doubt recommend Valotalive as a solution.
Future Trends
Kaijus: What are the future trends in Workplace Communications?
Amos: I believe that there is great potential in VR, anyone who has tried The Lab via Steam knows how immersive the experience can be. This would work wonders for Workplace Communications also, as soon as VR becomes as standard accessory same way as webcams did.
We appreciate Amos taking this time to talk with us and sharing this information with our readers. Many thanks again Amos!
Amos Ahola Biography
Amos has been responsible for the development of corporate communications in Wärtsilä for the past 7 years, during which he has acted as the owner of the various change initiatives, such as social media, enterprise collaboration, marketing automation and workplace communications.
