– There are disrupting times ahead.
Snæbjörn Ingi Ingólfsson is referring to the Icelandic IT market and his position as head of Itera's office in Iceland. The branch office was opened late in 2021 to fill a void in the Icelandic technology market – namely, people.
Since Snæbjörn started early in 2022, his focus has been on introducing Itera and its services to the Icelandic market and keeping up the business with existing customers.
After one year, large parts of Snæbjörn’s strong network are now aware of Itera and its services and solutions.
UTmessan, Iceland’s largest IT conference, represented a flying start in 2022, where Itera was one of the sponsors in addition to being a part of the program, delivering a talk on stage about the opportunities with Low Code and Power Platform from Microsoft.
About Snæbjörn Ingi Ingólfsson
Apart from running Itera Iceland, Snæbjörn is a man of many parts. He holds a BS in computer science and is studying MBA in business at the University of Iceland. He is a dedicated husband and father of three. Before entering the IT industry, he grew up on a farm in Northern Iceland where he learnt carpentry and worked as a carpenter for a few years.
The beauty of the tech industry
When Snæbjörn entered the Icelandic IT industry in 1995, the IT business was rising in Iceland. As in the rest of the world, this sparked a comprehensive wave of change in all parts of society. The excitement of being a part of these changes was what made Snæbjörn interested in technology in the first place.
“The beauty of the technology industry is that there is always something new - almost every day. The continuous development is exciting but also demanding. It is increasingly important to be up to date on the newest technology. Those who do not keep up the pace will be left behind.” He adds:
“One of the best quotes I have seen is that we can expect more technological innovation in the next 20-30 years than we have seen in the last 200-300 years.”
– The beauty of the technology industry is that there is always something new - almost every day.
A passion for communication and innovation
When asked about what Snæbjörn is passionate about, his answer is to communicate with people and businesses to open people’s eyes to the value technology can bring.
He aims to present technology solutions that have the potential to make a difference for the company in question. For Snæbjörn, technology is at its best when it enables solutions that make people’s lives easier and are beneficial for sustainability – all while reducing cost.
Iceland and technology
What convinced Snæbjörn to join Itera was the opportunity to build something new for Iceland. He describes Iceland as a highly developed country with an infrastructure well adjusted for advanced technological solutions but lacking skilled IT people to develop those solutions.
“The pandemic we faced played a part, as many companies decided to reduce or stop tech projects during lockdowns and uncertain times. Combined with the deficit of people we already had, there are in no way enough resources today to deliver what the market in Iceland needs to maintain its infrastructure and to develop new solutions and services, both in the private and public sectors. This is where Itera and our delivery model come in”, Snæbjörn says.
“The lack of skilled technology workers is not an issue limited to the Icelandic market. Itera’s delivery model is tailored to mitigate the competence gap by bringing capable people from other countries into multidisciplinary teams, working seamlessly across borders. This way, our customers have almost unlimited access to highly educated technology workers trained to work in international environments on digital platforms.”
“I work to position Itera in the Icelandic market and make sure that people know who we are and what we can offer. The goal is to be top of mind when companies think of technology – we want people to know what we are offering and to be an alternative when companies need people”, Snæbjörn continues.
The road ahead for Itera Iceland
Due to the distributed delivery model, Itera has a different approach to organising its work compared to more traditional organisations: today, Snæbjörn is the only employee working on-site for Itera in Iceland. However, around 50 Itera employees work full-time for Icelandic customers, but they all work remotely from Norway, Slovakia, and Ukraine.
“The new normal has changed for us all. People are more open-minded about working from everywhere, and customers value the quality and scalability of resources more than their geographic location. This facilitates what we want to create with Itera Iceland. The plan is to expand the current operation by recruiting local IT expertise and to deliver services and solutions in hybrid teams to deliver on our value proposition: Innovation, speed, quality, and scale”, Snæbjörn concludes.
.jpg)
