Deutsche Telekom invests in Sweden

Deutsche Telekom, one of the world's largest telecommunications companies, is active in the Swedish market with two companies. Deutsche Telekom Nordics, founded in 2020, offers solutions in the areas of mobile telephony, broadband, online platforms (ZoomX, Teams) and communication technologies. Two years ago, it strengthened its presence in Sweden with the subsidiary Detecon, which offers consulting services in the field of digital transformation.

‘Sweden is a pioneer for digitalisation and innovation. There are many exciting companies here that want to further develop their business models and processes with the help of new technologies and new ways of working,’ says Lars Theobaldt, Managing Partner Nordics at Detecon. ’Sweden also has high requirements for quality, precision and security, which fits very well with our offering. We have global experience and a strong network within the Deutsche Telekom Group, which we can utilise and adapt to local needs and conditions. We now have 16 employees within the organisation in the Nordic and Baltic countries,’ says Edward Kallerman, Managing Director of Deutsche Telekom Nordics.

‘Sweden also has high requirements in terms of quality, precision and security, which fits in very well with our offering.’

Edward Kallerman: Deutsche Telekom is primarily targeting large and medium-sized companies and organisations that want to digitalise their operations and take advantage of the opportunities offered by secure, high-quality communication technology. We already have several strategic partnerships with Swedish companies in the industrial, telecommunications, financial and public sectors.

Lars Theobaldt: Detecon Consulting focuses primarily on digital transformation with the aim of increasing efficiency and creating new business models and new ways of working, especially for clients in the telecommunications and industrial sectors. ‘According to our studies, increased innovation and efficiency are also the criteria that companies use to measure the success of newly introduced technologies. We help them to analyse their challenges and opportunities, define their goals and visions and implement the best solutions for their situation. We are not tied to a specific product or platform, but can offer customised solutions. Stockholm is an ideal location for our expansion goals in the Nordic market.’

Edward Kallerman: Our companies fit together very well. We complement each other and can offer customers who want to digitise their business a complete solution - from infrastructure to strategy. As soon as companies have a reliable infrastructure and a networked IT environment that we can provide, Detecon can help transform and optimise processes with AI.

Lars Theobaldt: We also have good collaboration and communication between our companies and can organise joint customer meetings.

Edward Kallerman: An example of a customer solution could be that a company wants to change telecoms provider across Europe and the rest of the world. Through our partners worldwide, we offer various media with added security, such as internet delivery with SLA, SASE/SDWan and SDLan solutions for secure and encrypted communication between industries and countries. At the same time, we can benefit from the Group's expertise and services, such as dedicated Internet traffic with traditional MPLS (editor's note: a technique used to optimise and improve the flow of data in a network).

The city of Stockholm, for example, uses Zoom X, a video service for digital meetings developed by Deutsche Telekom together with Zoom. Communication outside Europe was a major challenge that we were able to help the organisation with. Our technology supports companies on their journey to the cloud with a range of solutions that optimise the performance, cost and security of a company's IT infrastructure.

Another company in the life sciences sector needed technology to ensure that communication with the healthcare sector was not restricted.

Lars Theobaldt: Our customers are often multinational companies that have a vision of what they want to achieve with their software-based solutions in the telecommunications network. We first analyse and then draw up a plan, including a calculation of the profitability of the investment. If the customer is satisfied with our services, we can also help with the implementation, often with the help of other Deutsche Telekom subsidiaries. We are often already involved in our customers' R&D activities. For example, one company needed a cloud cluster (editor's note: a collection of servers in the cloud that work together) to improve the performance and availability of data and applications, but also the security of their R&D activities. We were able to define and implement plans quite quickly, securely and in a simplified manner. A journey that took just over two years.

Edward Kallerman: Many are slowing down their investments. Security is expensive, and they think: ‘it won't happen to me’. However, cyber attacks happen all the time. Hacking groups are getting in everywhere. You just need to have a plan of what to do in the event of an attack and make sure that when it does happen, the damage is minimised.

In scenarios where we need to connect users, systems or products to achieve certain goals, but the organisation does not have a multi-cloud connection, the outcome is not good. (Editor's note: Multi-cloud is the use of cloud services from multiple providers to optimise the performance, cost and security of a company's IT infrastructure).

‘Many are slowing down their investments. Security is expensive. But cyber attacks happen all the time.’

Lars Theobaldt: AI is undoubtedly the future. According to our study ‘Insights on Technology Adoption’, as many as 50 per cent of companies in Sweden expect AI to significantly increase their productivity. Then there is cyber security, server capacity and energy. As soon as AI is used, you have to make sure that the information reaches the right place. Examples of developments we see are autonomous systems, automation, sustainability and agent-based AI.

‘AI is undoubtedly the future. Then there is cyber security and server capacity and energy. As soon as AI is used, you have to make sure that the information gets to the right place.’

The industry is no longer just process-orientated, but is becoming increasingly data-driven. Take a brewery as an example: all repetitive services in the supply chain can be automated and predicted, from ordering hops to production. The brewing process can be digitised with sensors for data analysis and optimisation of fermentation, temperature control and quality assurance of the beer.

Resources are minimised with AI. Lufthansa, for example, books tickets for customers with the help of a bot. In the supermarket, for example, the shop assistant can say ‘tomato’ into her headset and the price is spoken directly into her ear. Important paradigm shifts are now taking place in the banking and automotive industries, for example. Unlike in the past, manufacturers such as Coca-Cola are engaging directly with customers. Automation makes it possible to offer new services as a service.

At the same time, companies need ethics officers to deal with the ethical issues surrounding AI. Compliance with the new EU AI law is currently the biggest challenge for our customers.

‘At the same time, companies need ethics officers to deal with the ethical issues surrounding AI.’

Edward Kallerman: The Berlin-Stockholm route is a corridor that we can develop. It is extremely important that we stick together in Europe, because together we are stronger. From an IT security perspective, the more data we can keep within Europe, the better. Sweden is good at being agile and user-orientated, but at the same time it can be a bit slow. The consensus model, which is common in Sweden, can mean that decisions take longer than with top-down management. On the other hand, nothing will change if you don't get the engineers on board.

‘From an IT security perspective, the more data we can keep within Europe, the better.’

Lars Theobaldt: In Sweden, there is a clear consensus model, the hierarchies are flatter and it can take longer to make decisions. As a German, you have to understand that. A lot of information has to be gathered before decisions can be made. When everyone is on board, everything happens very quickly in Sweden. The mutual trust and informality also create harmony in business life. There is a good balance between work and private life.

Edward Kallerman: Sweden is multicultural and tolerant, bringing out the best in everyone. Enthusiasm for advanced technology unites our organisation and we integrate perspectives from different cultures and roles.

Lars Theobaldt: The Chamber of Commerce is a useful platform for different companies with common driving forces. No one can solve challenges alone. Personally, I want to learn from other companies, listen and engage in dialogue and share my own experiences.

Edward Kallerman: The German-Swedish Chamber of Commerce establishes contacts.

‘The Chamber of Commerce is a useful platform for different companies with common driving forces.’