03.09.2024 | Janne Koskela, a Dynamics 365 Solution Architect who returned to Efima, enjoys his diverse work and continuous learning, appreciates his skilled colleagues, and swears by self-directed leadership. Additionally, he is repeatedly enchanted by the rugged nature of Finnish Lapland.
Janne Koskela’s career began at Mepco, where he first heard about Efima when a colleague left to work there. A call from a headhunter and an invitation to Efima soon led Janne to a deeper acquaintance.
Janne started as a Dynamics consultant in 2014, when Efima was still a small company with 30-40 employees, and the projects were also small. The main business was in financial management services, and according to Janne, Efima was “mainly doing finance.” From a consultant’s perspective, the projects were similar, there wasn’t enough new to learn, and at some point, the thought of moving elsewhere arose.
In the spring of 2017, this opportunity came when Janne returned to Mepco as a project manager, which had changed its name to Accountor through an acquisition. The new role initially felt like a good change, but at some point, Janne began to crave new challenges. “Perhaps this is why my attention turned back to Efima, which had been experiencing strong growth”, says Janne.
In the fall of 2018, Janne returned to Efima, now as a solution architect. The new job description was interesting, the projects were bigger and more exciting, and more clients were coming in all the time. “Also, the different company culture and leadership styles were reasons for returning. Efima has always had a self-directed leadership model and high trust in people”, notes Janne.
Also, the different company culture and leadership styles were reasons for returning. Efima has always had a self-directed leadership model and high trust in people.
Since the summer of 2022, Janne has also been handling supervisory duties, which he enjoys a lot. In his dual role, client work takes up well over half of his working time, and the rest is administration – the work is diverse, and the workload varies, as is always the case in project work. “It’s important to stick to the team’s routines even when busy. Regular discussions with team members keep me updated on what’s happening in the team’s projects and also signal that I’m listening and ready to spar”, says Janne.
According to Janne, the best part of his job is the variety: there is client work and different clients, a lot of internal development, and administration. The job involves constantly learning a lot about clients’ businesses and industries, including manufacturing, energy, and services. Perhaps the most challenging part of the job is the recurring administrative changes in the organization and the tight schedules related to the annual calendar.
Janne sees the industry itself facing a major change: “Artificial intelligence will change our work tremendously over the next ten years. Routine tasks will disappear from projects, but the changes will also place new demands on us, and the work will become increasingly consultative. The systems themselves will be in the background and will parameterize themselves when given inputs”, predicts Janne.
Janne also describes the importance of continuous learning as cloud services are constantly updated and developed: “Previously, major version updates were done once every three to four years, and nothing happened in between. Now, a major update comes every six months, and new tools are added around the updates to solve clients’ business challenges. You have to quickly familiarize yourself with the new – there is always a lot of learning.”
Work pressures are balanced by family life and sports. Janne recharges his batteries with cycling or skiing, but also in the garden of his detached house, with his hands in the soil. Returning from his summer vacation, Janne’s top tip is summer in Lapland. “I hope people discover Lapland in the summer too – despite the mosquitoes, Lapland enchants me again and again.”