Say hello to the Management Trainees of 2020/21!

Interested in starting your career with us at Visma? We are always looking for new talents, so visit our career pages for more information. 

This blog post was first published in 2020.

Until December, they will be working on their first project in Visma, so let’s get to know them – and the projects they are working on – a little better. 

Get to know this year’s Visma Management Trainees

Lilja Dögg Helgadóttir, Iceland / Denmark 

Age: 26

What is your academic background?

I have an MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management at The Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and wrote my master thesis in Business Analytics. I finished my bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Iceland, with an exchange semester at Lund University in Sweden. 

What is your first project?

My first project is with the VML team in Copenhagen, where I focus on the information surface that revolves around their machine learning services (APIs). The goal is to develop an internal marketing strategy, document use cases, and suggest where material should be communicated. This requires examining the existing documentation and analysing the functionalities of the services across different teams, backed up by interviews. 

How is it really to work at Visma?

So far, I’m really impressed with the work environment in Visma. Despite having just started with the graduate program, I have had the opportunity to interview people across different teams and in different countries. I think it says a lot about a company when a new management trainee can feel confident enough to contact and approach managing directors.

Even in the midst of COVID-19, there are a lot of opportunities that present themselves. I already feel I have connected with a lot of people–even though sometimes it’s just for a digital coffee break. Last but not least, within Visma you are allowed to make mistakes and learn from them, which motivates you to constantly develop. 

What are you most looking forward to this year as a Management Trainee?

I am looking forward to developing new skills and seeing what kind of projects I will take on. I also look forward to learning as much as possible through knowledge-sharing and experience.

Having grown up in both Iceland and the Netherlands, I feel like Visma’s culture is the perfect middle ground for me, and I’m excited to explore Visma further. Apart from that, I really look forward to meeting my fellow MTs in person!

Also read: What projects do our Management Trainees take part in?

Niclas Hedberg, Sweden 

Age: 28

What is your academic background?

I graduated from the five-year engineering program in Computer Science with a specialisation in Industrial Management at Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. My master thesis was about automating invoice processing with machine learning.

What is your first project?

The project is called “Automation of the next generation payroll systems”. I’m interviewing payroll experts to gather new visionary ideas of how payroll processes can be automated. 

Then, I will identify the most time-consuming processes and connect that with how automation technology can be used to reduce the amount of manual work. At the end of the project, I will present a prioritisation of key automation opportunities in payroll.

How are you different from the other Management Trainees?

I’m usually more interested in food and baking compared to others. Many cooking experiments are taking place in my kitchen (especially during the covid-19 pandemic). Also, I believe I am the tallest of the management trainees with my 195 centimetres. But I have yet to confirm that in real life since we have only met all trainees virtually. 

What are you most looking forward to this year as a Management Trainee?

I’m looking forward to learning a lot by doing different projects at different business units. I have already learned so much from meetings with people that are working with the payroll systems. The knowledge sharing within Visma is great!

Read more: From IT graduate to software developer.

Brynjar Glimsdal, Norway 

Age: 25

What is your academic background?

I graduated from industrial economics and technology management at NTNU in June 2020. I did my specialisation in computer science and AI and wrote my master thesis in optimization. In 2017/2018 I was an exchange student in EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland.

What is your first project?

My first project is for the marketing department in Tripletex. Here I’m researching the opportunities to streamline their marketing through marketing automation. This includes analysing the requirements from Tripletex, and talking to suppliers for such tools.

What has surprised you the most since starting at Visma?

The thing that has surprised me the most is that even though the majority of all employees sit at home, people are still easily reachable and helpful!

What is the best thing you have done together as Management Trainees?

We went to Tusenfryd amusement park as a social activity. It was fun to see that even though we are no longer children, we all have a lot of childishness in us.

Andreas Haugsbø, Norway

Age: 24

What is your academic background?

I did my bachelor’s degree in economics and business administration at the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), with an exchange semester at UTDT in Buenos Aires. My master is in business analysis from NHH, in addition to a CEMS Master’s in International Management degree from NHH and Bocconi in Milan. I wrote my master thesis on price structure optimization in the Nordic power market. 

What is your first project?

My first project is for the Custom Solutions Division. I’m working together with the division management on developing a business case for expanding existing products and solutions to new countries. 

Although consulting heavy, the division has recently acquired many companies with several products in their portfolio. My project consists of mapping them, assessing their international potential, and developing a concrete business plan for how to launch selected products abroad. 

It entails a lot of interviews with the different business units, which allows me to really get to know the entire division. 

How is it really to work at Visma?

Firstly, you really get a lot of responsibility and trust, with the ability to develop and explore what you want to do. Secondly, it’s fast-paced, and I like how it’s better to decide and try – and fail – rather than to spend all the time being afraid to do the wrong things. 

Thirdly, Visma has a welcoming and low-shoulder culture, and everyone is there to help you. 

What are you most looking forward to this year as a Management Trainee?

I hope the situation eventually will allow for doing a project abroad. If so, I look forward to exploring the parts of Visma located outside of Norway. I also look forward to finally meeting the other MTs in the other countries in person. 

You might also be interested in: – This is my dream job.

Mirva Laatunen, Finland

Age:  24

What is your academic background?

I have an MSc in Economics from Aalto University with an exchange semester at Fudan University, China. In my master thesis, I analysed the economic implications of personal data collection and reselling. As a hobby project, I also do an MSc in Applied Mathematics at Aalto University. I still have a couple of courses left, but hopefully, I will be done soon!

What is your first project?

In my first project, I work with Netvisor, a Finnish accounting software. Netvisor will launch a pilot of a new platform-based service that connects new customers with accounting offices. 

As a result, consumers can buy online a fixed-priced Netvisor product that includes both ML-powered accounting software and a bookkeeping expert. The ML-powered accounting software takes care of most of the daily tasks automatically. The bookkeeping expert makes sure that consumers’ books are maintained accurately. 

My job is to map the service production processes between Netvisor and accounting offices and make sure that the accounting office side is ready for the launch.

How are you different from the other Management Trainees?

I have lived in China for almost three years of which two I’ve been in an international boarding school. Even though I like being in Helsinki, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we will be able to do projects in other countries at some point during our Management Trainee year.

Which three words describe Visma best?

Welcoming, helpful, stable.

Aksel Petter Spence, Norway 

Age: 24

What is your academic background?

MSc from the Norwegian School of Economics with a specialisation in Business Analytics and an exchange semester in Santiago, Chile. 

What is your first project?

In my first project, I’m working with the newly established Visma Real Estate (VRES) Solutions to establish a business plan for the next two years. This is a new company within the Visma group. They will merge several companies delivering software solutions for the real estate business starting in January 2021. 

In this project, I’m working closely with the leader group in VRES to analyse the market and identify business opportunities and synergies between the companies. 

How are you different from the other Management Trainees?

I’m a business graduate that wants to code!

Which three words describe Visma best? 

Future-oriented, including, and fun. 

Moa Mahlberg, Sweden 

Age: 25

What is your academic background?

I have a degree in Industrial Engineering and Management from Lund Technical University with a masters in  Software Intensive Systems. I did one semester abroad at The University of Adelaide, Australia where I mainly focused on deepening my knowledge in IT with courses in data mining and AI. 

For my master thesis, I explored the concept of Industry 4.0 in relation to a large bread baking factory. As part of this, I proposed a roadmap for further digitisation in production. 

What is your first project?

My first project is at Visma Finance where I am tasked with developing insights and visualisations from a large amount of available data. This means that I work closely with the data scientists and IT-team to understand the underlying data. Through discussions with the commercial team, we create dashboards and define KPIs that will lead to actionable information to be presented in Tableau. 

What has surprised you the most since starting at Visma?

The freedom and responsibility we are given in relation to our projects. Both in how much influence we have in shaping the final deliverables of the projects and how to structure our daily work. 

What is the best thing you have done together as Management Trainees?

Because of circumstances, I have so far not met any of the other trainees in person except my fellow Swedish trainee Niclas. However, this has not stopped us from having some great times! 

In Sweden, we did a Paint and Sip (drinking wine and paint) which I would rank as my favourite experience. During a normal week, I really enjoy the bidaily breakfast meetings that we have with all the Nordic trainees. 

Emil Johan Verlo Ifwarsson, Norway 

Age: 24

What is your academic background?

I graduated from NTNU in Trondheim with a Master of Science degree in Industrial Economics and Technology Management this spring (June 2020). I first specialised in computer science and Artificial Intelligence, and then wrote my master’s thesis in Finance. 

During my studies, I also spent one year at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland as an exchange student. 

What is your first project?

My first project is in the IPA-team in Visma (Intelligent Process Automation). The IPA-team works across all business units in Visma. They automate time-consuming processes so that the employees in question can focus on more interesting and value-adding tasks. 

My project is about classifying incoming public procurement in a Visma product, using natural language processing and artificial intelligence. Public procurement is what, for example, the government submits when they want to build a new school. It consists of descriptions and documents describing the work that needs to be done. 

The task of classifying these procurements is about giving them legally required codes specifying what the procurements are about. This task is done manually today and takes a lot of time, and I’m trying to see if it can be done automatically. 

What has surprised you the most since starting at Visma?

How much responsibility and trust we get from the very beginning. We are the project manager of the projects, and can to a large extent shape it how we see fit and we decide how to proceed with it. It is very cool, and you of course learn a lot.

What are you most looking forward to this year as a Management Trainee?

I look forward to working with different types of projects and thereby challenging myself by trying new things. The possibility to be able to work with technical projects like I’m doing now, and perhaps more strategic projects later are exciting. 

Read more: Data analytics as a Management Trainee

Heidi Häyrynen, Finland 

Age: 24

What is your academic background?

I have graduated from Aalto University School of Business with a specialisation in Information and Service Management.  My studies have mainly focused on Business Analytics and I wrote my master’s thesis about production site selection optimization with an environmental twist. I also studied Computer Science as my minor and I did my bachelor’s degree in Accounting.

What is your first project?

My first project is to create better customer insight for Visma Financial Solutions in Finland. As this Visma company is in the invoice control and debt collection industry, their customer base is two-sided with the client companies and debtors. 

My role is to evaluate different customer insights from business cases and use this knowledge to plan dashboard views. My tasks also include managing data from different systems and creating an implementation plan.

How is it really to work at Visma?

From the moment I started at Visma, it became clear that work-life balance is highly appreciated here. In our projects, we are given a lot of responsibilities and people are truly interested in our thoughts and innovative ideas. 

On the other hand, the social aspects are also valued. It is great to see how the welcoming spirit and social activities have been passed through also in these special times of remote work. 

What are you most looking forward to this year as a Management Trainee?

I think the concept of having the possibility to try different kinds of projects is the richness of this trainee year. Hopefully, the Covid-19 situation will ease and we are able to explore the opportunities Visma has to offer also outside our home countries. I’m really looking forward to the deep learning curve that this program will enable.

Also read: The Management Trainees of 2019 are here!

Jonathan Rehn, Finland

Age: 28

What is your academic background?

I have a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Aalto University, with major studies in Enterprise Systems. My minor studies are in Financial Engineering and Data Science. 

For my master’s thesis, I developed analytical tools for data-driven facility management at a leading Finnish facility service and construction company. I did my bachelor’s thesis on large scale agile frameworks, also at Aalto University.

What is your first project?

I’m tasked with mapping opportunities for AI and robotic process automation in the Finnish school management software suite called Wilma. In practice, this means deep diving into the software itself and its users. That is done via interviews and user testing to find repetitive and otherwise sub-optimised user tasks. 

By the end of the period, I hope to have gathered some interesting findings and a proposal about which opportunities are worth pursuing.

What has surprised you the most since starting at Visma?

The actual scale of the company. There are a lot of functions and teams that exist outside of the businesses, offering their services and solutions internally. There is a lot to learn about Visma but also plenty of opportunities, making it an interesting company to work for.

What is the best thing you have done together as Management Trainees?

Although we have not been able to meet in person, we have regular contact virtually. Especially fun was a contest during the introduction in which we were to guess truths and falsehoods about each other, organised as a quiz competition.

Turns out I am really bad at both spotting made up stories about others and making up good stories about myself…