Staff interview with Tommi Turunen, Account Manager at Elinar

Tommi’s happy voice has become familiar to the other employees even though the man himself has worked at Elinar under six months, and not even at the Elinar office. He works remotely from his home office, over two hundred kilometers away from Elinar’s headquarters – so he spends a lot of time in Teams calls. Still, the location of the Account Manager in Espoo city is strategic, as the customers are also often located in the Metropolitan area of Finland.

B2B professional working at the forefront of technology

Tommi has a bachelor`s degree in Business Administration. He has almost 20 years of experience in B2B business in various industries – from which a few years in Germany. Tommi has always enjoyed working in the IT-industry, so when he noticed Elinar’s job advertisement, he got immediately interested. The small software company provided the necessary solutions and services for companies who were struggling to manage and leverage an ever-increasing amount of data.

While browsing Elinar’s website, Tommi paid attention to the company’s mission of serving knowledge-intensive organizations. Besides, he was impressed when reading about the artificial intelligence -product ElinarAI™, developed by Elinar itself.  “I’ve always been fascinated by cutting-edge technologies. So I liked it that this company seemed to be at the forefront of development”, he recalls. “It immediately became clear that Elinar is at the heart of future solutions”, Tommi praises.

The link between customers and Elinar`s experts

The positive image of Elinar turned out to be a fact in real life, according to Tommi’s experience. “I have been very warmly received by elinarians”, he thanks the staff of this small company from Pori. “It feels as if I would have been working here for a long time already!” In practice, the work of the Account Manager is mostly communication. It’s like working as a link between the customers and Elinar’s experts. In this role, it’s very important to know your co-workers. “Fortunately, I had time to join the company’s yearly workplace health promotion event”, Tommi laughs.

The versatile task field requires outlining things on a large-scale. Tommi’s goal is to look at ongoing projects and collaborations from a larger perspective so that he can ensure that the whole package serves the customer best. “Every single customer has also its unique needs”, Tommi explains. “My job, of course, is to be aware of these different needs. At the same time, I try to increase the customer’s understanding of the opportunities we can offer to develop their business”, he describes.

Corona didn’t harm the home workers everyday life

The Account Manager, who started working at Elinar in a critical pandemic time, sees both pros and cons in the changing working culture. “For example, the use of working time has become more efficient as most meetings are held remotely. It saves time from travel and meeting arrangements”, Tommi reflects. The homeworker is now already used to meet customers, partners, and stakeholders remotely, but he thinks it would be important to see them live at least once a while.  That’s where trust is built. “Of course, I hope that the face-to-face meetings will be safe again as soon as possible, as they are, however, the most humane and nicest form of cooperation”, he points out.

In his free time, Tommi enjoys the woods, so he hasn’t felt the corona pandemic harm his hobbies. “Mostly I walk in nature photographing, hunting – or just for the joy of it”, he lists. “On rainy days, I can always play my guitar at home. Luckily, I started this new hobby just before the first wave of corona”, Tommi says. He tells that it’s a great way to relax and counterbalance his busy brain work. According to him, learning new skills at an older age is relaxing because it’s so challenging. There’s no room for work thoughts at the same time while playing the guitar.

Continuous development in the middle of a close team

Inspired by learning new things, Tommi likes that in this work he is constantly developing himself as the technologies and processes are evolving all the time. “It’s good to be on this ride. I have a front seat viewpoint on the development of the IT industry, great customers and partners, and a great work community”, Tommi rejoices. Also, he appreciates Elinar’s interest in the well-being of employees. “If you want to develop your skills, here you will get the encouragement and support to do that.”

Of course, the organization always consists of real people. Tommi considers a good team spirit to be one of the important factors in maintaining well-being at work. “This is the best thing here. I’ve found myself in the middle of a close-knit team where everyone takes care of their own plot with passion and joy and help each other. We work together for a common goal”, he smiles.