TripleWin manages to change with digital solution

The speed of digitalisation can feel overwhelming. Industries face disruption, companies adopt new business models and their employees need to keep up with constant change. But while a workshop on a company’s digital transformation can ignite an enthusiastic spark for change, it is easily extinguished when we return to our desks, facing a full inbox and unfinished reports.

This is why Helsinki-based company TripleWin believes the traditional ‘top-down’ model of organisational change does not work in the digital world.

“If a small group makes a plan, presents it on a slideshow and then says, ‘let’s implement this’, others are not able to learn from it and commit to it,” explains company founder and CEO Tom Grönstrand. “People are more committed when they can come up with things to do themselves, instead of just being told what to do.”

The company’s answer is ‘NOOA’, the first online platform for change management. The cloud-based platform taps into collaboration and gamification tools to help engage the whole organisation, wherever they are located, in the change process.

How this works in practice is by first splitting a company’s strategic goal (such as creating a more customer-centric work culture) into challenges. Its employees can then use NOOA on the web or mobile to join these challenges, create practical actions, give and receive feedback and be rewarded for being active, while their managers get measurable data on their progress.

Big business

TripleWin’s approach seems to be hitting the spot. Since NOOA was launched in August 2016, it has landed customers both in Finland and the US and received the Finnish Quality Association’s international Quality Innovation Award, beating over 350 competitors from 11 countries.

But technology has not always been the focus for the company. TripleWin was founded in 2009 as a traditional management consultancy firm and started to develop NOOA four years ago once it saw customers needed new tools to keep up with the fast-pace of digitalisation. Now TripleWin has morphed into a software company that helps corporations in the midst of transformation.

“The speed and the need for change is increasing for companies all the time,” Grönstrand says. “Big industries, such as banking, are facing real disruption due to digitalisation and large companies need to renew themselves.”

Chicago, Chicago

Next for TripleWin is expansion and the company has already signed its first customers in the US and launched a Chicago-based office in late 2016.

Chicago might be a surprising choice for a small Nordic technology company, but its participation in the ‘LandInChicago’ internationalisation programme last year sealed the deal for TripleWin. The programme, organised by the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation Tekes* and the City of Chicago, opened doors to potential customers across the Windy City.

“We booked 200 customer meetings in a month through the programme,” Grönstrand says. “This huge amount of feedback really helped to take the company forward. If you are planning to go the US, you need to carefully define what is your offering and who are the customers it fits.”

Grönstrand also emphasises the importance of being close to your customers, which is why he is relocating to Chicago in August to lead TripleWin’s market charge. It is all part of the company’s vision to become a thought leader in digital change management.

And TripleWin’s ambitions are high, as it aims to reach 100 million euros in turnover within the next five years. With the market for change management estimated to be worth over 550 billion dollars in the US alone, TripleWin believes it has managed to be in the right place at the right time.

*Part of Business Finland since 2018