Competence development is the key to Omegapoint’s success

Omegapoint has grown from 200 to 800 employees in only five years. The company is also training almost one hundred specialists in the Omegapoint Academy, where employees have access to a trainee programme and annual competence conferences.

The recent acquisitions of Basalt and ITverket have brought Omegapoint one step closer to its goal of becoming the leading expert on cybersecurity and cybersecurity digitalisation in northern Europe.

We talked to CEO Johan Malmliden to find out more about the company’s successes and objectives and how they work with competence development.

Omegapoint has enjoyed extraordinary growth over recent years, both organically and through acquisitions. How have you succeeded?

“Our internal mission is to become the best workplace imaginable for the market’s leading cybersecurity experts. We are seeing high demand from our customers, hence our focus on expanding as quickly as possible while maintaining high-quality deliveries and ensuring the wellbeing of our employees.”

Johan explains that organic growth is achieved by recruiting graduates direct from university to the first-class training programme at the Omegapoint Academy.

“We also drive structural growth through acquisitions and mergers with companies that complement our geographical market or expertise in cybersecurity and cybersecurity digitalisation,” he adds.

Cybersecurity is a fast-growing field. At the same time, there is a free-for-all when it comes to recruitment. How have you managed to attract and retain cybersecurity specialists?

“Omegapoint’s employees work on interesting assignments that allow them to make a difference in society, often for clients with high demands on security. We conduct extensive competence development for our employees and clients through the Omegapoint Academy, our internal security and competence university.”

Johan emphasises that, while they do offer employees good terms, the most important thing is the opportunity for continuous learning and development.

“We are a competence development organisation; that’s the foundation of our business. This makes us an attractive employer.”

You work with continuous competence development within the company. How does this work in practice?

“We conduct competence development through two processes: partly by matching the right specialist consultant to the right client and assignment and partly through the Omegapoint Academy.”

Competence development takes place in various forms within the Academy, including the one-year Academy Professional Programme, competence conferences, specialist consultancy programmes, externally employed doctoral students, specialist courses and programmes, student conferences, and external courses and seminars for clients.

Johan describes the company’s competence and experience development as a hothouse.

“We often say that competence development takes place with and for one another. Because we want to develop. Of course, one of the most important factors for succeeding with continuous competence development is that we have employees who want to be part of and contribute to the culture. We hold a biannual internal competence conference at which the whole company gathers. Over a number of days, we hold lectures, courses, seminars, and workshops. Solely by and for our employees. It’s amazing!”

Your stated goal is to become the leading expert on cybersecurity and cybersecurity digitalisation in northern Europe. How will you achieve this?

“We will achieve the goal of becoming the market leader in northern Europe through organic growth and acquisitions that complement our geographical market and areas of expertise. By focusing on becoming the best employer imaginable and a professional and considerate supplier, we build long-term relationships and partnerships with both our clients and our employees.”

Omegapoint is partly owned by its employees, as employees are invited to invest in shares in the company.

“With us, you can have both a professional career and partner career. This unites the goals of and benefits our clients, employees, and owners, which makes us strong in the long term.”

Many people speak about strong demand but, at the same time, we see the threats posed by inflation and war. How do you see the market developing?

“Our assessment is that demand in the IT market will either remain unchanged or decline slightly from the current high level. That said, certain industries and sectors will continue to be strong. The demand for cybersecurity and cybersecurity digitalisation will grow by just over 10 percent annually. Demand is already outstripping delivery capacity in the market. We also expect demand from the defence sector for secure, high-quality system solutions to increase sharply over the coming years.” 

You have used Cinode for quite some time now and even scaled up use during the year. How does Cinode contribute to your business today and going forward?

“We use Cinode as a sales support system and to keep track of our specialist consultants’ expertise and CVs. Cinode’s solutions and services help to streamline our operations. Cinode also makes it easier for us to work across offices and regional boundaries.

The fact that we can gather utilisation rates and competences in one place means that we have even greater opportunities to use the full scope of our internal competence to help our customers in the best possible way,” says Johan.