Highlights from Forte Digital in 2023

2023 has been an exciting year for all of us working at Forte Digital. I want to thank all our customers and partners for the great collaboration throughout the past year. We look forward to new projects, launches, and challenges in the upcoming year! Here are some of the highlights from 2023.

Ferd acquires ownership stake

Just before the summer, it was officially announced that Ferd, one of Norway's leading investment companies, has purchased a 28 percent ownership stake in Forte Digital. With Ferd on board, we have a co-owner eager to actively contribute as a value-adding partner, facilitating our ability to explore new business areas and grow more rapidly across Europe.

“We've been following Forte Digital for a while and are impressed by the tremendous growth the company has achieved in just six years. Forte Digital boasts a strong client base and evidently possesses the expertise the market demands. As society continues its digital transformation, we strongly believe there are significant growth opportunities beyond Norway, particularly in Germany and the rest of the Nordic region,” said Morten Borge, CEO of Ferd, upon the announcement in June 2023.

Forte Digital Creates Value for Some of the Country's Largest Businesses

2023 has proven to be a more challenging year than before, primarily due to macroeconomic conditions, increased market uncertainty, and tighter budgets. Despite a more difficult market environment, Forte Digital continues to create value for some of the country's largest companies.

We also see significant growth potential within new industries, such as aquaculture, manufacturing, and the public sector. The society's ongoing digitalization will persist with unabated vigor, and we aim to play a central role in this evolution.

Throughout 2023, we initiated several new projects with exciting businesses such as The Norwegian Church, Frontline, and Huseierne. We maintain strong collaborations with our existing clients like NorgesGruppen, Farmasiet, and Måsøval.

Here are some milestones we've achieved in collaboration with our clients:

• Huseierne has launched a new mobile application for its members, migrated its websites to Optimizely DXP, and commenced a crucial journey towards developing a future-proof service platform.
• Måsøval's data model aids the company in establishing a single source of truth across both internal and external sources, simplifying data accessibility for various decision-makers and digital services. Over the past year, we've built a digital service for key operational processes, emphasizing user-friendly data accessibility, which significantly contributes to reducing fish mortality while being perceived as a substantial enhancement by end-users.
• MENY's new prediction system assists the grocery chain in planning the required workforce for handling each order, thereby reducing over- or under-staffing.
• In 2023, Saint-Gobain clinched the top spot in the Digital & IT Awards for its new digital service platform developed in collaboration with Forte Digital. The platform has significantly improved time-to-market and strengthened the overall customer experience, resulting in growth and innovation across all digital channels.

Exciting Developments in Germany and Denmark

Exciting developments have unfolded in both Germany and Denmark. In February of this year, it was announced that our German office is expanding its expertise through the acquisition of the digital agency Webfox and the digital product studio PizzaPizza, both based in Berlin. Our goal is to become an industry leader in digital product and service development in all the countries where we operate.

With the expertise gained through PizzaPizza and Webfox, we are better equipped to assist German clients in scaling and growth. Over the past year, major German businesses such as Audi, Heute.at, MPREIS, and vier400 have become part of Forte Digital's client portfolio in Germany.

Forte Advice in Denmark has also experienced substantial growth in 2023, establishing a more distinct footprint as a strong digital partner in the Danish market. Simultaneously, we have spent the year building an organization to ensure effective synergies across Denmark, Norway, and Poland.

Several prominent Danish businesses have chosen Forte Advice as a strategic partner this year, including Lægeforeningen, Hærvejen, D-mærket, and TDC Net.

The year's most important conference on digitization

How can digitization contribute to growth and stability in turbulent times? That was one of many questions we posed at RELEVANS 2023 - the year's most important conference on digitization and management. More than 300 decision-makers across various industries and businesses chose to attend our annual RELEVANS conference this year.

How can one adapt digital development in uncertain times? And how can digitization contribute to increased value creation, better user experiences, efficiency, and innovation throughout the organization - in both the public and private sectors? These were some of the questions speakers addressed from the stage at the Clarion Hotel Oslo.

Here are my key takeaways from this year's conference

A Great Start for Forte Optimize

In January, it became clear that we recruited Agnete Tøien Pedersen to lead Forte Optimize, our new venture into data-driven digital marketing. Since its inception, Forte Optimize has been a tremendous success for us, acquiring new customers and assembling a team of highly skilled professionals. Forte Optimize is a crucial part of Forte's strategy to be a growth partner. We are confident that Agnete and her team will deliver impressive results for our clients.

New Additions

To meet new market demands, in 2023, we bolstered our commercial team. The latest additions to our commercial department are Sarah Lexow and Christian Øvregaard, leading the commercial efforts towards industry and maritime sectors, and e-commerce and retail, respectively.

With Sarah and Christian on board, we are even better equipped to assist new clients in achieving digital success. We aim to build further on the strong market position we have already established.

We have also strengthened the organization by appointing Johan Grönlund as the new COO at Forte Digital. Grönlund, with a background from PwC and most recently Circle K, assumes the role after Endre Dingsør, who has been Forte Digital's COO and partner since its inception in 2017. Dingsør will now serve as the COO at Forte Group, focusing specifically on creating synergies and growth in the newly established markets of Germany and Denmark.

Johan has an impressive resume, and I am entirely confident that we have found the right person to help build Forte Digital further. Johan brings exciting leadership experience in product development and technology that will benefit the company.

Focus on Professional Development

Skill development has always been a priority at Forte Digital. This year, we organized 22 skill development events for our employees. The purpose of these events is to learn new things, foster professional and social relationships, and delve into topics of interest. This benefits both our clients and our employees.

The final professional development event of the year took the form of a Hackathon, gathering developers, designers, and advisors around ideas they themselves wished to explore. The goal of the Hackathon is to work intensively in cross-disciplinary teams, structuring, designing, and prototyping solutions and concepts. These are then presented to all employees and an interdisciplinary jury.

Now, myself and my wonderful Forte colleagues are taking a well-deserved holiday. We look forward to new adventures, projects, and events in 2024.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!