Sofigate streamlines expert work with an agent organisation

Over the past five years, the market has served actors like Sofigate.

Technological solutions have changed from point solutions to platform solutions. Platforms cover different business processes and areas in organisations, such as sales management, inventory management, delivery processes and supply chains. Now, artificial intelligence agents can already run and operate on these platforms seamlessly. At the same time, large global players have invested in AI capabilities.

“When all the pieces come together, a tenfold productivity gain is possible,” says Mikko Saari, a director at Sofigate.

Sofigate sees opportunities in how human experts can use technology to replicate themselves. Saari believes that in the future, experts will teach and transfer their own expertise to AI agents, which will further complement the expertise of human experts. Under the human expert, a separate, virtual organisation is created, with, for example, ten or 50 trained agents.

“Even though I am still a deep expert, I get a big productivity benefit from the virtual workers that I orchestrate. Instead of managing a team of five people, I manage virtual agents,” Saari exemplifies.

There can be a project manager agent, from whom you can ask for a plan that suits the customer’s needs. The project manager agent communicates with the substance agents and compiles the expertise presented by the substance agents into a plan.

“My job is to present the plan to the customer. I don’t know if it’s too futuristic to think that in the future the agents at our end will talk directly with the customer’s agents.”

The agent organisation is already a reality. Sofigate has a three-year investment program underway in which agent organisations are built for customers to increase work productivity.

The market did not saturate

Sofigate's story begins in 2003, when founder and current board member Juha Huovinen estimated that if successful, Sofigate could employ 20 people. Then the market would be saturated.

It turned out differently. Especially in recent years, the technology industry has undergone one upheaval after another.

In 2022, Sofigate's turnover exceeded 100 million, in 2024 it was already around 130 million. Even in situations where competitors have been hit in economic fluctuations, Sofigate has won market shares. It employs around 800 business technology experts in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, Poland and Norway. Its customers include medium-sized companies as well as large global corporations. The underlying idea is that business is technology, and technology is about people.

Mikko Saari started at Sofigate in 2014. He has lived and experienced years of rapid growth.

Behind the success, Saari sees in particular “terribly good people and terribly great customers.”

At Sofigate, experts own their work, says Saari. Employees are given responsibility, freedom and autonomy to act in the way they see fit. That does not mean that they are left alone. Supervisors support and lead by helping. The enthusiasm for technology is shared and engaging.

“If I have a discussion about goals and targets with our CEO Sami and I tell him that this is my goal and this is the way to get there, Sami says, ‘Okay, how can I help you?’”

Your product doesn't need to be finished for you to sell it  

In its product development, Sofigate is transparent compared to the average in the industry. Sofigate is also not afraid of presenting something which is not yet finished.

“At Sofigate, everything we do and develop is done with our customers. If there is a change in the market, we consider together with the customer whether the change can be used to build a useful solution or service.”

Saari talks about agility, sprints and rapid product development. The cycle from idea to testing is short. If Sofigate’s experts talk to the customer today, there can be a solution on the table tomorrow.

“If the customer is enthusiastic and we see that more customers would benefit from the solution, we will develop the product in peace. We can also make a joint investment with the customer and develop something unique for the customer.”

Sofigate has chosen transparency also externally. The Business Technology Model, which has worked well for customers, or the BT standard in short, is distributed free of charge to all types of organisations. The BT standard can be utilized in the design, construction, and management of information technology in the midst of digitalisation.

“There is a societal perspective to it, that is, throwing a product into the market for free and letting the market develop it.”

The BT standard has been updated in line with market changes, and Sofigate has already published its fourth version.

Towards experimental implementation

More and more organisations are considering the possibilities of artificial intelligence. Some want to wait for the models to develop, and others pay for trials and errors along the way. Others don’t even dare to try because they are afraid they are already too late.

It is comforting that also Saari fears that Sofigate is late when it comes to artificial intelligence - despite the fact that they offer solutions to many AI first organizations.

“It has been less than three years since ChatGPT was released. It was only in the fall of 2024 that AI agents were released from one distributor. This year, more agents have arrived, but they are still not available everywhere.”

While studying the global market, Saari has noticed that the AI ​​hype is propaganda. What AI pioneers talk about agents and productivity benefits on LinkedIn is far from the reality of many companies. For example, agents are still very little used in production.

This is a major transition phase that requires changes in management, purchasing, recruitment and processes. Artificial intelligence needs to be tested, trained, and even schooled.

"A culture of experimentation is important here, because this won't work and it won't gain value if the implementation is slow. Agents can't be deployed immediately for large projects, but they will be introduced alongside humans in small pieces at a time."