Product Development Transforms Best Practices into Software Features

The duties of Jukka Häkkilä, Product Development Manager at Vitec ALMA, include development of the functionalities of ALMA software products. Häkkilä started his career at Vitec ALMA in January 2024. Before that, Häkkilä worked for 40 years in the chemical industry, where he served, inter alia, as an automation manager whose responsibilities in addition to automation and electrical maintenance and investments included production information system projects.

Having worked in the chemical industry for 40 years, Jukka Häkkilä (in the middle) recently moved to the other side of the table, becoming Vitec ALMA’s Product Development Manager.

– At Vitec ALMA, I utilise my accumulated expertise to make sure our software products are honed to meet the needs of our customers and that the best industry practices are transferred into the features of our software, Häkkilä explains.

It can be said without any exaggeration that Häkkilä has accumulated loads of highly specific expertise for the needs of Vitec ALMA and its customers.

– My career started in 1984 with automation jobs for Kemira in Kokkola. In the course of work, I first acquired an engineering degree in information technology and later also a Master’s degree in technological competence management.

After Kemira sold Kemira Fine Chemicals Oy’s factories in Kokkola in 2005, Häkkilä acted as a project manager when the newly established company was building its information systems. At the time, Arttu was chosen as the asset management system, while ALMA was chosen as the system for automation, electrical and mechanical planning.

Some time later, the capital investment company resold KemFine Oy to the German CABB group. In 2019, when the support for the Arttu system ended, it was time to renew the asset management system. As a result of scrupulous competitive tendering and negotiations, the ALMA asset management system was selected. After the commissioning project, CABB Oy’s ALMA system was expanded, incl. in the form of digital work permits.

Therefore, Vitec ALMA was well known to Häkkilä even before he joined the software company. Häkkilä discussed with Toni Penttilä, Head of Product Development at Vitec Alma, the possible contents of the role of ALMA Product Development Manager, and took an interest in the challenge.

– I have worked for industry for 40 years and knew that the challenges on the software production side are different. Nevertheless, I felt that I could have a lot to offer here, because I know the problems, business logic and, for example, industrial investment projects of ALMA’s customers. The objective is to combine my personal experience with the extensive experience of ALMA specialists acquired with our different types of customers, and to develop the functionalities of our software based on this wide-ranging expertise, Häkkilä says.

From the viewpoint of the tasks of Product Development Manager at Vitec ALMA, Häkkilä’s education and career merge quite amazingly.

– I happen to have a somewhat specific training in information technology and technological expertise management. Perhaps it is a sign of that this particular field and combination really spark my interest, Häkkilä says, laughing.

In industrial maintenance, things can be done right in many ways

Over the last few years, in keeping with its strategy, Vitec ALMA has focused on the harmonization of its software products and the SaaS delivery model. The aim is to ensure that decades of industry knowledge are transformed into a completed software product. However, Häkkilä knows from experience that things are never black and white.

– In industrial maintenance, there is no single right way for doing things – instead, for example, the maintenance manager constantly has to make choices about how to carry out different kinds of projects, commissioning, and tests.

According to Häkkilä, it is interesting to hear about the customers’ visions, combine these with ALMA product development team’s and own experience, and develop the system’s functions on this basis. Indeed, customers suggest many interesting ideas for development.

– At the same time, our customers value that I have worked as a responsible person in demanding industrial environments and that I am capable of providing a perspective to them.

– Even though we have harmonized our software and the objective of product development is to include the practices we consider best, we also want to make sure our customers can do things flexibly, in accordance with their needs. This is our greatest difference from the competitors, Häkkilä continues.

Häkkilä has observed that Vitec ALMA’s knowledge of technical industry is evident throughout the company.

– In product development, we have introduced so much experience and vision into the software and its features that our customers could be fed up with this. Fortunately, our salespeople have a keen ability to understand our customers’ needs and offer our software from the right perspective. We avoid overselling all the features of our software; instead, we prefer to invest in smooth introduction and engage in further development where required.

– Naturally, from the viewpoint of sales, it is an advantage that the software already includes a comprehensive range of excellent features that are based on proven good industry practices and are suitable for assembling a solution meeting our customer’s needs, Häkkilä sums up.