Building up an ecosystem is not easy. First, you need to have an idea and focus. There are many examples where building up of an ecosystem was done all wrong. CEO Tomi Ruotimo from Houston Inc. knows numerous IoT ecosystems that have started by collecting partners first – and after that, the partners have started to think what to do with the ecosystem. For Ruotimo, SEED ecosystem is an example of doing things in the right order.
The benefits of emerging digital solutions SEED provides will be significant for the Finnish export business. For now, the progress of digitalization in the forest industry has been a bit slow compared to the speed of digitalization in the manufacturing industry. The lack of agility is due to the fact, that no one has the mandate or courage to try new solutions.
SEED ecosystem provides an opportunity to solve these problems. Houston Inc. is a catalyser organization in the ecosystem, and willing to participate in creating solutions for SEED companies. Open environment brings possible economical advances to all parties involved. With SEED, they get to know the use cases quickly and may gain new customers faster. The collaboration in an ecosystem is a better way to work together and to get to understand customers than the traditional channels. If an IT company does not work together with the customer on a daily basis, there is no chance to understand the functions of the client so thoroughly, that they could provide brilliant ideas. Houston Inc. is a catalyser company at SEED because it sees the economical possibilities arising from the ecosystem. Ruotimo also hopes, that the ongoing work continues and plans are realised even new catalysers enter the SEED ecosystem. In addition, novel use cases are more than welcome. Continuous change is a part of an experimenting and developing in the ecosystem. Keeping an ecosystem competitive requires also regular rethinking, evaluation and actions.
Source: Paperi ja Puu magazine (No 2/2020)