Introducing our new Advisory Partners: Tarmo Toiger and Tomi Nevasoja Introducing our new Advisory Partners: Tarmo Toiger and Tomi Nevasoja Introducing our new Advisory Partners: Tarmo Toiger and Tomi Nevasoja

The KPMG Finland Group recently announced eight new Partner appointments, to take effect from 1 October, 2021. In our four-part series of articles, our new partners now reveal the most interesting client engagements of their careers and introduce the hottest topics and issues currently being discussed in their respective fields. In the third part, we hear from our new Advisory partners Tarmo Toiger and Tomi Nevasoja.

Tarmo Toiger is the Head of Technology Advisory in Estonia. In his current role he focuses on digitalization and technical cyber services. Tarmo has been a primus motor in growing Technology Advisory and Management Consulting (including services in cyber, IT audit, digitalization and analytics) from the very beginning right up to the market leader position in Estonia. 

Tomi Nevasoja is the Head of Digital Platforms in Finland. Tomi specializes in process and technology transformation projects, based on KPMG’s ‘Powered Enterprise’ concept and KPMG Finland’s digital platform capabilities in the Microsoft and Service Now technologies combined with Enterprise Architecture. He also leads our software asset management consultancy (e.g. software licensing).

Tarmo: There have been many interesting projects, but one of the most interesting was surely the Customer Registration Digitalization project with Enterprise Estonia and the Estonian hotels. Most people have experienced the check-in process at hotels, filling in one’s details on paper – and they would most likely want this process to be more optimal, easier and digital. But they are not the only stakeholders. There are other interested parties, such as the Police and the Border Guard, the Intelligence Agencies, the Statistics Office and, of course, the party that manages the initial data – the hotel itself. These different parties, with their many conflicting requirements, made it really interesting for us to digitalize the process. I think, one always learns the most when the project is challenging. 

Tomi: I have always found it fascinating to solve problems and find solutions that enable better business results. Ideally, in order to execute an engagement successfully, I need to get familiar with the customer’s industry and business on quite a detailed level and to work in close cooperation with them. One example of such an engagement was a case where I first supported the customer in their finance and supply chain processes, and then with their customer relationship processes, and finally made a plan together with the customer on how best to commercialize their digital services. Over the years I became a trusted advisor because I was already very familiar with their business. Of course, my great KPMG colleagues specializing in different advisory business areas helped me, and we worked as a team.

Tarmo:  There are two main areas, both of them cyber-related, where we are experiencing high demand –  technical advisory services related to information security, and  the planning of new digital roadmaps. Cyber has been in high demand for a while now, as most of our customers are facing cyber -related risks. As it is very easy to underinvest in cyber defence, our team is helping clients to pinpoint the right approach and level, in order to make their respective organizations safe. But digital roadmaps are also something that most large organizations are looking at now, as all new investments have some kind of digital components in them. In short, we could say that either consolidating or transforming a company’s organizational digital footprint is rapidly becoming a critical part of their daily activities. 

Tomi: Currently, I’m leading KPMG Finland’s Digital Platforms business unit, which focuses on business process and technology transformation in cases where our clients want to move from customized on-premise processes and systems to standardized leading- practice processes and cloud technologies.  Most of our current engagements are related to such business process and technology transformations. We base our work on KPMG’s Powered Enterprise concept, in which we start by creating a target operating model, and continue by implementing processes and technologies based on this target operating model. Our concept differs a lot from the traditional way of executing process and system development. Therefore, we spend a lot of time with customers and technology partners, explaining to them how KPMG’s Powered Enterprise concept is different and how it will benefit them.

Tarmo: There are so many topics related to technology that customers are discussing at the moment. But there are a few things that do seem to be more important than the others. One of the biggest concerns relates to the number of legacy systems still current in large and even medium-sized organizations – old technologies that are still in use, but hard to replace. Not only do these old technologies create lower value over time, but they also demotivate  users. The last point is now more important than ever, considering the “talent war” – the younger generation do not want to use technologies from the “90s”. So the question that needs to be asked is “how to cope with somewhat old platforms, while still performing well enough and keeping new users happy?”

Tomi: Many organizations are updating or planning to update their ERP systems. The offering in this area has changed considerably since the last boom in ERP implementation. There are new market participants that developed their systems originally for the cloud environment – competing with traditional ERP players that have now developed their cloud versions as well. With cloud applications, the functionality of the ERP system is no longer the most important criterion when selecting systems. Such considerations as a low code platform for customized applications, Artificial Intelligence, automation capabilities and data management have emerged as critical features. Furthermore, many Finnish organizations operate in an international environment and therefore require from the ERP implementation partner international presence and local support in the countries that they operate. Since the demand for experienced ERP professionals is high and the amount of different skills required is higher than before, a successful ERP implementation partner needs to connect with other service providers in order to build the best ecosystem for each customer case.