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Machine learning of Smartscan Part 1: Bert awakens

25/8/2021

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Machine learning of Smartscan Part 1: Bert awakens

AI

August 25, 2021

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Machine learning of Smartscan Part 1: Bert awakens

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AI

August 25, 2021

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Article

Machine learning of Smartscan Part 1: Bert awakens

AI

August 25, 2021

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Article

Machine learning of Smartscan Part 1: Bert awakens

AI

August 25, 2021

Duration:

Let us first understand what Smartscan does and why it is a difficult problem to solve.

What is Smartscan?

Smartscan lets you upload an invoice or a receipt and it will automatically find the information in the document that you need. This includes things such as the total amount, order date, and more. Let’s see a small example of the information that Smartscan can find for you:

When Smartscan scans an invoice, it pulls out information such as invoice number, order date, and the total VAT.

This saves people many hours of manually typing information into accounting systems which directly translates into cost savings for companies and helps them to become paperless.

Why is invoice scanning difficult to solve?

We, humans, excel at finding structure and benefit from already understanding language and knowing what to look for. This may make invoice and receipt scanning seem easy from a human perspective. There are several reasons why this task is not as easy for a computer:

  • Language: A computer has no prior knowledge about language (grammar, semantics, numbers, and so on)
  • Multilinguality: We consider it impressive when a human understands a handful of languages, but Smartscan has to understand documents in more than 10 languages.
  • Layout: Humans use the layout of a document to quickly identify relevant information. A computer has no prior notion of what layout is and how it is used to relate words to each other in a document. On top of this, there are no industry standards for what an invoice has to look like.
  • Implicit information: Some information cannot be found explicitly in a document. An example of this is the billing date which is frequently noted as being 30 days from the order date. The VAT amount is another example as it often occurs implicitly based on the VAT rules of the country of the supplier.
  • Speed: Smartscan has to be able to do this up to several 100,000 times a day.

It has to learn all of these concepts (and more) from scratch. Teaching a computer how to do this is like teaching a toddler to do the same.

The Sesame Street revolution

Smartscan works by finding all words in a document through optical character recognition (OCR) and identifying which of the words are relevant to the user. This means that we can benefit greatly from innovations in natural language processing (NLP) by using NLP techniques to identify which words are relevant.

Our journey begins in NLP where a revolution has taken place in recent years. The revolution was kick-started by a series of models named after characters from Sesame Street like ELMo, Big Bird, and RoBERTa, but it was BERT that fast-tracked the revolution.

The Sesame Street characters, from the left: Grover, Bert, Abby Cadabby, Ernie, Kami, Elmo, Big Bird, the Cookie Monster.

While being a full-time muppet, BERT also enjoys his role as a large language model based on Transformers. Transformers is a topic that deserves its own post and we will be talking about them in the next post. For now, we will not worry about what exactly a Transformer is. Instead, we will simply think of it as a black box that encodes a vector representation of a sentence:

Transformer as a black box that encodes a vector representation of a sentence.

Transformer as a black box that encodes a vector representation of a sentence.

We actually get three of the letters in BERT from this simple understanding of Transformers: BERT Encodes vector Representations of sentences using Transformers.

BERT fast-tracked the revolution by showing how transfer learning can be greatly improved. Transfer learning is about how one machine learning model can transfer what it has learned to another model.

The first step is to train a general-purpose model on a huge text corpus (pertaining). Later, pre-trained model can be trained to do more specific tasks using labelled data (fine-tuning). The process looks like this:

BERT workflow: Pretrain a Transformer on a huge dataset and fine-tune to do specific tasks.

BERT workflow: Pretrain a Transformer on a huge dataset and fine-tune it to do specific tasks.

A task could for example be filtering email spam, finding names in a sentence, translation, writing a summary of an article, and more. We will be talking a lot more about how we fine-tune in a later post. In this post, we will focus on the pretraining step, how it works, and what benefits we gain from it.

You might be asking why we want to pretrain in the first place. After all, it is much simpler to skip the pretraining step and go directly to training models for the tasks that we care about (supervised learning). We can understand how pretraining help by understanding some of the challenges of supervised learning:

Supervised learning requires labelled data which is time-consuming to acquire. In the previous examples, we would have to involve humans. These humans would be used to provide a label of “spam” or “not spam” for every email we want to use for training a spam filter. In the translation example, we would have to request professional translators to provide correct translations for a large text corpus.

Labelled text data is hard to come by which restricts the size of labelled datasets. Unlabelled text data, on the other hand, is vastly easier to obtain at a large scale.

We know that language contains a lot of knowledge and structure (e.g. grammar). One would expect that language-based tasks would benefit from not having to learn these concepts from scratch for every task. The restriction on the size of labelled datasets also increases the difficulty of learning these concepts using supervised learning alone.

Pretraining addresses these challenges by enriching a model with language understanding and only using unlabelled data. We should mention though that while the NLP community has some understanding of why BERT pretraining is beneficial, we do not yet fully understand why it is so.

How to Pretrain Your Transformer

Pretraining is not an idea that was introduced with BERT. Most pretraining algorithms prior to BERT worked in a unidirectional manner. In practice, unidirectionality means that the model is only allowed to use the left context of a sentence to predict which word is most likely to follow. Consider this example where “sheep” is the most likely word to follow:

A unidirectional model predicts “sheep” to be the next word in the sentence "You know, whenever I'm not sleepy, Bert tells me to count".

A unidirectional model predicts “sheep” to be the next word in the sentence.

In fact, OpenAI’s famous GPT-3 uses a unidirectional approach with a Transformer decoder as the model.

The authors behind BERT argued that the unidirectional approach limited the model’s capacity in several tasks where the entire context is needed. This is why they opted for a bidirectional (the B in BERT) approach.

BERT adopts the bidirectional approach through a masked language model (MLM). A MLM takes a sequence as input, but masks about 15% of the items randomly and attempts to predict what the masked items are. Let’s see how this works for the sentence in the unidirectional example:

Masked language model containing the following words: You, know, whenever, I'm, not, sleepy, Bert, tells, me, to, count, sheep. The words know and tells are masked, and the transformer correctly suggest know and tells to be the masked words.

Masked language model.

BERT masks “know” and “tells” and gives the Transformer the sentence with the two masked words. The Transformer then attempts to figure out which words are likely to be where the masks are. We see that BERT uses the masked words as labels to train against.

Incidentally, this shows why MLM is a form of semi-supervised learning: MLM creates labels from an unlabelled dataset (the semi part) and uses supervised learning to train the model.

MLM gives an efficient way of pretraining a bidirectional language model without using any labelled data! There is a problem though that masking is only relevant when pretraining and therefore creates a mismatch between pretraining and fine-tuning.

BERT makes a few changes and additions to minimise the mismatch, such that the words chosen to be masked are…

  1. masked 80% of the time.
  2. replaced by another randomly selected word 10% of the time.
  3. left unchanged 10% of the time.

This forces the model to learn how likely the chosen words are to belong in the sentence (regardless of whether they are masked). This requires a fairly high level of language understanding to predict confidently.

(BERT actually also uses another objective called Next Sentence Prediction in its pretraining, but we will not talk about that here because it is irrelevant to Smartscan Premium. We still encourage you to learn more. There are many excellent resources about BERT and the research paper is freely available.)

We have now seen how to pretrain with the MLM, but we have not talked about the scale of pretraining. BERT came in two variants where the difference is the size of the Transformer: Base with 110 million parameters and Large with 340 million parameters.

The authors found Large to be more accurate than Base in most cases which agrees with other research about how models become more accurate as they become larger. Recent years have seen a parameter explosion with models that scale to trillions of parameters.

A crucial aspect of this scaling, however, is that the dataset size has to increase along with the model size in order to reap the benefits of scale. Indeed, BERT used a huge pretraining dataset consisting of more than 3 billion words—more than the entire English Wikipedia at the time (2018).

The large model and dataset sizes make pretraining a costly affair, but it pays off as we will see towards the end of this post.

Wait, what about documents?

We now have a pretty good idea about what BERT does and why it is a good idea to pretrain. You may have noticed though that BERT doesn’t actually work on documents like invoices and receipts out of the box. That is because it was only designed for pure text documents and not for documents where the layout is an important factor.

We can understand this problem from how BERT creates the input vectors to the Transformer for an invoice. There is quite a bit of information in the following figure, but do not worry about it, we will walk through it bit by bit:

BERT makes vector inputs using the words and the word order in the invoice.

BERT makes vector inputs using the words and the word order in the invoice.

We start with the invoice on the left and let the OCR find the words and assign an order to the words. The words are “Customer Supplier Total amount” in that order in this example. The words are turned into vectors through an embedding table in the middle that maps from words to vectors. The same goes for the word order.

The final input is the addition of the word and order vectors. The problem is now that the input vectors to the Transformer only contain information about the words as if they occurred in a linear order.

However, that is not the way they are presented in the invoice. “Customer” is in the top left corner, “Supplier” is in the top right corner, and “Total amount” is in the bottom right corner. This is a simplified example, but real invoices will typically contain much more complicated layouts that combine tables, boxes, and more. We need a way to make the Transformer aware of the layout.

We do this by taking inspiration from LayoutLM (Layout Language Model) that extends BERT to visually rich documents, such as invoices/receipts.

The key finding of LayoutLM is that BERT can transition from a language model to a layout-aware language model. That is done by imbuing the inputs to the Transformer with the 2D position of each word. Let’s see how that is done:

LayoutLM makes vector inputs using the words, word order, and 2D position in the invoice.

LayoutLM makes vector inputs using the words, word order, and 2D position in the invoice.

LayoutLM largely does the same as BERT, but also adds layout embeddings based on the x- and y-coordinates of the words. Now we have input vectors that contain all the information about the words and their positions.

The next step is to define how to pretrain LayoutLM. It turns out that the MLM can easily be extended to include layout. It works the same way as it does for BERT, but we never mask the layout embeddings. This way the MLM has to predict the chosen words to be masked, but it remains aware of their positions in the document.

The idea is that this should allow the model to learn the importance of the word’s position in the document in addition to gaining language understanding.

We could actually have used more information in an invoice or receipt to potentially improve Smartscan even more. Specifically, we could have used visual features such as colour, font size, formatting, and so on.

The authors of LayoutLM found that such features can improve the model in some cases, but the improvements are not always consistent. We decided to leave visual features for a future version of Smartscan for this reason.

We now know how to pretrain a layout-aware language model. Our model contains over 170 million parameters in total and we pretrained it on more than 23 million invoices and receipts! This is a substantial amount that required 4 days of pretraining on a machine with 16 A100 GPUs. Let’s now look at the benefits we gain from doing this.

Benefits of Pretraining

We evaluate the effect of pretraining by comparing how well the fine-tuned model performs when compared to standard Smartscan. It would take too long to explain exactly how Standard works.

Instead, we will simply summarise that Standard does not use pretraining and uses a recurrent neural network (specifically an LSTM) instead of a Transformer.

We will not go into the details here. However, we have tested that the majority of the improvements in Premium stem from the pretraining and not just from using a Transformer instead of an LSTM.

We will focus on two fields that users are frequently interested in: Order Date and Total Including VAT. The results are consistent—or better—across all fields, but we only show these two due to brevity. We choose to focus on these two fields because Standard is already quite good on them.

This is because we have many labelled examples of Order Date and Total Including VAT. The difference between Standard and Premium is even greater when compared to fields with only a few labelled examples. Let’s return to that point a little later below. We fine-tune two models to learn how to find Order Date and Total Including VAT.

Let’s start by looking at the accuracy of the models by looking at the error rate. The error rate is the percentage of documents where the field is predicted incorrectly (lower is better).

Error Rates of Standard and Premium where we see that Premium halves the error rate of Standard. The error rate for order date was 2.5 for Standard and 1.4 for Premium.

Error Rates of Standard and Premium.

Premium halves the error rate of Standard. We already now see that pretraining has paid off as Premium is twice as good as Standard. There is more though: We are also interested in how well Standard and Premium compares on documents that are different from what it would typically see in a dataset.

This could, for example, be documents in a language that is underrepresented in the training set, or documents with atypical layouts. We devised a dataset of such documents and measured the change in error rate compared to the previous figure. Let’s have a look at the numbers:

Change in error rate for atypical documents: The error rate for order date changed from more than 2 in Standard to less than 0 in Premium.

Change in error rate for atypical documents.

Standard behaves the way that we would expect a machine learning model to behave for atypical documents: Its error rate increases. Premium behaves quite astonishing though.

It hardly changes the error rate for Total Including VAT and even slightly decreases for Order Date. We think that this is because the pretrained model has already seen a vast amount of different documents, making the fine-tuned models able to generalise very well.

We see that Premium obtains very high accuracy and generalises to atypical documents. These are great results. We are also interested in how many labelled examples are required to learn to recognise a field. This is known as sample efficiency:

Sample efficiency of Standard and Premium.

Sample efficiency of Standard and Premium.

It turns out that Premium is highly sample efficient. We typically consider a field to have minimum acceptable accuracy when it enters an error rate around 5% to 10%. Premium obtains this level between 100 and 1,000 labelled examples.

Standard, however, needs between 50,000 and 100,000 labelled examples to obtain it. Premium is around 100 times more sample efficient.

The ramifications of this are very important to our business case as it allows Smartscan to add more fields at a very fast rate. It is a tedious and time-consuming process to have humans label between 50,000 and 100,000 documents. However, 100 to 1,000 documents can be labelled within a week or two.

The last point about sample efficiency brings us to the final benefit of pretraining. We have focused on using the pretrained model to find specific fields in invoices and receipts. The pretrained model is not only made for this specific purpose though.

In fact, it is a general model of documents that can be fine-tuned to a large variety of tasks: Maybe we want to summarise an invoice in the future? Recognise lines and map them to specific accounts? Identify fraudulent activity? The high sample efficiency of the pretrained model allows us to quickly reach high accuracy on many tasks related to invoices and receipts.

Wrap-up

That was quite a bit. Thank you for reading if you have made it this far! You now know what pretraining is, how we use it for invoices and receipts, and what benefits we get from it.

Stay tuned for our next post where we will be talking about Transformers and how we use them in Premium. Please get in contact with us by visiting our Smartscan page if you have questions or are interested in Smartscan for your company.

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Now more than ever, product teams are exploring how AI can create value for their customers – and rightly so. Read on to find out which ideas are worth spending time and resources on.

Article

Designing conversational AI from a UX perspective

As AI continues to change how business gets done, the link between design, language, and conversation grows even closer. What are the best ways to create conversational AI from a human-centred perspective?

Article

Meet our AI Director: Jacob Nyman

We go out of our way to identify new and better ways for our customers to achieve their goals. Jacob goes out of his way to empower our employees with the latest AI technology.

Article

Meet our AI talents: Martin Sommerseth

At 29 years old, Martin is the Managing Director of Visma’s first pure AI company. What has his journey looked like, and how’d he get to where he is today?

Article

Understanding the psychological barriers to 2FA and how we can overcome them

Picture this: You’re creating a new account, and a prompt appears suggesting you enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA). What’s your immediate reaction? Perhaps, it’s a mix of a heavy sigh and an eye-roll. But why, exactly, are we so resistant to adopt this simple (and crucial) layer of security?

Article

Cyber security: Can we trust cloud computing services?

“It’s a bit like insurances: perceived as an unnecessary expense, until the day chaos erupts. Then most people are well satisfied with the investment". We have talked to Security Director at Visma, Espen Johansen, about cloud security.

Article

Making Two-Factor Authentication accessible

This Cyber Security Month, we’ve been asking the question: Why do so many resist activating 2FA, despite the known risks? While we’ve explored the psychological barriers, it’s now time to consider the accessibility challenges with 2FA and what we can do to address them.

Article

Strengthening cybersecurity across Europe with the NIS2 Directive

The EU’s NIS2 directive is set to boost cybersecurity across Europe, setting new standards for risk management and incident response in key sectors. Let’s explore what this means for you as a business and how Visma is adapting to these requirements.

Podcast

Voice of Visma Ep 04: How do you make people care about security? with Joakim Tauren

With over 700 applications across the Visma Group (and counting!), it’s safe to say that cybersecurity is a make-or-break element for us. But getting everyone’s buy-in is not an easy feat. Join Joakim and Diana as they break down the unique structure of the Visma Security Program – and the techniques they use to keep people engaged.

Article

7 things you need to know about cyber hygiene

What methods do fraudsters use and what can be expected from us as employees and citizens to protect ourselves from fraud?Here are seven things you should know about cyber hygiene.

Article

Inviting ethical hackers to find bugs in Visma applications

In software products and services, there is always a risk of bugs and vulnerabilities. Through our Bug Bounty program, we and our partner companies invite ethical hackers to help us find these vulnerabilities, so that they can be fixed faster.

Article

3 ways employees pose a security threat for the corporation

Human errors performed by employees pose a real security threat to the corporation they work in. Here are 3 common ways employees pose a threat – and what you as an employee must be aware of.

Article

Inspiring women to choose a career in tech and cyber security

Cyber security has traditionally been viewed as a male-oriented industry but has had an increase in women in recent years. Meet Daniela, our Lead Security Researcher who recently received two “Women in tech” awards, and learn more about her work and how she got into the field of cyber security.

Article

What is ransomware and how does it work?

Ransomware attacks have been on the rise. If you’re not familiar with this type of virus, it’s time to read up on it to protect your data.

Article

Voice of Visma: “How do you make people care about security?” with Joakim Tauren

With 700+ products and counting, it’s safe to say cybersecurity is a make-or-break element for our success. So today, Joakim is breaking down the unique structure of the Visma Security Program and how they empower everyone to take control of their security efforts.

Article

Visma’s contribution to European Cyber Security Month

We are taking part in the European Cybersecurity Month (ECSM) for the fourth year in a row. Read more about the European Union’s annual campaign dedicated to promoting cybersecurity among EU citizens and organisations, and why we are participating.

Article

What is ethical hacking?

Not all hackers are bad—in fact, ethical hackers can help companies strengthen their security measures. But how does bug bounty programs and responsible disclosure programs work, and what does the process of ethical hacking look like?

Article

European Cyber Security Month 2022

October is European Cyber Security Month. This year’s topics are phishing and ransomware. Read on to learn how Visma contributes to a safer digital environment.

Article

What is an IT Security Policy?

Every organisation—from startups to large, global corporations and nonprofits—must make sure that they have procedures to keep up with an ever-changing landscape of threats and vulnerabilities to keep its assets secure. But what is an IT Security Policy, and how do you enforce them?

Article

How to fix security issues in code faster

Is there a way to fix security issues in codes faster? In this article, our Product Security team will share how they improved the timeline to fix security issues in the analysis part of the source code.

Article

7 essential cybersecurity tips for summer travel

As you prepare to jet off on your summer holidays, safeguarding your digital world is just as important as making sure you’ve packed all your essentials. Cyber threats, unfortunately, don’t take a break, so these tips can help you protect your personal data and enjoy a worry-free summer.

Article

How on earth do cyber attacks cost almost €7 trillion a year?

Millions of people fall victim to cyber crime every year. Are you aware of the whopping statistics, and what you can do to protect yourself from adding to it?

Article

What is Data Protection Day?

Did you know that the right to privacy in the digital world is a human right? Still, many people lack knowledge about how their personal data is being collected, used, and shared. That is the focus of the Data Protection Day that takes place on January 28th.

Article

Meet our tech talents: Lars Holtar & Ioana Piroska

In this newest interview with our tech talents, we talked to some of our security experts: Lars Holtar, who works as Security Manager, and Ioana Piroska, who works as Security Engineer. Find out what their typical workday in Visma looks like and what advice they would give others looking for a tech career.

Article

Cloud security: Frequently asked questions

How secure are cloud solutions? What initiatives are cloud providers taking to make sure the data on their servers are secure? And what are the most important cloud security challenges today? We have asked one of the security experts at Visma, Stian Estil, to answer these questions.

Article

What is social engineering and how to prevent such attacks?

Social engineering (social manipulation) is one of the most widespread cybersecurity attacks. But what is it and how can your business, or even you as an employee, prevent such attacks from succeeding–or prevent them from happening altogether?

Article

Password manager – what is it and what are the benefits?

Do you use a couple of passwords in different variations? Maybe with “123” at the end? If yes, stop everything you’ve done up until now and get a password manager.

Article

What are data backups and why are they important?

Losing critical data can be devastating for a company. How can you make sure that your organisation’s data is secure, how should you set a solid backup strategy, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of storing your data on cloud servers versus on-premise servers?

Article

How to turn business security challenges into opportunities

In the digital age, where technology fuels business operations, ransomware has become a significant concern for organisations worldwide. Here’s how to turn those threats into opportunities to create more robust solutions.

Article

The unpaved road of an agile Security Operational Centre

Maintaining an agile SOC is no easy feat, but it’s essential for strengthening cybersecurity. Here’s why taking care of people should be at the top of every SOC strategy.

Article

Why have a security awareness strategy in place?

Sharing cyber security knowledge and development contributes to the greater good of not only your company, but the entire industry you operate in. Read on to learn why you should implement a security awareness strategy internally, and how to get started.

Article

Password tips: How to create a strong password

Running a good password cracking machine is both time-consuming and expensive, and for this reason, cyber criminals will always look for the path of least resistance. That is why you need to know how to create strong passwords, how to use a password manager, and learn how two-factor authentication (2FA) works.

Article

What is phishing?

Anyone can be a victim of phishing. Yes, even you, no matter how digitally aware you think you are! Read on to learn about the three top criminal phishing methods at the moment and how to prevent them.

Article

Better user experience with Passwordless Authentication

We have been an early adopter of 2FA to provide secure access to customer data. Earlier this year we also added support for the newer FIDO2 standard for 2FA, making us one of the first large enterprises in Europe to adopt this innovative technology.

Article

Meet our employees: Women are the future of cyber security (part 2)

More and more women are working with cyber security in the software industry, and Visma is no exception. In the second part of this two-part series, get to know more of the talented women who are protecting Visma’s cloud software from cyber threats.

Article

How to establish a strong security culture in your organisation

People remain the weakest links in a business. By establishing a strong culture for cyber security, you lay the foundation for making your employees a strength rather than a risk–which leads to a decreased number of threats in the long run.

Article

How to avoid social engineering attacks

Social engineering attacks can happen anywhere, anytime. Do you know how to protect yourself and those around you?

Article

4 common recruitment scams and how to protect yourself

With recruitment fraud on the rise, the best thing job seekers can do is learn to notice red flags from recruiters. Here’s what to look for and how to stay safe.

Article

How building a learning culture keeps us ahead of the curve

Facilitating collaboration across a huge organisation comes with its own set of unique challenges. Here’s how we make continuous learning a high priority.

Article

Visma’s “mother of hackers” on bug bounty programs

How can hackers help to prevent cybercriminals from exploiting your applications? Read on for Ioana Piroska’s take on how bug bounty programs create stronger and safer software products.

Article

What is 2FA (two-factor authentication)?

2FA is an extra layer of security used to verify your identification. It’s a smart way to protect your online accounts against cyber criminals.

Article

Case study: Ransomware attack against Nordic Choice Hotels

It all started with an email from a seemingly well-known partner. Read this case study to find out what happened to the hotel chain, how they handled it, and how you can protect yourself against similar threats.

Article

5 essential cybersecurity tips for your home office

When was the last time you took stock of the cybersecurity of your home office? If it’s been a minute, there are a few simple things you can do today to boost your security.

Article

Everything you need to know about the Visma Trust Centre

Trust and transparency are in our DNA. They underscore everything we do. The Visma Trust Centre is our most powerful tool for putting those values into action.

Article

How we improve cyber security with knowledge sharing

With great connection comes great benefits – and even greater vulnerabilities. Here’s how we can all do more to create a safer digital world.

Article

Why Cyber Security Month matters more than ever

It’s that time of year again! Every October, we participate in Cyber Security Month and, this year, we’re doubling down on efforts to stop cyber attacks before they happen.

Article

The security benefits of onboarding products to a cloud delivery model

Cloud delivery models are paving the way for a more resilient digital future. Here’s how we use them to enhance product cybersecurity, minimise vulnerabilities, and ensure robust protection against evolving cyber threats for Visma products.

Article

Get to know Espen, our Chief Security Officer

Espen Johansen has been with us for ten years, both in sales and management roles, various security positions and as board member for several Visma companies. Read on to learn more about his thoughts on the road ahead as CSO.

Article

The risk of downloading software from the Internet

Did you know that you risk giving cyber criminals direct access to your sensitive data, passwords and other login information simply by not being cautious enough when clicking links or downloading software?

eBook

Building products that users and developers love

What are the key drivers of successful software products? Discover insights from Europe’s largest network of SaaS companies.

eBook

Set your business up for growth and success

An ecosystem strategy can be a powerful tool. Explore how you can leverage APIs to build an ecosystem strategy, extend your product offerings, and gain a competitive advantage.

Video

“We need to be worthy of people's trust”

Watch the clip with Merete Hverven, CEO of Visma

Podcast

Voice of Visma Ep 03: The human side of enterprise with Yvette Hoogewerf

As a software company, our products are central to our business… but that’s only one part of the equation. In this episode, Yvette and Johan discuss the secret ingredients to transforming good products into exceptional solutions.

Podcast

Voice of Visma episode 01: An optimistic look at the future of AI with Jacob Nyman

We’re all-too familiar with the fears surrounding artificial intelligence. So today, Jacob and Johan are flipping the script to talk about the exciting opportunities on the horizon… and why this is the best time (maybe ever?) to be a Visma employee or customer.

Article

Organising for successful software development

How did our Service Delivery Team manage to speed up our software delivery from releasing six software features per year – to an average of eight features per month? The answer lies in the concept of Team Topologies.

Article

Our large-scale DevOps transformation

Over the past three and a half years, Visma has worked in a focused and structured way to modernise how we design, develop, deliver and operate our cloud services. Get a glimpse into our large-scale DevOps transformation.

Article

Next-generation Business Intelligence: Active Intelligence

Traditional Business Intelligence’s passive approach no longer meets the current requirements for data-driven business. There is a need for a new paradigm: Active Intelligence. But what is Active Intelligence, how does it differ from Business Intelligence and what are the benefits?

Article

Transform your business with APIs

If an ERP system is the superhero of your business, APIs are the sidekick it can’t function without. Here’s how to use APIs to keep your business agile and adaptable.

Article

5 API trends we’re seeing in 2024

From microservices to Composable ERPs, these are a few of the biggest trends we’re currently seeing in the API space.

Article

7 steps to building an ecosystem strategy

The power of a software ecosystem cannot be overstated – it’s one of the best ways to set your business up for growth and success. Not sure where to start? You’ve come to the right place.

Article

Optimising small businesses across Europe: 5 countries, 5 Visma products

Managing finances in a small business can be daunting; our cloud software is here to help. From automating accounting with AI to streamlining payroll and invoicing, find out how these tools empower you to succeed.

Article

A new and promising generation of IT professionals

Is your child interested in gaming and technology? Read on to find out about a recent Visma collaboration offering kids a fun and social way to develop their technological skills and interests, and turn it into something that could benefit them in the future.

Article

Software for a longer and healthier life

Usability in technology can make all the difference when nurses distribute their time on patients. Read on to learn more about how user-friendly software affects the healthcare industry.

Article

Tools for remote design sprint facilitation

As a UX Studio at Visma, we spent last year running remotely all the activities that traditionally require whole team onsite participation such as design sprints, usability tests and problem framing workshops. Here are some of the tools we have used with success.

Article

Visma InSchool’s UX team introduced the value loop in their process

Visma InSchool is an administrative system for Norwegian upper secondary schools. Its launch wasn’t as we hoped it would be and in this blog, we highlight what happened when our designers introduced the Visma UX value loop to the other teams.

Article

Data insights: Innovating the accounting industry

The accounting industry is at a tipping point, and software companies are in a unique position to drive massive change. So, how do they make the most of this momentum?

Article

How Visma company Inyett created a more distinct and compelling brand identity

Inyett, a leading Swedish provider of Fintech software, recently undertook a project to renew their brand identity. With the help of Visma’s Group-level branding team, they increased employee engagement while maintaining their position as market leader in safe payments. Read on to find out how they were able to achieve such solid results.

Article

Data insights: How to build products that developers love

What makes the perfect circumstances for developers to create exceptional products? Here’s what we’ve learned from two of our top-performing companies.

Article

Creating brilliant integrations from day zero

In today’s connected world, APIs are the backbone that hold a software ecosystem together. But how do you ensure integrations are consistently top notch?

Article

Tackling society’s healthcare challenges through innovation

The healthcare industry has a unique set of challenges – from an ageing population to labour shortages to fragmented systems. The good news is that specialised, local cloud software can help fill many of those gaps.

Article

Meet our tech talents: Brian Ye

What is it like to work with development and tech innovation in Visma? We have talked to Brian Ye, Product Insights Lead in the Data Science Tech Hub, about his typical work tasks and why working in a diverse environment is crucial for continuous growth.

Article

How to fix security issues in code faster

Is there a way to fix security issues in codes faster? In this article, our Product Security team will share how they improved the timeline to fix security issues in the analysis part of the source code.

Article

What is product insights and why you should care about it

Innovation is the heartbeat of any technology company out there and in the midst of it, large-scale experimentation. Companies who do not succeed with experimenting at scale will not innovate. And those who do not innovate will die.

Article

VCDM 101: How we make your business software future-proof

The Visma Cloud Delivery Model (VCDM) is our approach to developing, delivering, and operating secure cloud services. So, what exactly does that mean for you as a customer?

Article

Visma Employee – building an app for everyone

That is the big question for Visma Employee. “Everyone” might be an exaggeration, but only just so: the Employee app is for anyone who’s employed and might be sick, want a vacation or get a payslip, which is basically anyone employed by a company.

Article

Running large multi-team Product development

Users of business applications expect simple applications focused on solving their tasks, in a simple way and without spending unnecessary time doing so. But how do you achieve this running large multi-team Product development organisations?

Article

Why standardised software is the key to business success

In 2022, we sharpened our focus as a pure play software company and did what we do best: create solutions that give businesses confidence in an ever-changing landscape. Read more about how we’re setting the standard in our industry.

Article

The higher purpose of design

Making the world a better place through design – too ambitious or something we need to do? How can we apply sustainability to our everyday work? Our UX team set out to answer these questions and more at their recent innovation jam.

Article

Visma’s Machine Learning Assets Team make innovation in NLP

Our Visma Machine Learning Assets team has launched two new solutions that are using cutting-edge technology. Learn more about Smartscan and AutoSuggest—and how they made a leap innovation in Natural Language Processing.

Article

5 reasons why you need Visma AutoPay

Do you spend a lot of time making manual payments or doing bank reconciliation? Could you imagine an automated and secure bank integration that saves you both time and frustration? Visma AutoPay may just be what you need.

Article

10 essential rules for making accessible products

In today’s digital age, accessibility is no longer an afterthought – it’s a fundamental necessity. Here are our top rules and best practices for creating products that cater to diverse user needs.

Article

Meet our new CTO: T. Alexander Lystad

“I’m thrilled to take on the role as CTO of Visma”, says Alex, who started his Visma career as a software developer. Read on and get to know him, his journey thus far, and his plans for the future.

Article

How can we bridge the generation gap in software?

The number of tech users 60 and older is growing, making age-inclusive software more important than ever. Here’s how to design software for users of all ages to confidently enjoy.

Article

10 actions for a cleaner user interface

How do you create a website with fewer distractions and less friction? Visma Digital Commerce’s UX designer shares 10 tips to get you started.

Article

Which AI product ideas are worth exploring?

Now more than ever, product teams are exploring how AI can create value for their customers – and rightly so. Read on to find out which ideas are worth spending time and resources on.

Article

Pushing our buttons: How we design for accessibility

It’s vital that we build products and websites that can be used by everyone, including those using assistive technology, who are colourblind, or who have cognitive disabilities. How is Visma ensuring that its universal design system is accessible for all?

Article

Cloud basics: Deployment models

What is the difference between public cloud, private cloud, community cloud and hybrid cloud? And what are the benefits of the different types?

Article

Designing conversational AI from a UX perspective

As AI continues to change how business gets done, the link between design, language, and conversation grows even closer. What are the best ways to create conversational AI from a human-centred perspective?

Article

How the Visma way of working benefits our customers

How do we deliver cloud software that is secure, reliable, and responsive to our customers’ needs? In this article, we’ll show how our way of working and technology are aligned with those goals.

Article

Build the right things with the Visma UX Value Loop

When we talk about user experience, we talk about the experienced look, feel and usability of a product or service. But to ensure that we deliver products and services that solve real problems and meet user needs and expectations, we need to understand our customers and end-users – really understand them.

What is fake news and how has it become such a large industry?

How has fake news become such a large industry? We dig deeper into how fake news interfere in elections, economies, and geopolitical conflicts.

Article

Visma UX Days 2023: Designing for a meaningful, sustainable, and humanity-centred world

As designers, we’re committed to creating exceptional digital experiences. Take a peek inside our annual UX Days event to see how we inspire our design teams to address the challenges of an ever-changing world.

Article

What is financial cybercrime and how to prevent it?

Financial cybercrime can affect companies of all sizes and in all sectors – as well as private individuals – and can have dramatic consequences. But what are the types of attacks motivated by financial gains and how can we prevent these attacks from succeeding?

Article

Cloud computing basics: The cloud computing layers

Cloud computing is a business model and not a technology. In this article, we will explore the fundamentals of cloud – the cloud computing layers.

Video

Sustainability at Visma

Article

Highlighting causes we care about on International Charity Day

Today is International Charity Day, an occasion to celebrate the hard work of charities around the world to improve people’s lives. What are the most pressing global issues we should be addressing? Read on to find out the causes most important to our employees, and the charities we believe are best positioned to work on them.

Article

How we support the Sustainable Development Goals (Part 2 of 2)

What steps is Visma taking to make the world better? Read on to learn about Visma’s concrete actions towards ethical business and group-level sustainability efforts—and how these contribute to the SDGs.

Article

How do we work with sustainability in Visma?

Becoming a sustainable business is about increasing awareness and having internal guidelines on how we can be part of the solution, as well as having a focus on this at the management level. We have talked with the Sustainability Manager in Visma to hear more about the specific initiatives the Visma Group is working on.

Article

Visma introduces E-recycling week

During the first E-recycle week at Visma, our employees collected a large amount of electronics for reuse or repurposing. Learn more about what we are doing to reduce our environmental impact.

Article

High internal engagement at Visma Sustainability Month

Visma’s 2023 Sustainability Report unveiled areas for improvement, particularly within office emissions and travel. Building on the learnings from the report, we held Visma Sustainability Month, a four-week series of internal articles and activities covering Visma’s most relevant sustainability topics. Read on to find out what topics are most important to Visma and how we’re addressing them.

Article

Case study: – Cloud-based systems make us more environmentally friendly

The Norwegian congress and events agency, Fjell og Fjord Konferanser AS, has a strong focus on the environment. Read about how their transition to a cloud-based ERP and payroll system helps them leave a green footprint.

Article

How Visma invests in sustainability

Everyone has a role in protecting the planet. People can tap into their changemaking power, not just in their own lives, but by bringing people together and teaming up. Visma understands that it’s groups that effect the most change, but it starts with the individual. Read on to find out how Visma encourages change at both levels to invest in the future of our planet.

Article

Are software products sustainable?

How do software products affect sustainability? And what is actually better for the climate – reading a printed book or streaming a movie? Read on to find out.

Article

Visma e-conomic’s new e-waste recycling program embraces the circular economy

Visma Denmark has moved one step closer to a circular economy, thanks to a new e-waste recycling program. Learn more about the program, the first of its kind in Denmark.

Article

Meet Sustion: A carbon footprint calculator for businesses

Lowering the carbon emissions in a company starts with calculating the carbon footprint and reduction goals, which can be challenging. Together with CarbonLink, we are developing a carbon footprint calculator to help companies make useful decisions on the path towards carbon neutrality.

Article

Inside Visma Denmark’s brand new and sustainable office space

At Carlsberg City District, Visma Denmark has created a vibrant office with sustainable choices throughout. Find out how they made a space that facilitates collaboration and social interaction, forming a new common culture across the organisation.

Article

Can a robot be sustainable?

By making a robot or digital assistant do the most repetitive and boring tasks, companies can focus on more meaningful and value-adding work – benefiting both business and society. So, can the effect of a robot also support companies in being more sustainable?

Article

How we lowered our office electricity use by as much as 37%

Over the past year, two of Visma’s largest and most environmentally sustainable offices have embarked on a program to reduce their electricity use. The reductions have been noteworthy: 37% in our Copenhagen office and 18% in our Oslo headquarters. Read on to find out how we made such significant improvements, and what steps we’re taking to raise the bar even higher.

Video

Sustainability at Visma

Article

Highlighting causes we care about on International Charity Day

Today is International Charity Day, an occasion to celebrate the hard work of charities around the world to improve people’s lives. What are the most pressing global issues we should be addressing? Read on to find out the causes most important to our employees, and the charities we believe are best positioned to work on them.

Article

How we support the Sustainable Development Goals (Part 2 of 2)

What steps is Visma taking to make the world better? Read on to learn about Visma’s concrete actions towards ethical business and group-level sustainability efforts—and how these contribute to the SDGs.

Article

How do we work with sustainability in Visma?

Becoming a sustainable business is about increasing awareness and having internal guidelines on how we can be part of the solution, as well as having a focus on this at the management level. We have talked with the Sustainability Manager in Visma to hear more about the specific initiatives the Visma Group is working on.

Article

Visma introduces E-recycling week

During the first E-recycle week at Visma, our employees collected a large amount of electronics for reuse or repurposing. Learn more about what we are doing to reduce our environmental impact.

Article

High internal engagement at Visma Sustainability Month

Visma’s 2023 Sustainability Report unveiled areas for improvement, particularly within office emissions and travel. Building on the learnings from the report, we held Visma Sustainability Month, a four-week series of internal articles and activities covering Visma’s most relevant sustainability topics. Read on to find out what topics are most important to Visma and how we’re addressing them.

Article

Case study: – Cloud-based systems make us more environmentally friendly

The Norwegian congress and events agency, Fjell og Fjord Konferanser AS, has a strong focus on the environment. Read about how their transition to a cloud-based ERP and payroll system helps them leave a green footprint.

Article

How Visma invests in sustainability

Everyone has a role in protecting the planet. People can tap into their changemaking power, not just in their own lives, but by bringing people together and teaming up. Visma understands that it’s groups that effect the most change, but it starts with the individual. Read on to find out how Visma encourages change at both levels to invest in the future of our planet.

Article

Are software products sustainable?

How do software products affect sustainability? And what is actually better for the climate – reading a printed book or streaming a movie? Read on to find out.

Article

Visma e-conomic’s new e-waste recycling program embraces the circular economy

Visma Denmark has moved one step closer to a circular economy, thanks to a new e-waste recycling program. Learn more about the program, the first of its kind in Denmark.

Article

Meet Sustion: A carbon footprint calculator for businesses

Lowering the carbon emissions in a company starts with calculating the carbon footprint and reduction goals, which can be challenging. Together with CarbonLink, we are developing a carbon footprint calculator to help companies make useful decisions on the path towards carbon neutrality.

Article

Inside Visma Denmark’s brand new and sustainable office space

At Carlsberg City District, Visma Denmark has created a vibrant office with sustainable choices throughout. Find out how they made a space that facilitates collaboration and social interaction, forming a new common culture across the organisation.

Article

Can a robot be sustainable?

By making a robot or digital assistant do the most repetitive and boring tasks, companies can focus on more meaningful and value-adding work – benefiting both business and society. So, can the effect of a robot also support companies in being more sustainable?

Article

How we lowered our office electricity use by as much as 37%

Over the past year, two of Visma’s largest and most environmentally sustainable offices have embarked on a program to reduce their electricity use. The reductions have been noteworthy: 37% in our Copenhagen office and 18% in our Oslo headquarters. Read on to find out how we made such significant improvements, and what steps we’re taking to raise the bar even higher.

Article

Diversity is key: Why team composition matters in cycling and software development

At first glance, cycling and software development might seem to not have much in common. But, here’s why diversity reigns supreme in both arenas.

Article

Our role in Team Visma | Lease a Bike’s cutting-edge Control Room

We’re all about pushing the boundaries of innovation to help our partners and customers reach new heights. This year, for the Tour de France, we’ve brought our data collection and visualisation expertise to the Team Visma | Lease a Bike Control Room.

Article

How AI optimises performance for Team Visma | Lease a Bike

Find out what happens when we apply our advanced technology to calculate the nutritional intake for Team Visma | Lease a Bike during races.

Article

Women cheering on women: An empowering Tour de France Femmes

Gathering 40 women leaders to support Team Visma | Lease a Bike, we got to celebrate women’s resilience, passion, and drive – both on the track and in accounting. Don’t miss our video recapping this empowering experience.

Article

Podcast: Equality and inclusion in professional cycling

Pro cycling is a male-dominated sport. Why is it so, and how can we get more women into cycling? We met with the General Manager of Team Jumbo-Visma and one of the riders in the new women’s team of Team Jumbo-Visma to talk about diversity and inclusion within cycling.

Podcast

Voice of Visma Ep 05: Our Team Visma | Lease a Bike sponsorship with Anne-Grethe Thomle Karlsen

Article

Video: Team Jumbo-Visma's cycling talents try skiing for the first time

What happens when you put a pair of skis on Team Jumbo-Visma’s up and coming cycling talents?

Article

Behind the scenes of Team Jumbo-Visma

What really goes on – before, during and after a race.

Article

Data insights: How to build products that users love

As Co-founder and Product Manager at SmartBill, Ioana Hasan knows what drives growth. Find out her top five tips for building products that users love.

Article

Team Jumbo-Visma cycling team’s year in pictures

2020 is right around the corner and it’s time to look back at Team Jumbo-Visma cycling team’s fantastic year – in pictures and videos.

Article

Voice of Visma: Our Team Visma | Lease a Bike sponsorship with Anne-Grethe Thomle Karlsen

It’s one thing to sponsor the world’s best cycling team; it’s a whole other thing to provide software and expertise that helps them do what they do best. Learn how we help Team Visma | Lease a Bike both on and off the bikes and why we’re so proud to be the first title sponsor.

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What happened to the winner of The Next Top Mechanic?

As the main sponsor of Team Jumbo-Visma, we recently carried out a first-of-its-kind recruitment campaign to find their Next Top Mechanic. Find out how it went and who brought the title home.

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Breaking barriers: Insights from Team Visma | Lease a Bike Women

In a sport once dominated by men, women have now become a vital part of the professional cycling arena, as well. In this interview, we sat down with a few of the riders of Team Visma | Lease a Bike Women to talk about their journey to the top, and to get their advice on how to reach your goals.

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A video guy's blog: Content moment with Team Jumbo-Visma

Why do we make content about our sponsorships? Get insights into how our video specialist works with Team Jumbo-Visma to create great content and get his best tips for video and photo production.

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How Visma supports the unsung heroes of cycling

The world of top cycling is rapidly evolving. In the chaos of a race, it’s the mechanics who are the anchors, ensuring the riders can perform their best. As title sponsor of Team Jumbo-Visma, how can Visma use its business expertise to make sure the team has the most talented mechanics?

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An inside look at our content moment with Team Visma | Lease a Bike

New name, new look, and brand new excitement. Come behind the scenes of a content moment with our sponsorship cycling team.

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Team Jumbo-Visma: The greatest moments of 2023

This was a year for the record books! Let’s take a look back at how Team Jumbo-Visma stamped their place in history as the world’s best cycling team.

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8 coaching tips for elite sports and business

Richard Plugge and Linda Emmery have years of experience building strong, highly motivated teams. Here, they share how leaders can unlock their team’s potential.

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The story of our Team Jumbo-Visma sponsorship

Team Jumbo-Visma reached new heights in 2022, setting a new standard for elite road cycling. At Visma, we reached new heights, as well — from sky-high internal pride to increased brand awareness in our markets. To celebrate, let’s take a look back at where it all began — and then look ahead to all the exciting opportunities yet to come.

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Why goal setting is great for team building

When it comes to winning as a team, Team Jumbo-Visma uses collaborative goal-setting to drive their success. Here’s why businesses should do the same.

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Partnering for change: Visma’s commitment to UNICEF

By partnering with UNICEF and supporting initiatives like the UPSHIFT programme, Visma is committed to positively impact the lives of children and young people worldwide – empowering them with tools to take charge of their future. Join us in making a difference and learn more about our long-term support of UNICEF.

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Habits and boundaries that minimise work-related mental health risks

Steady employment and routines are good for us, but unhealthy work environments and habits pose a serious threat to our mental wellbeing. Here’s what you can do, as an employee, to set healthy boundaries in the workplace.

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Meet our new Segment Director of Medium Businesses, Yvette Hoogewerf

With over a decade at Visma, Yvette brings a multifaceted background in sales, marketing, strategy, and leadership to her new role as the Segment Director. In this interview, she reflects on leveraging diversity and inclusion for the improvement of software, and the tech industry as a whole.

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Meet some of our 2023/2024 Management Trainees!

The Management Trainees who started in the fall of 2023 are nearly finished with the year-long programme, and will soon transition into permanent positions at Visma. Read more about their backgrounds, what motivated them to apply, the projects they’ve worked on, and the highlights of the year.

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Empowering youth together with UNICEF through UPSHIFT

The UPSHIFT programme prepares young people to shape their future as entrepreneurs, employees, and engaged global citizens around the world. Discover how our partnership with UNICEF supports UPSHIFT and its impact, featuring insights from Herve Morin, UPSHIFT Global Lead.

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World Children’s Day: How we support UNICEF’s mission for change

We’re proud to stand alongside UNICEF Norway in their unwavering dedication to empower and protect the future of children. Discover how our partnership supports their efforts to build a safer, more inclusive world for every child.

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What's it really like to work at Visma?

Enjoy the best of both worlds: the feeling of a local startup and the perks of belonging to the largest cloud software community in Europe.

Podcast

Voice of Visma Ep 06: Measure what matters: Employee engagement with Vibeke Müller

Research shows that having engaged, happy employees is so important for building a great company culture and performing better financially. But how exactly do we measure engagement? Join Vibeke and Diana as they break down what’s worked for us over the last decade and what we do with all of the great data we collect.

Podcast

Voice of Visma Ep 03: The human side of enterprise with Yvette Hoogewerf

As a software company, our products are central to our business… but that’s only one part of the equation. In this episode, Yvette and Johan discuss the secret ingredients to transforming good products into exceptional solutions.

Podcast

Voice of Visma Ep 02: From Management Trainee to CFO with Stian Grindheim

How does someone work their way up from Management Trainee to CFO by the age of 30? And balance fatherhood alongside it all? Join Stian and Diana as they reminisce on both his career and personal journeys so far, and what he believes is the biggest success factor in finance. (And no, it’s not higher profits!)

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My experience being a UX intern at Visma

What is it like to be a UX intern at Visma, and what sorts of projects will you be working on? Matilda from Sweden has written a summary of her experience and what she learned.

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Working together to promote women in tech

Some of the earliest pioneers of computing were women. But considering the gender gap in the tech industry today, there is still an urgent call for more role models for women and girls. We have partnered with several organisations that promote women in tech, and together, we work towards a more diverse industry.

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My leadership journey: Meet Ralph!

Ralph van Maris is a Customer Success Manager at Nmbrs, a Dutch Visma company that doesn’t actually believe in traditional “managers”. What has he learned about leadership so far?

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Breaking free from the boxes of conventional thinking

Sjoerd Hendriks channels his creativity as a UX designer at Visma Circle, working to make sure that their software is accessible to all. Passionate about diversity and inclusion, he discusses his personal journey, the importance of inclusive design, and what celebrating Pride really means.

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Why we call ourselves “Champions of business software”

It’s more than a tagline. It’s a commitment to ourselves, our customers, and our communities that we will continue to push boundaries, innovate, and deliver world-class solutions.

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Voice of Visma: The untold stories of Visma with Øystein Moan

What did Visma look like in its early days? Are there any decisions our former CEO would have made differently? Today, Øystein, our former CEO and current Executive Chairman, joins Johan to reflect on the pivotal moments, the mistakes-turned-lessons, and the surprising stories that have shaped Visma into what it is today.

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Happy Pride: “If you see someone behaving inappropriately, educate them”

Meet our colleague Miska: He’s one of our in-house experts on diversity and inclusion and loves sharing his knowledge with 15,000+ colleagues. Read his take on Pride.

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Combining work with volunteering for a more dynamic life

Many of our employees are making important contributions to their communities through volunteer work. Meet Sander, who combines his job as a Solution Consultant with volunteering at his local fire station.

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Meet Visma’s Champions: Andreas Stensson & Hana Burianová

At Visma, our Champions are spearheading peer-to-peer communities vital to our success – spanning companies, countries, and fields of work. Join us as we shine a spotlight on these Champions and discover how they support their colleagues.

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Meet Visma’s Champions: Nataliya Ilieva & Marie Norberg

At Visma, our Champions are leading peer-to-peer communities that are essential to our success – bridging companies, countries, and various fields of expertise. Join us in celebrating these Champions and explore how they empower their colleagues.

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Meet our Managing Directors: Karina Wellendorph and Lisa Miles-Heal

Our Managing Directors (MDs) are the north stars of our organisation, guiding each of our companies with a unique vision. Today, we’re getting to know two MDs who epitomise what it means to be a leader.

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A new and promising generation of IT professionals

Is your child interested in gaming and technology? Read on to find out about a recent Visma collaboration offering kids a fun and social way to develop their technological skills and interests, and turn it into something that could benefit them in the future.

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Celebrate Pride with Visma

We’re dedicated to working with diversity and inclusion year-round, but Pride month is an extra special time for celebrating the LGBTQIA+ community, reflecting on our support, and reaffirming our commitment. Discover how we celebrate Pride month and foster an inclusive workplace.

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Meet Visma’s Champions: Hans de Bruin, Armands Ķirītis & Sofia Johansson

At Visma, our Champions are spearheading peer-to-peer communities vital to our success – spanning companies, countries, and fields of work. Join us as we shine a spotlight on these Champions and discover how they support their colleagues.

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“Who says women are not interested in technology? Of course they are.”

UN Women states: “The world needs science, and science needs women and girls”. Today is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science and to celebrate it we have talked to the program coordinator of the Finnish initiative Mimmit Koodaa: a program to increase gender equality in the Finnish software industry.

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Meet Visma’s Champions: Pavel Yegorov & Facundo Borrelli

At Visma, our Champions are spearheading peer-to-peer communities vital to our success – spanning companies, countries, and fields of work. Join us as we shine a spotlight on these Champions and discover how they support their colleagues.

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Arbnora Tahiri is one of Norway’s 50 leading women in tech

This year witnessed a record-breaking number of nominations for the annual recognition of the 50 leading women in tech, surpassing all previous counts with over 700 nominees. Among the 50 accomplished women securing a spot on the list is Arbnora Tahiri, Visma’s Interim Chief Information Security Officer.

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Openness for a happier workplace

Meet Ida Algotsson, our talented Digital Marketing Specialist who basically runs a one-person Swedish marketing department at Plandisc. In between copywriting and campaign planning, she’s passionate about diversity and inclusion, raising awareness, and creating a safe space for everyone to be open about their true identities.

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Meet our security experts: Alina Nicula

With over a decade of experience at Visma, spanning programming to security architecture in a landscape of 700+ applications, Alina’s story exemplifies the innovation of women in tech. Read on for her takes on navigating the ever-changing field of security, always trying to stay one step ahead of potential threats.

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Employee engagement is key to positive social impact

At Visma | Raet, employees form the backbone of their sustainability policy. By working together with customers, partners and other businesses on social initiatives, they are committed to making a real difference for society.

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Celebrating what makes us unique

With over two decades of experience from industrial to digital design, Hesam Pakbeen shares his inspiring journey and personal insights on inclusive leadership, celebrating our differences, and making a real impact on equality in the workplace and beyond.

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Happy Pride – how can we make a more inclusive workplace?

It’s that time of the year again: Love conquers all season! Diversity and inclusion is one of our core values. Read more here.

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Meet our tech talents: Brian Ye

What is it like to work with development and tech innovation in Visma? We have talked to Brian Ye, Product Insights Lead in the Data Science Tech Hub, about his typical work tasks and why working in a diverse environment is crucial for continuous growth.

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The impact of unintentional discrimination on LGBTQIA+ employees

Research shows that the LGBTQIA+ community is more often subject to being treated differently in the workplace. How can companies ensure that they won’t fall short of full inclusion?

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Berit Braut one of Norways most prominent tech women

Read about why Berit is passionate about diversity in the tech industry, and why we need to highlight female role models like Berit to inspire more women to engage in technology.

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Meet our tech talents: Lars Holtar & Ioana Piroska

In this newest interview with our tech talents, we talked to some of our security experts: Lars Holtar, who works as Security Manager, and Ioana Piroska, who works as Security Engineer. Find out what their typical workday in Visma looks like and what advice they would give others looking for a tech career.

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“Why I chose Visma”: A career beyond the ordinary

Want to know what makes Visma unlike anywhere else? We asked a few of our colleagues what they love most about working here, and what makes Visma so special.

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Meet Myrthe Smalbraak – one of our HR directors

Get to know our seasoned HR director, and her a little unusual advice to younger people who are eager to excel in their careers.

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How Visma’s Management Trainee program kick-started my career – Part 2

Many of our Visma talents started their careers as Management Trainees. In this blog post, we’ll meet Stina Wahlsten and Julia Hakanpää about their journey in Visma, how it was like to be an Management Trainee, and what they do today.

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Two Visma employees among Norway’s top 50 women in tech

We are proud to have two of our employees announced among Norway’s top 50 women in tech. Meet them and learn more about their passion for tech.

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Happy Pride! What’s on our Diversity & Inclusion agenda?

Diversity and inclusion are some of our top priorities. More diverse teams lead to broader perspectives. Here’s how we improve our products and services by taking better care of our employees.

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Meet our employees: New Managing Director in Portugal

Eva Martins has been appointed as Managing Director for the newly established Visma Tech Portugal. Read on and watch the video to learn about the tech talent’s goals and ambitions for the tech centre.

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Say hello to the Management Trainees of 2020/21!

One month ago, 10 ambitious graduates started their Visma journey as Management Trainees. Throughout the coming year, each of them is responsible for planning and carrying out 5 different projects of great strategic importance for Visma’s future success. Read on to learn more about the trainees and what projects they are currently working on.

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Gaining new perspectives through volunteering

In many of our companies, employees have the opportunity to use their work hours volunteering for a charity or organisation of their choice. Meet some of our people and find out what it means to spend their time helping others.

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What projects do our Management Trainees take part in?

Every year, we welcome several Management Trainees that get to work on five exciting and business-critical projects throughout a year. We have talked to Axel, one of this year’s Management Trainees, about his experiences working on an acquisition project with the M&A department.

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My leadership journey: Meet Lars!

Lars van der Meer went from being a consultant to leading an entire Visma company. As an MD, he tries to facilitate a happy workplace that makes the world a bit better with their software.

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My leadership journey: Meet Eirik!

Eirik Friise, Head of ERP, had heard rumours about the special Visma culture. He’d also spent too many hours working in business software not tailored to his needs, and wanted to change that. So, he joined Visma.

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How Visma is tipping the scales for women in tech

When people talk about closing the gender gap, too often the conversation stops with how to spark women’s interest in tech. But, what do we actually do to help women get through the door and thrive within organisations?

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My leadership journey: Meet Azzeddine!

Azzeddine Abchir works with people, products, processes, and tech – in that particular order. Less than a year into his job at Visma, he’s already making his excellent mark.

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My leadership journey: Meet Mirela!

Mirela Miculescu loves to drive the digital transformation across our 170 companies. Going on her 7th year at Visma, she’s excited for many more years of driving change.

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How Visma’s Management Trainee program kick-started my career – Part 1

We have had a lot of great talents as part of our Management Trainee program. But what do their careers look like now, and how have their journeys been? We have talked to Brian Ye and Steffen Torp about their experiences as Management Trainees, what happened since, and where they are today.

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Six elements of value that drive strategic B2B relationships

Six elements of value are especially important to companies during times of uncertainty. Being aware of – and delivering on them – can translate into business value, grow stronger customer relationships and enhance loyalty.

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Making an impact at Visma Car Diet Week 2023

22 September was International Car-Free Day, and Visma took the opportunity to launch a Group-wide campaign to reduce our car emissions for a week. Find out why we did it, how we planned it, how it went and, most importantly, what we learned.

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Here are the Management Trainees of 2021/22!

Say hello to this year’s Visma Management trainees, learn about their projects and see what has been their highlights during the program so far.

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Meet our new CTO: T. Alexander Lystad

“I’m thrilled to take on the role as CTO of Visma”, says Alex, who started his Visma career as a software developer. Read on and get to know him, his journey thus far, and his plans for the future.

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Fostering mental health in the workplace

Today, we celebrate World Mental Health Day – an international day for mental health awareness and initiatives. How can organisations participate in championing the importance of mental wellbeing in the corporate world?

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Meet a handful of our 2022 Management Trainees!

Say hi to just a few of this year’s Visma Management Trainees (MTs)! Learn about their background, why they joined Visma, their current projects, and what unique attributes they bring to the job.

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Get to know Espen, our Chief Security Officer

Espen Johansen has been with us for ten years, both in sales and management roles, various security positions and as board member for several Visma companies. Read on to learn more about his thoughts on the road ahead as CSO.

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Meet the entrepreneurs behind startup success Holded

Javi Fondevila and Bernat Ripoll met through Facebook with a business idea and a joint interest in snowboarding. We had a chat with them to hear more about their key to success and learn what running a successful business and action sports have in common.

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Meet our new Director of Communications: Lage Bøhren

Lage has taken a non-traditional path toward becoming our Director of Communications. In this interview, he explains why that’s one of his strongest assets.

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Investing in future tech experts

Learning to code should be fun! That’s why we’ve partnered with Learnlink to offer a summer course that combines coding and gaming, specially designed for children.

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Meet our AI Director: Jacob Nyman

We go out of our way to identify new and better ways for our customers to achieve their goals. Jacob goes out of his way to empower our employees with the latest AI technology.

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Why are our employees happy and thriving in their jobs?

In our recently published sustainability report, employee engagement was one of Visma’s top performing areas. And now, Visma’s latest eNPS ranks us among the top 5% of companies in the IT industry.

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Three important skills of a Management Trainee

The three most important skills identified by Management Trainees are the ability to take initiative, having good analytical skills as well as good social skills. In this article, they share their thoughts and experiences about these abilities.

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Summer internship 2023: See this year’s projects!

Every summer, we welcome a new group of students for a six-week, project-based internship. Let’s take a look at the impact our interns made this year.

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Meet our AI talents: Martin Sommerseth

At 29 years old, Martin is the Managing Director of Visma’s first pure AI company. What has his journey looked like, and how’d he get to where he is today?