I’ve never conversed with two people so proud and motivated to show up to work every day.  Suzzie Ljunqvist, Head of the ICC, and Kristina Gyllander, Team Leader at VGR. 

VGR has 56.000 staff, 700+ projects, 2000 different system applications and is 70% woman.

The Pod is broken into two parts;

Part 1 – Awesome initiatives happening at VGR.

Such as demo-ing drones to transport Covid tests or the massive FVM project which will have a truly tremendous impact.  By merging 50+ systems, there will finally be ONE place where you as a patient will find all information about yourself, book appointments, see your test results, etc, and the same for those at the hospitals who need your records for analysis and recommendations.

It’s no simple task, with 120.000+ Integration hours planned over the next 5 years.

Part 2 – Woman in IT

Suzzie and Kristina express some of their experiences in a male dominated industry. They explain why VGR is a true leader in cultivating, attracting and keeping woman by giving concrete examples such as starting them as Super Users, and providing endless opportunities to develop skills to grow, whether that be in IT, management or other areas that they show interest in.

Suzzie & Kristina finish off the Pod by providing 6 points of how we can all improve our awareness and knowledge to get more woman involved (and keep them) in the IT industry;

Accept that discrimination exists, understand the difference.Get external help for recruiting and advertising ‘’what’s cool from a male perspective might not be cool for a potential female candidate’.Build your woman network (via speeches, conferences, reach out to interesting profiles in IT)Start early and go after university candidates, talk to them, understand what motivates them.Assign a Mentor for woman entering the IT workforce.Leaders need to re-think evaluation processes. Should always have at least one woman in mind.

A very inspiring podcast, talking with two who are not only so proud of their organization, but also provide incredible advice for the rest of us to learn from.

Podcast 6 with Emil Lannerstedt, the CIO of Econova is live!

Emil discusses Econova’s recent transformation projects in Plantejörde and E-Commerce.  These projects are textbook examples for the rest of us in how to quickly mobilize a new ecosystem (new business model) without lengthy planning and investment required, while having the ability to quickly shut-it-down with minimal risk.  

Econova has ‘Ecosystem Building’ down pat.  Not many would see the correlation between Econova and a Sports Association, but within a matter of days, a completely new business ecosystem was born between Econova and the Association, from idea to delivery, with both parties significantly benefiting.

Or take their recently established E-Commerce Ecosystem, another new business service that Econova took from idea to delivery in a matter of weeks.  In both cases, it was about quickly identifying and mobilizing partners in the new ecosystem, where all contribute, and all share in the risk/rewards.

Comparing this to traditional projects that we have become so familiar with, where going from an Idea to a new service or product can take months to years, requiring significant investment, it really shows that ecosystem building is the business model for successful companies in the 2020’s.

Emil finishes off with IoL (Information of Logistics) soon to come to Econova, his biggest screwup and greatest mentor (Ulrika Eriksson).

A great podcast, and much to learn from!

John Torgersson is the CEO of Pulsen Integration, an IT Consulting organization that focuses on ”All Things Integration” .

Ecology and the business world have a lot more in common than you think! Hear John’s take on Costa Rica being more resilient than Hawaii, and why businesses need to start thinking along the same lines. Although he didn’t coin the term, John explains ‘the Death of Competition’ and if organizations want to be successful in the future, they must embrace ‘Co-opetition’. All of this circles back to the importance of business ecosystems.

What does a Desert, Coral Reef and Car Company all have Common 00:43

Introductions –  00:54

Integration 1:34

Biology & Business Ecosystems 3:20

Difference between a Network & Ecosystem? 4:58

The Starbucks-Gas Station Ecosystem 5:20

Corning Inc Pottery & Glass – Textbook Ecosystem Success 6:05

How Can a Small Player Be Successful in an Ecosystem 7:30

The Death of Competition 10:00

What Can Differences Between Hawaii & Costa Rica Teach Us in Business? 11:00

In 2020, it’s all about CO-OPETITON 14:10

The Winners & Losers 18:00

Johns Most Successful Project Ever 19:35

Biggest Screwup Ever, Shutting Down VCC’s Entire Test Env. 20:55

Johns Greatest Mentor – Mats Nygård 23:11

Song of the Week (Find Me Out – Good Luck Assembly) 24 :30

This week’s podcast briefly kicks off with some IDARE Community updates before launching into IoT with Jens Barkvall, a Board Member at IoT Sverige. Jens gives great IoT insight all-around. He also provides very interesting opportunities for those of you in the public sector who are considering getting your feet wet in IoT.

IDARE Community Updates: 0:00

Introductions: 3:15

A True IoT Project 4:12

IoT Sverige 6:40

IoT Funding Opportunities and Application Process 8:00

How does Sweden Match up on Global Scale in IoT 9:55

Prevas IoT Initiatives 11:15

Don’t Send Emails on Fridays! 13:20

Blue Tooth Low Energy 15:57

0G vs 5G 17:25

Jens Mentor – 19:05 (Jan-Åke Lindqvist)

Song of the Week (Good Luck Assembly – Taste buds) – 21:30

Deniel Kostelac is responsible for all cloud & infrastructure at Volvo Cars. 

In this podcast, he shares over 13 years’ experience at an organization where he started off as a Lead Architect and transitioned up to where he is today, reporting directly to Volvo Cars Chief Architect.

If you are thinking of becoming a Solution Architect or Enterprise Architect, this podcast is an absolute must, with invaluable tips starting with the choices you make during and right out of University.  

He discusses trending roles and what to look out for, and yet another ‘Death’ on the Pod; this time it’s the Solution Architect role itself!

Volvo Car’s Information Layer journey is explained in detail, everything you need to know about API’s, a modern-times example of the sad reality if you don’t maintain the systems you build, and so much more from a true leader in the Integration space.

Introductions: 0:30

Solution Architect vs Enterprise Architect 1:59

You need to do your dog years! 4:36

The Death of the Solution Architect 5:44

Look to the Startup Scene for Trending IT Roles 8:01

The Information Layer Journey at Volvo Cars 9:54

Instructions to a Volvo Cars in a parallel Universe ‘you build it, you own it’ 18:00

The connected Helmet! – 19:01

It’s never too late to stop something 22:14

A sad reality with Cobol and Covid-19 : 25:31

Greatest Mentor – Jonas Rönnkvist 27:34

Song of the Week (The Goodluck Assembly – Queen of the May) 29:15

The CIO of MarQet (MQ) talks about his best project ever, biggest screwup, how centralized platforms and the service bus are dead in the water, best and worst technologies out there, the MarQet landscape, his mentors and much much more!

Introductions 0:20

Getting through Corona 0:50

Integration is Dead 2:51

Show me one case where a centralized Integration platform actually

worked!! 4:30

The Future – No man in the middle 6:00

Market (MQ ) Landscape 8:50

Benefits of Future Integration work 11:00

Most Successful Project ever 13:51

Biggest Screwup ever: 16:31

Favorite & worst Integration Technologies (Event Hubs

vs. EDI’s): 20:01

Greatest Mentors 22:30

Song of the Week (The Goodluck Assembly – Wait for Me) :

25:00

This is the offical release of the IDARE Podcast, check out this short pod to learn what’s soon coming!