Over the years, Nets has played a key role in developing and improving payments, card and information services and payment systems in the Nordic region. We are now the leading company in the region but we are far from content. On the contrary, we intend to expand into Europe.
To realise this ambition our Corporate Development business unit is continuously investigating new opportunities and developing new solutions for the benefit of our clients and their customers.
We live in a digital, paperless and ever-changing society. Let´s make this life even smarter and easier.
Read what Senior Vice President of Corporate Innovation at Corporate Development, Per Harald Strøm (also known as just “Pelle”) has to say about innovation at Nets:
Long-term perspective
We are developing new solutions for the benefit of our customers and for consumers, who are increasingly travelling and trading across national boundaries.
We innovate with focus on the customer. We invest in long-lasting innovative partnerships with selected customers to define and implement strategic development that benefits both parties. This way, we make it easier for our customers and ourselves to work with a long-term perspective rather than just debating product development.
By nature, unmanaged innovation tends to gravitate towards short-term, easy-to-implement, product-oriented solutions. To avoid this, we have a small innovation department at the corporate level, and each business unit has dedicated innovation personnel. This structure ensures a close link between innovation and ‘business as usual’ without losing the overall focus.
Reliability - first and foremost
We develop, deliver and operate financial infrastructures that affect large businesses and millions of consumers. We do not take our responsibility lightly, and never innovate just for the sake of innovation itself. Trustworthy and stable solutions must remain the core of our services.
We are continuously investigating new opportunities and developing new products.
Creating innovative environments
Well, to start, we try to hire innovative minds. It’s also important to give people the freedom to work independently and then to follow through on good ideas. That’s why I encourage everyone in the Innovation department to spend 20 per cent of their working hours on projects and ideas that are not necessarily defined in our business strategy. Trust in our employees is a key factor in our mindset and culture.
New products with time on their side
The large-scale national PKI solutions, BankID in Norway and NemID in Denmark, are recent examples of innovative platforms.
Previous innovative solutions include the Danish e-Boks and the Norwegian eFaktura. What strikes me is that these all share a lifespan of several decades, which is not the current norm in the new economy.
Pushing things forward
Our solutions help money and information flow faster, making life easier and more secure for societies, businesses and consumers. We have repeatedly raised the bar for service levels, features, uptime, cost savings and risk management on our markets.
Due to the national Danish debit card, the Dankort, cash now accounts for only about 5 per cent of all transactions in Denmark, as opposed to a 20 per cent share in the euro area and over 50 per cent in the US. This not only shows that our solutions are widely used, it also tells me we are doing things right.