Akeo has experienced growth during the corona pandemic. Even after a tough period in the first half of 2020, the company currently is excelling as a technical partner for both startups and scaleups.
“We think this is because we have been brave and taken many chances to be out early to test and use new technology. We have offered services to other start-up companies at the same time as we have wanted to inspire the established companies to take action to get better digital systems.” says Petter Olsen, CEO, Akeo.
From a very nascent stage, Akeo had great faith in blockchain and secure payment systems, machine learning and artificial intelligence. Now the entire world is witnessing that these technologies have a bright future. In the last decade, huge amounts of data have been collected on various fronts. This data has transformed machine learning from a narrow field to being used in almost everything – from spam filtering to Spotify recommendations, self-driving cars to cancer research and automated accounting. Akeo being a forerunner and early adopter of these technologies has grown exponentially.
Growing edge to edge
Akeo started to reap results from its investment. With growing work and exciting possibilities, the company has hired four new employees with different backgrounds to offer even better services to its clients. One more employee will soon join the Norway office to add to its strength.
Akeo has always been looking forward to recruiting people with different professional skills to strengthen our team. We already had skilled employees with a background in Project Management and Innovation. By hiring new employees from different areas of expertise, we can complement each other and give our customers even better advice and services, explains the CEO.
Petter Olsen has a long and varied experience in large and small IT companies – both in Telemark and Bergen. He joined Akeo as the CEO in February, 2021.
Diversity adds to the culture
We work in teams – often with customers in other continents. English has therefore become a natural second language for us, Petter continues. In December 2020, we hired Emily Norman, who is originally from Australia. She is a recent graduate with a degree in International Business, and had just moved to Norway just before the pandemic started in 2020. Her journey at Akeo has been very fortunate, she started as a Junior Project Manager, but in a short while, she has stepped up in the organization ladder, and is now a Project Manager. She now assists with business development in the company.
Power Packaging marketing with Hubspot
Akeo is also a Hubspot partner. Hubspot is a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system based on the Inbound Marketing philosophy. In simple terms Inbound Marketing can be explained as understanding the customer’s journey, addressing problems that they have and forming a relationship that the customer looks forward to.
“The inbound philosophy is close to my heart. Therefore, it was easy to accept the job at Akeo as Marketing Project Manager and future Hubspot expert. Akeo is known as an exciting company to work with in Skien, but at the same time they are an international company; so many talented people work here!” says Ann-Christin Tjønnås Berget. With 20 years of experience in design and marketing, Ann-Christin is sure to take Inbound Marketing experience with Akeo to another level.
“We find it very inspiring to hire both recent graduates and people with different backgrounds. We see that it amplifies the incredible dynamics of the company. But there is one thing everyone has in common- It is the commitment to the job and the desire to make a good effort for the customers!” Petter concludes.
