In March 2023 we could finally have an inauguration of the ForestX office in Pune!
We now have a spacious office for our team in Pune. Here we have modern work desks, small rooms for meetings and a big conference room. In the kitchen we have a coffee machine so we always can have a Swedish “fika”.
You’ll find our office at:
E-4030, Solitaire Business Hub,
Opp. NECO Garden Society,
Clover Park, Viman Nagar, Pune
Five employees from ForestX India visited Sweden in August and September of 2022 and the ForestX’s headquarters in Göteborg on the west coast of Sweden.
– It’s great that we finally can meet after these pandemic years, says Nikhil Vaidya, CEO of ForestX India. It is valuable that we can work together and learn from each other on site in Sweden.
The team from India worked from ForestX’s headquarters in Gothenburg with their Swedish colleagues during the visit. Visiting from India this time was Nikhil Vaidya, Prasad Patole, Amit Debnath, Pooja Rokade and Ritesh Jaiswal.
At the same time, the Nordic wood exhibition, Trä&teknik, took place literally across the street from the office. The first week ended with a visit to the exhibition for everyone at ForestX.
– It was a great way to talk to people in the industry, visit different exhibitors and learn about the latest in European forestry, says Nikhil Vaidya.
The benefits of the visit to Sweden are many, says Carl Barck, CEO of ForestX:
– The goal is that within a few years, all of our colleagues in India will have the opportunity to come to Sweden and work together. This is a way to get to know each other, exchange experiences and develop a common way of working. Our teams work extremely closely together and our team in India has a unique expertise in development for European forestry. Now that the teams can sit together, we will be even better and will elevate our work, says Carl Barck, CEO of ForestX.
The visit hasn’t just been about work. The team from India has also been invited to visit the homes of their Swedish colleagues.
During Diwali 2022 the ForestX team in Pune met up to celebrate!
The team played cricket, received gifts from ForestX and had a dinner together!
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
– 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.
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 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.
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.
Projects during the year:
A selection of this year’s projects that demonstrate the breadth of ForestX’s mission
Pune, India/ Gothenburg, Sweden
ForestX India started up last fall. Today it’s a thriving one-year-old. 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.
You have spent more than a year now at ForestX, how is your experience 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.
Gothenburg, Sweden
ForestX was founded three years ago. With 35 co-workers, a broad network of partners and a joint long experience of the combination of forest and IT, ForestX sticks to its goal; to digitize the forest industry.
In this interview with CEO Carl Barck and marketing manager Christer Lindqvist, we go to India, on to the digitization of forestry in pandemic times and future recruitment needs. And much more.
ForestX India has ten employees in Pune. Pune is today a hub for the tech world in India
India
ForestX India was founded one year ago. There are already ten employees in ForestX India, all based in the city of Pune. Pune has over six million inhabitants and is the place where cutting-edge expertise in the Indian tech world gathers.
– Everyone at ForestX India are hand-picked specialists. We are proud and happy that we have managed to create this together during this pandemic year, says Carl Barck, CEO of ForestX.
– We chose to make our own establishment in India after reviewing various alternatives. We are confident with the team in India and we have a really good collaboration. We have such good experience that we now want to continue to grow and expand the business there. At the moment we’re looking for Lead Developer, Senior Software Engineer, Software Engineer in .NET / Azure Stack and/or Angular in Pune, says Carl Barck.
During the early summer of 2021, ForestX India provided vaccination against Covid-19 to employees and their families.
This is Team India:
https://forestx.se/en/team-india/
Examples of projects where ForestX India and ForestX in Sweden collaborated:
Partners
ForestX has a wide partner network. These include Mentormate, Euvic, Tenfifty, Remsoft and Metapraxis.
– Many of our partners complement each other. Since we know our partners well, we will always find the best combinations when we create unique offers for our customers, says marketing manager Christer Lindqvist.
The partnership with Trimble Forestry
One of ForestX’s deeper collaborations is the one with Trimble Forestry. ForestX is Trimble Forestry’s Nordic partner and delivers the CFForest product suite to Nordic customers.
– We realized early on that Trimble Forestry’s products were just right. We are grateful that we have received the trust from Trimble to cooperate in the Nordic region, says CEO Carl Barck.
– The market needs this type of product that provides a platform for digitization. The forest industry wants and needs to move towards modern cloud services, and that is where Trimble Forestry’s products fit in with their modular structure.
– With the transition to VIOL3, the timing is right to choose the CFForest suite. We work continuously with the establishment and adaptation of the product to the Swedish market, says Carl Barck.
Read an interview with Trimble Forestry’s CEO Kevin Toohill about his views on the Nordic forest industry:
ForestX is now working to establish physical offices in Stockholm and Dalarna as the company grows.
Office in Stockholm and Falun
– As we have grown, the number of places where the employees are based has increased. Today, in addition to Gothenburg, there are also employees in Stockholm and in Dalarna. We are now working to establish physical offices there, says marketing manager Christer Lindqvist.
Read more about ForestX’s first recruitment in Dalarna: https://forestx.se/en/stefan-jonis-joins-forestx/
ForestXChange
– ForestXChange is part of our expanded offer for change management, says marketing manager Christer Lindqvist.
– Through our partner network and our various product partners, we have the knowledge, experience and solutions to ensure a change process to turn out well. We have cutting-edge expertise in all areas related to change, forestry, digitization and IT. This combined means that we dare to say that we are experts in the forest industry’s digital journey of change, says Christer Lindqvist.
Read more about ForestXChange in an interview with Sven Lundmark here:
https://forestx.se/en/sven-lundmark-the-customer-has-to-keep-a-strong-position/
Examples of projects and customers
Setra. Together with Setra, we are carrying out a major development project aimed at modernizing the business system. It will continue in the autumn of 2021.
Vida Skog. We have developed the production follow-up app WQP together with Vida Skog. The app is now in use.
AI project at Sveaskog. We project manage two AI projects at Sveaskog. Among other things, we are developing a completely new tool, KingPin, for producing pin files with higher quality by using AI.
CFHarvest to HedeDanmark. We helped the Danish forestry company to become fully digital in its work process.
Developed OptiNex Glulam for Pfeifer in Austria. We developed a new module for glulam production for our own planning program OptiNex.
Read more about some of the projects here:
Sveaskog:
https://forestx.se/en/innovative-ai-projects-at-sveaskog-linked-together-at-forestx/
HedeDanmark:
https://forestx.se/en/hededanmark-cfharvest-made-our-work-flow-completely-digitized/
Digitization of the forest industry in pandemic times
– We notice that the interest is great and we continuously get inquiries, despite the pandemic. It’s a hot area. We see that the players in the forest industry are interested and well-educated and know that they must take steps towards a completely digital way of working, says CEO Carl Barck.
– We also see how our work with Pfeifer in Austria created great interest in the region, and we are working on new inquiries from that part of Europe.
Webinars
During spring of 2021, ForestX had two webinars on the theme of AI in the forest for real together with Tenfifty, and one where the product suite CFForest from Trimble Forestry was presented.
– It has been a successful concept with webinars, says marketing manager Christer Lindqvist. It turned out well and we will continue this autumn.
– It is a good format and we have experienced that there has been a great commitment and more participants than we had dared to hope for. It is a great way to share knowledge and information.
– But at the same time, of course, we look forward to meeting our customers and colleagues for real again when society can reopen, says Christer Lindqvist.
On September 16, ForestX arrange a webinar together with Metapraxis. It will be about analysis and follow-up of finances, production, sales and market in the woodworking industry.
On September 28, part three of our series on AI for real in the woods will be arranged. Then the theme is “Strategic, tactical and operational planning”. Christer Lindqvist, ForestX and David Fendrich, Tenfifty, participate. An even more secret guest is planned!
– With our smart digital solutions, we help forest companies to take their responsibility, says ForestX’s CEO Carl Barck.
Sustainability
– With our smart digital solutions, we help forest companies take their responsibility. By having a solid decision basis and digital opportunities to follow every part of the work process, we jointly save resources at all levels, says CEO Carl Barck.
Recruitments
In three years, ForestX has grown into a company with around 35 co-workers in Sweden and India. With projects in several European countries, there is a constant need to make new recruits.
– We are always looking for those who have expertise in both forestry and IT. If you have competence and experience in IT, technology, forestry, GIS or VIOL3, you are very interesting to us, says CEO Carl Barck and continues:
– Our journey has just begun, anyone who wants to be part of building something new should come to us. We work with modern technology and the best solutions.
– We want our employees to be able to make the best professional development with us.
ForestX opens up for even more Swedish and Nordic forestry clients by setting up new office and hiring seven skilled developers in India.
Our new team, with long experience from both system development and Swedish forest industry, will be based in Pune, India.
This is ForestX’s first office outside Sweden, but the experience from working in international teams is already established through our partners in Bulgaria and Poland.
WHAT’S NEW?
“We’re strengthening our delivery model, working with “blended teams” even more by adding our new team in Pune, India. Our clients will continue to work closely with us and communication will be just as usual (meaning in Swedish for most of our clients). The difference is the added competence and a new unique mix in our delivery capacity. This will enable us to broaden our offerings and create more cost efficient deliveries for our clients.”
Christer Lindqvist
Marketing & Sales, ForestX
SUCCESS DESPITE PANDEMIC
“In times of Covid-19 and social distancing, digitalization is on the agenda more than ever before. Being able to strengthen our offer and competence, despite the prevailing pandemic, is a positive and important step for us. This investment is a win both for ForestX and our customers in the forest industry.”
Carl Barck
CEO, ForestX
WHY ForestX?
Nikhil Vaidya reports from India…
“We are proud to be part of the new journey that ForestX has chosen to take in India. Our employees look forward to working and collaborating on joint projects with our new colleagues in Sweden, and strengthening our customers’ operations through innovative and new digital solutions.”
Nikhil Vaidya
CEO ForestX India Private Ltd.
Get to know our new team, their skills and background here: Our team in India
This is ForestX: Digitization partner focusing on the forest industry. With an understanding of both people and working methods, we create digital and innovative services that improve operations.
