Cooperation across borders has been a key denominator during Hannu Oksanen's career, both working with IT at Valio and in his work with the company's business, where in recent years he has been responsible for the development of the Finnish order-delivery chain. Oksanen sees that cooperation between trade and the food industry, within the limits allowed by the competition law, ensures the efficiency of supply chains. With agreed standardized solutions, each actor can focus on his own activities.
- When we have jointly agreed standardized interfaces, we don't do unnecessary work. This way industrial operators do not have to think about how to work with, retail operators and correspondingly, the retail does not have to implement different patterns with all industrial operators separately. With standards, we know that we all receive and transmit the necessary information.
In Oksanen's opinion, cooperation that develops the food industry is both an advantage and a necessity in the future for industry operators in a global operating environment.
- The preservation of domestic food production in Finland and Finnish security of supply are important issues for me, and for that we need joint development projects. An individual company alone cannot drive development forward - and neither can the food industry alone - but promoting things requires cooperation between both industry and trade operators.
Oksanen sees that common standards are also important in terms of domestic competitiveness. In order for goods to be able to be exported abroad and brought to Finland in the future as well, the transmission of information must be globally consistent and flexible.
Oksanen, together with GS1 and other partners, has been promoting the new 2D barcode, which brings much more product information behind the unique identifier than the old barcode can contain. The new rich shared data brings versatile benefits to the entire industry:
- The new 2D barcode enables information to be transmitted in a standardized manner for the needs of trade and consumers. It improves trade balance management and sales forecasting, which helps the industry to better produce the right products at the right time. At the same time, the 2D barcode promotes time stamping management, i.e. it ensures that consumers always find the amount of fresh goods on the shelf corresponding to demand. The 2D barcode also brings uniform information to consumers, who demand more and more individual information about the products they buy.
2D barcodes are supposed to be introduced to grocery stores by 2027, when each item of product will have a unique identifier. Despite the many benefits, this major change requires a lot of development work from both trade operators and industrial companies. All systems and technology must be updated so that each jar and can can be individually identified.
- This change challenges us technically, but as a rule, we already have all the necessary information in our own systems, and through the 2D barcode we can transmit the information in an up-to-date manner, both to the store and to the consumer. Now we decide, together with industry and trade, which are the mandatory information that we pass on. For example, we need to define how the carbon footprint is measured, so that we can be sure that we all mean the same thing, and that our systems can talk to each other.
Oksanen considers it important that the information to be transmitted is decided together and that the processes are not commercialized, because common operating models are important for all actors in the field. Many external software houses are already working on their own data transmission solutions for the trade sector, which in the worst case can cause a great deal of chaos:
- Software houses are currently inventing different solutions and services for us. I think it's going backwards. We must first make standards and only then develop systems. The programs can be anything, but the standards must be agreed upon. Otherwise, each software house will sell its own software to different parties before the standards have been agreed, and that doesn't lead to anything good.
Oksanen is happy that GS1, as a global neutral organization, is leading the industry's cooperation and development:
- It's good that we have a non-profit organization that standardizes these things and runs joint projects. It is also good that GS1 has global connections, and we get information on where to go in the Nordic countries and elsewhere, as well as being able to convey information about how we operate in Finland.
Oksanen, who has been involved in various value chain development projects over the years, shares the following recipe for successful development work:
- Moving development projects forward is successful when all parties have the same goal. Both trade and industry must have a common goal. Industry must show trade how trade benefits from industry goals, and vice versa.
Now that he is retiring, Oksanen thanks his partners for the good cooperation. He states that, especially in recent years, the work on the common information model has gone well.
- These last projects have been carried out in a tremendously good spirit of togetherness. Everyone has had such a development mode on and a model of working together, and that must definitely be continued. These are difficult things, and change doesn't happen in an instant – everyone has to understand that – but I've been left with a really good feeling from the collaboration.
