When measured by the amount of installations, Magento is the most popular eCommerce platform both in Finland and internationally. Although the implementations are huge in numbers, their life cycle varies greatly depending on the solution. Lately, the worries about Magento 1 support ending and hacking threats of non-supported Magento sites have caused big headlines. Magento’s future prospects are also causing slight concerns in Finland. With the Adobe acquisition, Magento is increasingly targeting large international customers, which also leaves us to hope that domestic organizations will not be left behind.
North Patrol is a consulting firm specialized in the design of digital services and information systems. We shape ideas into a vision and service concept, find the best architectural and technological solutions, design a functional user experience, and compete to find the ideal partner for implementation work. We do not sell implementation projects, nor do we sell licenses; we are genuinely on the side of the customer.
7 October 2020
Magento’s partners have some convincing to do in order to prove that the platform is the right choice for Finnish companies. Nevertheless, the e-commerce platform is very capable for implementations of both consumer online stores and B2B solutions. The implementations are very rarely done in-house, and therefore, skilled partners are also needed in the future. The wide supplier network in Finland guarantees a wealth of expert support for Magento projects, both from official partners and other e-commerce suppliers.
Official partners
There are five official Magento partners operating in Finland (at the time of publishing this article). The Adobe's Magento partner listing also mentions the number of Magento 2 certificates each of the partners has:
- Vaimo is a digital commerce expert company operating in 15 countries. They have implemented numerous Magento projects both in consumer and B2B e-commerce and are Adobe's platinum-level solution partners with 142 M2 certificates.
- Youwe is an international digital agency from the Netherlands, having an office in Helsinki. They are Adobe’s gold-level solution partners with 52 M2 certificates.
- CGI is a global business, with wide service and product offering. They also have a strong presence in Finland, and they are Adobe's gold-level solution partners with 11 M2 certificates.
- Solteq is a Nordic IT and software agency with a long history in offering different e-commerce solutions. They have put focus on Magento during the past few years and have Adobe's silver-lever solution partnership with 10 M2 certificates.
- Ambientia is a technology company with extensive experience with Magento implementations. They further strengthened their Magento expertise a few years ago as they acquired the e-commerce company Soprano. Ambientia is Adobe's bronze-level solution partners with 4 M2 certificates.
When looking at the partner listing, there are a few points to consider. Firstly, it's important to note that the certificates are within the whole company, which means that in the international companies, the certificates might not have anything to do with employees working in Finland. There are also different types of certifications. Most of them relate to software development or application architect work, but some are intended for business users. It's also left to interpret whether persons or certifications are counted in this listing. If the amount measures certificates, the number of certified employees is smaller, as one person can have many certificates. You can read more about the certification and partner levels from Adobe's website.
Magento used to publish all certifications at a personal-level, but for some reason, Adobe has recently removed personal information from the listing. This information included the exact number of certificates by Finnish employees or other employees who work in Finland. Still, in the summer of 2019 this information was public. At that time, there were 42 Magento 2 certificated persons in Finland. At the personal-level, the five partners listed had certificated employees as follows:
- Vaimo: 18 M2 certificated employees
- Solteq: 11 M2 certificated employees
- Ambientia: 4 M2 certificated employees
- CGI: 1 M2 certificated employees
- Youwe: No M2 certificated employees
It's likely that this situation hasn't changed much. When looking at the numbers of certificated employees, the partner listing looks different. Vaimo is still clearly in the lead, but Solteq´s recent focus on Magento shows up on this list positively. Similarly, CGI only has one M2 certificated employee in Finland and Youwe has none.
Other Magento implementors
There are many other good Magento suppliers in Finland who for one reason or another aren't official Adobe partners. One of the biggest of them is Digia, which has strong Magento expertise. Some of their e-commerce implementations include Eckerö Line and Carlson.
From smaller companies, Lamia is one that has been growing rapidly and has also proved their Magento skills. Their implementations include, for example, online shops for Hedengren and Särkänniemi.
PiiMega is a software company from Oulu, offering e-commerce solutions and ERP systems. Magento implementations by them include, for example, Rajala Pro Shop and Halpahalli.
Sofokus is a company employing approximately 40 people with offices in Helsinki and Turku. In addition to e-commerce implementations, Sofokus offers their customers different services for developing digital business. Kauppahalli24 is an example of a Magento online shop by Sofokus.
Crasman is a well-established Finnish software company that has put much of its effort into its own product development. They have offered e-commerce solutions for a long time, but Magento has been added to their platform options pretty recently. An example of an online shop implemented with Magento by Crasman is Marja Kurki.
Avenla has great expertise in digital business, and they offer e-commerce solutions on various platforms. An example of a Magento site by them is the Muurame.com online shop.
There are other smaller companies in Finland and additionally some individual experts who work in bigger companies, but when looking at the bigger picture, the focus of these other companies in the field are in other technologies or solutions. It should also be noted that many of the implementations of these other Magento suppliers (the non-official partners) are based on the open source version of Magento.
Outline your situation
As demonstrated in this blog post, there are many options for Magento implementor partners, so there is support available whether it's for a new Magento online shop project or, for example, upgrading from Magento 1 to Magento 2. However, before starting the project, it's good to outline the different version options as well as the future prospects. The open source code Magento has its pros, but it also has its risks and limitations. On the other hand, if going for the commercial version, the investments and commitments in e-commerce need to be greater. With the commercial version, Finnish companies should also consider the suitability for the operating models required by the global markets.
Only after this it is the right time to start searching for the right implementation partner.
