Summer wishes from Cinode!

Summer is finally here, and that much-needed vacation is approaching. 

The first half of 2021 has been eventful. To give you an insight into the market and the things that have happened at Cinode during the past six months we have put together a summary of key events.

First and foremost, we are incredibly proud of all our fantastic employees, users and customers. During the first half of the year, we have, among other things:

• Launched Cinode Market which allows our customers to publish their inquiries at the touch of a button.
• Welcomed between five to ten new companies a day to the Cinode Network! Are you interested in joining the Cinode-movement?  Sign up here to get a 14 day-free trial of Cinode!
• Welcomed many new fantastic customers. Cinode has had a 50 percent growth since August 2020.  The goal is now set on one million users by 2025, and global thought-leadership within Skills Management.
• Sharpened the platform with lots of new features such as Skill Set, delivery rate, shareable filters, webhooks and more.
• Launched a new website and a new graphic brand, with a strong focus on Skills Management.
• Strengthened the Cinode team with new employees and skills. In August, we will welcome an additional five team-members in Sweden and Finland.
• Continued to share our knowledge through our blog (which is  Sweden’s largest blog in the consulting industry), #Konsultpodden and “Veckans konsultnyheter”. We have also conducted several webinars and events, including “How to become the most efficient consulting company 2021”.
• Recently launched “Skills Management Insights”. In knowledge-intensive industries where the core business is about selling services based on individuals’ competencies, Skills Management is crucial for success. We have gathered all our knowledge and put it into this newsletter to provide you with the tools needed to take your organisation to the next level.

A stable consulting market

In terms of the market, the consulting industry has gained momentum in both Sweden and Finland. After a standstill period in the industry, Consulting companies are starting to hire again and profitability is rising. It is evident that the market is moving onward and upward.

This also applies to acquisitions. In our updated table that covers all the acquisitions within Swedish companies, there have been 75 acquisitions so far this year (where Knowit’s acquisition of Cybercom is one of the largest!), which is much higher than in the previous year.

The number of self employed consultants decreased last year, but all signs point towards an upcoming increase. Building a network of freelancers and partners, and having access to external specialist expertise, is an important key to continued growth and increased delivery rate.  The consulting buyers now also rank the consulting suppliers according to their access to specialist competence, regardless of the form of employment.

We are very proud of our features Partner and Network, which provide organisations with a powerful search engine that makes it super easy to find partners, build networks and source new skills. A growth engine in your consulting company!

Digitised processes

The digital maturity in the consulting industry remains low. Only one in ten consulting companies has come a long way in their digitisation process (do not miss our webinar with Per Defalva for further insights about the industry and an in-depth analysis of the digital maturity (in swedish).  However, this creates great opportunities for the companies that want to be at the forefront. I believe that we will see a number of new business and delivery models, as well as digitised processes, that allow the consulting companies to scale their business in completely new ways.

Finally, I want to wish you all a wonderful summer!

I myself spend most of the time at the country place out on Ljusterö in the Stockholm archipelago. Something I enjoy doing during my free time is listening to podcasts. Looking for inspiration, ideas, advice? I recommend that you have a listen to Konsultpodden (in swedish). This spring we have had a number of amazing guests, including representatives from the customer side. A personal favorite is our episode with  Jesper Börjesson who talked about what it was like to go from TV and media (working at TV4 as a TV-show host)  to the consulting industry.

This fall, great things are coming – rest assured! 

Know, Show and Grow your Skills!

Wishing you all a happy summer!