We are thrilled to announce that Blue Meteorite, the mother company behind Valo, was awarded the Microsoft ISV Partner of the Year 2020 Award in the Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Category for Finland for its Valo Digital Workplace Product Suite. This is the second year in a row, so we feel truly happy and humbled now! Thank you! 💛
Blue Meteorite, the mother company, has been around for 20 years and the Valo business soon for 5 years. Valo’s goal is to be ”The World’s Leading and Most Lovable Digital Workplace Product Suite on the Microsoft Platform”. We sell through our 250+ Valo Partner ecosystem already in 50 countries, so we’re REALLY international as well and concerning the world piece by piece.
The Valo Digital Workplace Product Suite has won the Independent Software Vendor Category award for successful, continuous global growth with a successful Partner Network and investments into product development, especially the Crisis Management Site extension we presented this spring and for the Valo for Teams experience we are to launch in the future. You can read the whole article in Finnish here.
This video really sums up what and why Valo and Blue Meteorite is and how we move forward, all the time!
The guiding principle of Valo
Pekka Walkama, the President at Valo, described: We simply want to build great, efficient and lovable workday experiences – and it is becoming more and more important as all companies in the world are digital at least to some extent. Our products such as the Valo Intranet, Valo Teamwork for digital collaboration, Valo Ideas for organization-wide innovation and idea management, our upcoming Valo Extranet as well as our Valo for Microsoft Teams experience are just something that’s boosting the digital and remote work of all companies regardless of whether the user is a traditional office worker or a field worker using a mobile device.
Our CMO Tiina Manninen continues that the guiding principle of Valo is to spread the #ValoLove around the world with our solutions: Love your workplace, love your teams, and love the technology that enables you to be your best.
“Our goal is to change people’s working lives by making better experiences at work, giving employees a voice, spreading happiness in a fun-loving way and bringing a smile to everyone’s face. We can take care of technology while you can focus on your people and on change – the things that matter the most”, she said.
In our ambitious Valo Team, we do our best every single day because we love what we do, and because nothing great was ever built that didn’t start with great communication and employee experience.
What makes a great product?
Walkama said that it’s a combination of a couple of things. First of all, understanding what the customers really need and packaging that into the product. The consultants at Blue Meteorite have been doing this for 20 years and that’s how we’ve gotten the insight.
And secondly keeping the passion for improving and learning something new every day and making sure we keep on adding the most modern and most effective new things into our offering – every day.
And then lastly, driving for great instead of good.
Being the leading digital workplace product suite in the world is all about being great, not just good.
What makes Valo to stand-out?
Walkama said: “We have such a broad partner ecosystem in 50 countries that are as passionate as we are for the product and for the digital work. They keep pushing us, helping us make the product suite better all the time – making sure it’s best-in-class. And they are there to help our end-customers make the most of their digital work. I think we simply have the best partner ecosystem there is and that’s a big part of what we do – this combination really makes things easy for our customers, and that’s what’s it all about.”
Manninen described: “We are a big #ValoFamily of over 2 million users and a strong, unique brand. Our worldwide community of digital workplace lovers is really dedicated to helping each and every company work efficiently, productively, and happily.”
We share this idea of a better world, where working and communicating with each other is quick, easy and fun – because living in a complex world, people love simple solutions. And so do we!
At Valo, we are always cooking up new ways to improve our products, move with the times and create new innovations to help solve the pain points our customers face so that we can keep delivering the promise and experience a Microsoft ISV Partner of the Year 2020 award deserves!
What does cooperation with Microsoft mean to Valo?
Walkama highlighted, “We’re 100% committed to Microsoft and 100% aligned with Microsoft offering. That means that we fully utilize everything that comes out of the Microsoft kitchen and build Valo features on top of that. For our customers, this means that they’re not just getting what Valo has to offer, they’re also getting the great stuff that Microsoft brings to the table.”
Manninen continues, “Without Microsoft’s amazing platform, products, innovations, and the community, we wouldn’t exist. Microsoft is the enabler for our business and the foundation on which we build to help people to fall in love with their workplace.
That’s why we would like to take this opportunity to say a big thanks to Microsoft for supporting us, thank you to all our incredible customers, partners and Valo friends – and also a special warm thanks to the whole community!”
What are some key factors of sustainable success?
“We’re a team and a family – not just within Valo but also with our worldwide partner ecosystem. We don’t JUST build products, we build the most lovable products – so #ValoLove is the secret ingredient. We want to take care of our people because they’re the ones that are taking care of the product, the partners, and the customers. Great talent attracts great talent – and at the moment we have 11 Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) on the team and that’s gotta be some kind of a world record!”, said Walkama.
“In my opinion, to be sustainable in business, you have to really love what you do and your products have to be able to help and inspire people to love their own work. Without that, even the best products will quickly become outdated and your customers will move on to the next shiny new product that promises success and happiness.
And Valo really is an extraordinary family, like Walkama mentioned. We work closely with each other and we are all passionate about our work. And when looking for talent, we are primarily looking for a good cultural fit with our core values: passion, understanding, and teamwork: Collaborative individuals that know it takes a team effort to build the world’s best solutions!”, Manninen stated.
What’s next, what the future holds for Valo?
“Super interesting times for sure!”, Manninen smiled and said “Valo’s future is definitely bright and shiny: we have just expanded out to APAC, with headquarters in Australia, so we are conquering this beautiful planet, piece by piece!
We are looking to become the #1 digital workplace solution provider in the world and are always coming up with new ideas and new ways to make your digital heart bounce! So keep your eyes and ears open for some really exciting innovations coming up on the digital skyline!”
Walkama explained: “We keep on improving everyday work life with our current products and with the upcoming, incredible launches which deeply connect and complement all our products. And at the same time innovating for something new all the time, to bring new things for our partners to sell and our customers to use – globally everywhere.”
We have only one top goal in our mind: Building the best combination for the digital workplace on the Microsoft platform.
The way is up and we are more than thrilled to be Microsoft ISV Partner of the Year 2020, the second year in a row. Make sure to tune into a tad over 20-minute long talk on where the everyday work life is headed! This podcast collects together around 20 IT industry pioneers from the Microsoft Partner of the Year applicants to discuss what kind of projects there are nowadays and how they are going to change in the future. Sit back, relax and hit play!
***
Are you interested on hearing how we can help your business growth, better employee experience and support your goals, get in touch!
