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New office: ForestX moves into Videum in Växjö

Career, Växjö, Sweden /

Växjö

 

On the first of December, ForestX will open an office in Videum, Växjö.

 

Together with the office in Gothenburg, the office will be the base for ForestX projects in southern Sweden. Among other things, they are currently working on the implementation of CFHarvest from Trimble at Sydved.

 

– It will be very exciting to open an office in Växjö and that our second employee will soon start in Växjö. Videum feels like a very creative environment with many interesting companies in the area that allow our ideas to grow. We also see the proximity to the university as a strength both for future recruitment but also with inspiration from research, says Patrik Anderchen, business developer at ForestX in Växjö.

 

ForestX currently has around fifty employees in Sweden and India. In Sweden, we have offices in Gothenburg, Växjö, Dalarna, Stockholm/Uppsala and Umeå. In the Indian IT city of Pune, the company has 14 developers.

 

Photo: Videum

New office: ForestX moves into Videum in Växjö Read More »

New to ForestX: This is how your first time with us will be

Career, FX Europe /

At ForestX, getting to know your new colleagues is a key part of your first time with us. Regardless of what you will actually be working on, it’s all about people. Together with your mentor, we’ll make sure you meet a hand-picked selection of your colleagues to get a picture of their daily lives and who they are. Your mentor will be the person who takes care of you during your first period, to whom you can always turn in small and big matters.

You will then follow your personal induction programme so that you can systematically settle into your job. A common approach is that you are introduced to one of the system solutions we deliver to our customers, where you initially learn the system from a few colleagues. As you get warmed up, the tasks and customer contacts grow. At first you may be involved in a meeting with a customer that a more experienced colleague is holding, but eventually you will be holding them yourself or playing an active role.

Together with your consultant manager, we will then put together an individual development plan once you have had the opportunity to squeeze and feel our different types of assignments.

In order to be constantly relevant and create value for our clients, we are constantly working on the development of our business. Of course, you’ll be directly involved in that work because everyone can contribute in different ways. It’s also an appreciated way to get to know colleagues who you might not otherwise work with on a daily basis.

If you want to know more, contact Johan Bergström.

ForestX Team

New to ForestX: This is how your first time with us will be Read More »

Erik Skärberg got the forester job he didn’t know existed

Optinex /

Göteborg

 

A job as a forester in Gothenburg on the west coast of Sweden. Working on sawmill projects in Europe and highly involved in the development of new digital solutions for forestry. Erik Skärberg, 28, has the forester job he never knew existed.

Since November 2021, Erik Skärberg has been working as a business developer at ForestX in Gothenburg, Sweden

ForestX is the fast-growing upstart on the digital development scene in forestry. In four years, the company has grown to nearly 50 coworkers and runs projects in Sweden and Europe.

 

The customer list includes well-known Swedish forestry and sawmill companies such as Sveaskog, Setra and Sydved. Outside Europe, the company has customers in Denmark, Germany and Austria. In Austria, ForestX runs projects together with Rubner and Pfeifer Group.

 

Since Erik Skärberg started at ForestX, he has worked in projects towards sawmills and with the development of ForestX’s own optimization system for sawmills; Optinex.

 

– I started directly in ongoing projects and worked side by side with Oskar Selmeryd, a colleague with a lot of experience from the tasks I now also have.

 

One third of ForestX employees in Sweden have an education and professional background in forestry. This means that there is a great deal of support and knowledge in everything concerning forestry.

erikkarin

The tasks of the business developers with a forestry background vary and follow the course of the project. In Optinex projects, which involve sawmills, it may look like this:

 

– We know what information we need in the project and then we analyse the sawmill’s available data and help with what data needs to be further developed. Then we process this into a model of the sawmill. Simply a digital copy with all activities, products, resources and market conditions. Once we have the complete model, Optinex can then find the optimal production plan for the sawmill and explore new scenarios.

 

An important part of the project is also to educate the users in the programme and which working methods need to be developed in order to make the best use of the benefits of the programme, says Erik Skärberg.

 

Erik Skärberg enjoys his life as a consultant.

 

– It’s very varied. You get a different perspective when you work with different customers. It’s developing for yourself too.

 

– We really develop the very latest support for the forest industry and it’s fun to work at the forefront of digital development.

 

ForestX has its own experienced system architects in Sweden with experience from forestry and works on the digital solutions together with ForestX’s development team in India. Erik Skärberg, who has a technical interest himself, also gets to take part in the development work with requirements definition and testing from a user’s perspective by understanding the customer’s needs.

 

The fact that working life could also include projects in Europe was not what Erik Skärberg had expected during the education to be a forester. But ForestX has several large customers in Europe, and the projects there lead to new insights and knowledge about the industry.

 

– There are some differences in how we work in the forestry and sawmill industry in Sweden and how they do it in Austria and Germany. For example, they work with a much larger number of products at the same sawmill, and they are big on further processing, especially glulam.

Name: Erik Skärbärg

Does: Business developer at ForestX

Favorite tree:

Pine

– As an orienteer, there’s not much that beats running through a nice pine forest.

 

Best nature experience:

–Cycling holiday with MTB in Grövelsjön and Ramundberget. Fantastic mountain environment.

1

Favourite apps:

Strava

UDisc

Spotify

 

Want to know more about ForestX?

Follow us on LinkedIn 

 


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Patrik Anderchen: “We already have the solutions for the future”

Career, CF Harvest, Trimble forestry, Växjö, Sweden /

Växjö

 

Växjö is both the center of southern Sweden’s forest industry and the base for Patrik Anderchen of ForestX.
With new colleagues on the way and projects with well-known forestry companies, he does what he enjoys most about his job: enabling the use of the best digital solutions to forestry.

 

During autumn 2022, business developer and project manager Patrik Anderchen will be involved in several of the ForestX projects regarding some of the large forestry and sawmill companies based in southern Sweden.

 

Together with Johan Hedlund, ForestX, he is working on Sydved and the implementation of Trimble Forestry’s CFHarvest, which we have previously reported on. He is also working on an ongoing app development project with Vida. Together with ForestX’s product partner Remsoft, he’s investigating where Remsoft’s products are best suited for the Swedish market.

 

It was the opportunity to work directly with the latest technology and to be at the forefront of digital developments in forestry that attracted Patrik Anderchen to ForestX.

 

– I sometimes feel that there is a gap between the latest research and getting it out in a user-friendly way in forestry companies. Now I get to be part of enabling the move towards the most modern technology. I see ForestX as having that role to play.

 

– ForestX also shares my vision of where Swedish forestry should go. We see the whole chain through all processes. It is also a creative environment to work and develop in. Everyone wants to move forward, it feels stimulating. We’re already working on the solutions of the future.

 

At the moment, many forestry and sawmill companies are on a journey from self-developed systems to industry systems or standard systems.

 

– In that work we can be the partner that overcomes the obstacles by knowing IT and forestry. I also see that customers are asking for it, says Patrik Anderchen and continues:

 

– We have both the vision to connect all parts of the forestry chain and the tools to do it.

 

When Patrik Anderchen joined ForestX, it was the beginning of a larger focus on Växjö. Recruitment processes are underway and office space is being sought.

 

– It is only natural that we are here, as Växjö is the center of the forest industry in southern Sweden.

 

Growing up on a forest farm in Halland, Sweden, created an early interest in Patrik Anderchen to work in the industry. This led to studies to become forester, and then many years at Södra in a variety of roles.

 

– I have worked a lot with the use of harvest data, yield calculations and production planning.

 

– I have also worked with aptation simulations. There have been both large and small projects, and rollouts of various digital solutions.

 

From your position in the industry, what should not be missed in the forestry sector in 2022?

 

1. The use of harvest data. It will be at the core of managing optimization and improvement of the whole chain going forward.

 

2. The work on sustainability issues. Everyone needs to keep up with everything from regulatory changes from the EU to knowing how forest products are used and knowing the climate benefits of their operations. This will be extremely important in the coming years.

 

3. AI and optimization. The data is there now, but what do you do with it?

Name: Patrik Anderchen Role: project manager and business developer. ICF coach.

Favourite tree:

 

Wood maple.

“There are five big maples on the farm where I grew up. Our family has lived there for generations. It’s beautiful to see the seasons change in the trees.”

Best nature experience:

 

Hiking at Grövelsjön in Dalarna.

“It’s a beautiful mountain setting and a great place to hike by yourself and for shorter hikes with children.”

 

Favourite apps:

 

Instagram

Spotify

SVTPlay

 

Frequently visited pages online:

 

Sportbladet

Lucidchart – drawing flowcharts

LinkedIn

Patrik Anderchen: “We already have the solutions for the future” Read More »

Sydved chooses CFHarvest – ForestX implements the system

CF Harvest, Collective Crunch, Customer case, Trimble forestry /

Jönköping/Göteborg

 

ForestX

 

Sydved is first in Sweden to choose CFHarvest from Trimble. ForestX is Trimble Forestry’s partner in the Scandinavian market and is working with Sydved in the implementation

 

– This is the first step in the rollout of the Connected Forest suite in Sweden. We can now offer the market a complete support for all forestry processes, says Carl Barck, CEO of ForestX. 

 

Sydved is one of Sweden’s largest forestry companies. The news that the company has chosen CFHarvest was recently announced by Trimble.

 

Work is now underway to implement CFHarvest at the forestry giant. The work is led by project manager Johan Hedlund, ForestX.

–        It is incredibly exciting to develop both operations and system support together with Sydved. We have now worked intensively during the summer and autumn to get into pilot operation with both production and forest management. Now we have the exciting acceptance tests ahead of us and a rollout that will begin in the fourth quarter of 2022, says Johan Hedlund.

CFHarvest is a forest harvest management and tracking system that provides real-time visibility of harvested volumes and where the timber is located. The system enables forestry companies like Sydved to reduce inventory levels at the roadside and terminal and improve productivity in harvesting operations.

 

Sydved’s IT manager Örjan Vorrei sees great opportunities with CFHarvest:

–        CFHarvest supports our desired way of working and creates opportunities for major efficiency gains in our production process. The system will also serve as a key component in our harvesting operations that can enable us to focus on our quality and sustainability goals. The service will help to manage the resource-efficient use of roundwood and minimize the emission of unproductive engine hours, as well as protecting soil and natural habitats.

 

–        With CFHarvest, our contractors will be better able to both plan their work and share important information in real time. This creates the conditions for efficient use of machinery and personnel while reducing the risk of damage to cultural and natural environments. Overall, CFHarvest enables a combination of sustainable working practices and good profitability. Addressing sustainability challenges was an important factor for us when choosing CFHarvest, says Örjan Vorrei.

 

Trimble Forestry and ForestX’s partnership was also important in the selection of CFHarvest.

– To be the best forestry partner in Sweden, we need to work with the best technology providers. That’s why we chose Trimble Forestry. It’s great that Trimble has ForestX as a partner. ForestX’s extensive knowledge of Swedish forestry and our conditions is an asset for us, says Örjan Vorrei, IT Manager, Sydved.

 

ForestX has previously implemented CFHarvest at Danish HedeDanmark  and now sees the system being used more in Sweden:

–        This is the first step in the roll-out of the Connected Forest suite in Sweden. We can now offer the market complete support for all forestry processes. It is exciting that we get to start doing this together with a well-established and well-informed customer like Sydved, says Carl Barck, CEO of ForestX.

 

About CFHarvest

 

CFHarvest is a forest harvesting management and tracking system that provides real-time visibility of harvested volumes and location of wood. The system enables forest companies such as Sydved to reduce roadside and terminal inventory levels and improve the productivity of their harvesting operations. By minimizing equipment moves and improving locational awareness between the harvester and forwarder, CFHarvest can support the reduction of emissions from forestry operations. CFHarvest is a web-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution to also manage silvicultural operations and forestry services. In addition, CFHarvest can be used formixed fleet operations and provide traceability to the source.

 

About Sydved

 

Sydved handles approximately five million cubic metres of timber annually and offers consultancy and full forestry services. Sydved is based in the southern parts of Sweden with headquarters in Jönköping. Sydved is owned by Stora Enso and Ahlstrom-Munksjö. For more information, visit sydved.se

 

About ForestX

 

ForestX digitizes the Scandinavian and European forest industry with sustainable solutions through selected systems and specialist knowledge in IT and forestry. ForestX was founded in 2018 and today has close to 50 employees in Sweden and in Pune, India.

 

For more information, visit: forestx.se

 

About Trimble Forestry

 

Trimble’s forestry division provides SaaS and enterprise software to improve the productivity and sustainability of the world’s most recognized integrated forest-related organizations. Trimble’s Connected Forest™ solutions manage the entire commodity lifecycle of planning, planting, growing, growing, harvesting, transporting and processing. For more information, visit: forestry.trimble.com.

 

About Trimble

 

Trimble is an industrial technology company that is changing the way the world works by delivering solutions that enable our customers to thrive. Core technologies in positioning, modeling, connectivity, and data analytics connect the digital and physical worlds to improve productivity, quality, safety, transparency and sustainability. From custom products to enterprise lifecycle solutions, Trimble is transforming industries like agriculture, construction, geospatial and transportation. For more information about Trimble (NASDAQ:TRMB), please visit www.trimble.com.

Sydved chooses CFHarvest – ForestX implements the system Read More »

Conference in the archipelago: seafood and boat trip

After work, ForestX India, FX India /

Gothenburg

 

In early September 2022, ForestX Sweden and five employees from ForestX India could leave the office and head out into the southern archipelago of Gothenburg. The destination was Brännö and Brännö värdshus. The conference programme was followed by a generous seafood buffet with crayfish, prawns and salmon. An appreciated feature during dinner was Patrik Anderchen’s direct translations of Swedish drinking songs into English. The colleagues from India sang Indian songs. 

 

The next day, the group headed out to Vinga lighthouse. After a walk on the bare cliffs of the small island, we turned back towards Gothenburg. The boat trip took the group through the harbor of Gothenburg in the glorious September sun. 

 

Photo: Oskar Danielsson, ForestX

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ForestX India: Fast-growing in tech and forestry

ForestX India, FX India /

Pune, India/ Gothenburg, Sweden

 

ForestX India started in 2020. It’s the small startup with the work culture of a big and mature company. The eleven co-workers in Pune have close to 30 colleagues in Sweden. And they all have the tech-intensive European forest industry to work with.

 

Pooja Rokade, lead software engineer, and Shalabh Khanzode, senior software engineer, joined ForestX in the start. We had a talk about what it’s like to work at ForestX India. 

 

 

How is your experience at ForestX so far?

 

Pooja Rokade: I have a very good experience! I had a few years of experience from the forestry domain, but with ForestX I’m working on new areas of forestry. So that’s a new learning for me.

 

Shalabh Khanzode: For me also the experience has been very good. I have never worked with forestry before, so it was a new challenge for me. We are having internal domain knowledge sharing sessions, those were helpful for me to understand the domain. Working directly with the customers was also new and it was fun, thanks to friendly customers!

ForestX is a start-up company, how’s the working culture?

 

Pooja Rokade: It is a start-up but we already have a work culture and policies like any other big company. I have never felt pressure of work during this time, we have flexi working hours which helps us to maintain work life balance.

 

Shalabh Khanzode: I have heard stories about stressed working hours and policies in small companies, but Forest X is completely different than that. Our policies are very employee friendly. We have all the policies which should be present in any good company. We have flexi working hours, medical insurance, employee provident funds, training and certification program, fun activities, parties and enjoyment, paid overtime, awards and recognitions.

 

You mentioned paid overtime. Tell us more about this!

 

Shalabh Khanzode: Yes, we have fully paid overtime. Generally, we don’t see it in IT companies, but we have that. Sometimes to meet the deadlines we need to work extra hours and in ForestX we have an option to take a leave or get paid for those extra hours.

 

Tell us about projects and tech stacks you are using in ForestX.

 

Shalabh Khanzode: Currently I’m working with our partner Trimble, we are helping them to adapt the Connected Forest suite to the Nordic market. Then, we have our own product called OptiNex. We have seen a lot of interest about OptiNex from customers, one of our customers Pfiefer is using it in production in Austria. We are also working with our partner TenFifty to bring AI in forestry, which is something new and we are excited to see how AI will work with the forestry domain. About tech stack, we are using all latest modern technologies, like Angular, Typescript, .net Core, Azure Cloud service, we are using IBM Watson for implementing optimization algorithms.

 

Tell us about your best moment at ForestX!

 

Pooja Rokade: There are many but the best of them was when my work for customer Pfeifer along with Prasad was appreciated and shared publicly by ForestX. Very few times I have seen that employer has publicly appreciated the work of employees. It was the best moment for me. I can clearly see, how my work is contributing to the growth of ForestX. 

 

Read the full story of the work at Pfeifer, Austria

ForestX India: Fast-growing in tech and forestry Read More »

Carl Barck and Christer Lindqvist: “The goal is for ForestX to be the app store of forestry”

AI, Career, ForestX India, FX Europe, FX India, Optinex /
Gothenburg
In this year’s summer interview with CEO Carl Barck and Marketing Manager Christer Lindqvist, you’ll get the background to ForestX’s large increase in turnover, how digitalisation is the only way forward in the future of forestry and why you should always turn to ForestX first!

Growth every year

 

ForestX has increased growth by 50% every year for the past three years! There are many explanations behind these large increases:

 

– We have a broader customer base, we simply have more customers in more segments, says Christer Lindqvist. Nowadays, we can be found in various companies in forestry, the wood processing industry, the paper industry, and the construction trade.

 

– We are on track with our growth and we are now well on our way to becoming the “app store of forestry”.  If you are in the industry and looking for smart digital solutions, then you should look at us first. We are a platform for great digital solutions, there is simply always a solution for you and your business with us and our partners.

 

– It is worth pointing out that we are not just a service company, we are also a product company with the latest and most modern technical solutions, says Christer Lindqvist.

 

During the year, ForestX together with Trimble Forestry, has invested in the development of Trimble Forestry’s Connected Forest product suite. Together with Trimble, a Swedish version of Connected Forest has been developed. The work has been done by ForestX’s teams in both Sweden and India.

 

– It is the first and perhaps the only modern business system for the forest industry to be developed in the last 20 years. It is based on modern technology and is easily accessible through web and cloud services. Users get full control of their information for forestry operations, says Christer Lindqvist and continues:

 

– The great benefit also lies in the fact that it is mobile, scalable and fully adaptable to customers’ own operations. Now we are ready to seriously roll out the systems on a broad front, which feels incredibly good after several years of work together with Trimble, says Christer Lindqvist.

15 employees in India

In Pune, India, a team of 15 people has been built up during the pandemic years. From being seen only on screens, Carl Barck and Johan Eriksson were able to visit the team in June 2022.

 

– Now it’s time for us to establish an office in Pune, that was part of the purpose of the trip, says Carl Barck.

 

– But of course the most important thing was to finally meet. We have the best development team available for the technology we use. The team in Pune has extensive experience of working with the forestry industry and the specific requirements that the forestry industry places on its IT solutions. The team in Pune is fundamental to our success in delivering to customers.

 

The rate of recruitment in India has been high, and Carl Barck sees that the company in India will continue to grow at the same pace.

 

– Over the years, we have also worked out good forms of cooperation between Sweden and India. We operate as a seamless company. We really are one company, even if our staff operate from different parts of the world, says Carl Barck.

 

Great interest on LinkedIn

During the year, ForestX has invested in marketing communications and has a strong presence on LinkedIn.

 

– Things are happening all the time in our company and we want to tell people about it. We also see that it is appreciated and that there is great curiosity about what we do, says Christer Lindqvist.

 

Other marketing activities planned for the autumn include breakfast meetings all around Sweden.

 

– We want to meet our customers in person and tell them about everything we do together with our partners. Keep an eye out in our channels this autumn, says Christer Lindqvist.

 

Ongoing recruitment

– Our people are the foundation of everything, and we have an incredibly dedicated team both in Sweden and in India, says Carl Barck.

 

– We continue to recruit, we have a constant need to get more people into our teams, both on the forestry and technical side, and in Sweden and in India.

 

The growth on the personnel side also means that ForestX is present in more locations in Sweden, the latest addition to the ForestX map is Umeå. Since last summer seven people joined the company in Sweden, five in India.

 

– We are simply always looking for people! We are looking for the best people who want to change this industry. We see great success in bringing different skills together to make real change. Here there is room and opportunity for both those who are new to the industry and those with long experience, says Carl Barck.

Extended management team with Johan Bergström

As the company has grown, so has the need for an expanded management team. In the spring of 2022, Johan Bergström took his place in ForestX’s management team. Read more about it here.

 

Optinex in operation in several countries

Optinex is ForestX’s unique end-to-end solution for optimizing planning in the woodworking industry. Optinex is in operation at many companies in several European countries.

 

– We can truly say that the product is established. We now know that it is a complete solution for planning and optimization. We will be presenting Optinex in more detail at the Wood & Technology Exhibition at the end of August in Gothenburg, says Carl Barck.

 

What can be perceived as complex becomes simple with our solutions, says Carl Barck.

 

Digitalisation a prerequisite for sustainable forestry

Everyone agrees that we will see increasingly selective forestry in the future. ForestX’s digital solutions will be a prerequisite for coping with the demands of the new era.

 

– It is obvious that the amount of available timber will decrease. We must conserve resources and be extremely efficient in the use of raw materials and energy. Our solutions help our customers do just that, says Carl Barck.

 

– Forestry will need to work on a smaller scale. Maintaining productivity and profitability requires more digitalisation and the right tools. What can be perceived as complex becomes simple with our solutions, says Carl Barck.

Dianthus new partner

This year, ForestX’s partner network has been expanded with Dianthus, a GIS specialist based in Boden in the north of Sweden.

 

– We bring together the best and the brightest expertise through our network of partners. We see that there is mutual value in this type of collaboration, says Christer Lindqvist.

 

Read more about Dianthus here 

 

Projects during the year:  

 

A selection of this year’s projects that demonstrate the breadth of ForestX’s mission

 

  1. Sveaskog and ForestX launch KingPin – a new AI tool that increases the value of forests:
  2. Long-term management at Setra
  3. New projects at Rubner

Carl Barck and Christer Lindqvist: “The goal is for ForestX to be the app store of forestry” Read More »

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