Annual report 2014 About EVRY EVRY is one of the leading IT companies in the Nordic countries, with a strong local and regional presence in 50 Nordic towns and cities. Through its knowledge, solutions and technology, EVRY contributes to the development of the information society of the future, and so creates value for the benefit of its customers and for society as a whole. EVRY combines in-depth industry knowledge and technological expertise with a local delivery model and international strength. Contents Introduction 4 Letter from the CEO 4 Strategy 6 Our business 8 EVRY Norway 9 EVRY Sweden 12 EVRY Financial Services 15 Corporate Social Resposibility 18 Key figures 20 From the Boardroom 24 Executive Management 24 The Board of Directors 26 Corporate Governance 28 Report from the Board of Directors 2014 36 Statement by the Board of Directors and CEO 46 Annual accounts and notes 48 Annual Accounts Group 50 Annual Accounts EVRY ASA 96 Auditor's report 106 4 Introduction EVRY's strategy for Nordic leadership According to the World Economic Forum, ICT is the most important driver for economic growth, and the Nordic countries are at the top of the list for adopting new technology. EVRY has a key role to play in this. 2014 saw the start of a strategic process to drive EVRY towards its objective of being a leading supplier of innovative IT services in the Nordic market. EVRY plays an important role in society as a whole through A proactive company the scale and significance of the services it provides to Nordic Following the merger of ErgoGroup and EDB in 2010, EVRY business and industry and to public sector entities in the cen- announced a strategy for Nordic leadership with three tral government, local government and health sectors. Every phases. Successful integration and growth were the main day more than 4 million people in the Nordic countries make objectives for the first two phases. The third phase of the use of EVRY's solutions. strategy is to create a more proactive company that is able to make even better use of all the opportunities for profitable In the years ahead, technology will play an ever more import- growth that the IT industry offers. ant role in economic growth and improving welfare in the Nordic countries. This will create significant growth opportu- In August 2014, EVRY announced that the Board of Directors nities for the IT industry, while at the same time globalisation and executive management had decided to start a process of the industry will continue. EVRY is extremely well-posi- to evaluate various strategic alternatives for delivering the tioned in attractive segments of the Nordic market. third phase of its strategy, including a possible sale of the company. The main shareholders at the time, Norway Post EVRY has a long history of being a driving force in the devel- and Telenor, fully supported this process. A structured opment of the Norwegian and Nordic IT industry. From the process was carried out over the course of autumn 2014 sound basis of its long-term commitment to the developing to evaluate strategic alternatives for EVRY. This process its business along industrial lines, EVRY has built up a signif- resulted in a takeover bid for EVRY by Apax Partners, which icant position in the Nordic IT services market, particularly was announced on 8 December 2014. The Board of Directors in Norway and Sweden. EVRY's strong position is founded on unanimously recommended acceptance of the offer, and the its extensive solutions portfolio and its unique local network, main shareholders confirmed that they accepted the offer. combined with important involvement in global sourcing. In addition to its local and regional presence in 50 Nordic Closer to the customer towns and cities, EVRY has a sizeable international delivery EVRY's new main shareholder has expressed its full sup- apparatus for Global Sourcing in India, Ukraine and Latvia. port for the company's strategy. EVRY's objective is to be a EVRY is recognised as a sound company with the potential supplier and collaboration partner that goes even further to to continue its growth path and build an even stronger and understand every customer's business and future require- more visible position in the IT services market. ments. We will set ambitious targets for what we can achieve Introduction 5 for our customers, and we will help them to realise the bene- supplier in markets where demand is high and our closeness fits of digitalisation. This makes it necessary to accelerate the to customers in the form of business understanding and local implementation of the existing strategy and put even more presence represents an important competitive advantage. emphasis on resources in areas where we are already strong. This approach includes the continuing development of our EVRY intends to continue to play a leading role in the solutions portfolio for the banking and finance industry. development of the Nordic IT services market through its In addition, we will strengthen our focus on other selected innovation and continual renewal. In support of this, EVRY industry verticals and maintain a strong regional presence. will invest in its business and will also consider acquisi- This will give us greater business insight, strengthen our tions where this is consistent with its strategy for profitable understanding of customers' requirements and ensure that growth. We are committed to working every single day to our deliveries are more reliable and deliver even better value. deliver added value for our customers and investors. Only by EVRY is currently in the process of launching new cloud- doing this can we achieve our ambition of Nordic leadership. based services for the next generation of IT operating services with a greater degree of automation and self-service. This is what we call 'Future Proof', and we are confident that this concept will improve EVRY's competitiveness in a globally competitive marketplace. Creating value for our customers and investors Over the course of 2014, EVRY took new and important Björn Ivroth strategic steps to adapt and specialise its products and CEO EVRY services for selected industry verticals. In parallel with this, steps were taken to strengthen our solutions expertise in the most sought-after areas of new technology. We also strength- ened our local presence in selected locations by allocating the responsibility for developing some solutions areas and delivery models to our regional technical centres. The main objective of this strategy is to ensure that EVRY is a preferred 6 Introduction Adding value through customer insight While developing digital solutions and digital business models puts organisations to the test, it also creates entirely new opportunities. EVRY’s objective is to be a collaboration partner that helps its customers realise these opportunities. More than ever before, this requires us to have a clear insight and a sound understanding of our customers’ activities. Many of our customers are between the old and the new. of these areas. The limits are not set by the technologies Their existing solutions need to be operated and managed themselves, but by the ability to adapt them in a way that in a reliable and cost-effective way, while new opportuni- is efficient and adds value. Understanding each customer's ties offer fertile ground for growth, increased productivity, business model, work processes, organisation and ‘soft improved services and greater customer satisfaction. elements’ such as organisational culture is essential to achieving this. If we are to be a trusted supplier that chal- The technological opportunity space is continually ex- lenges its customers’ business models and work processes, panding, but having more opportunities also brings greater we have to be able to identify what the pinch points are complexity. If we are to deliver our customer promise – We and where improvements and changes can be made. In the bring information to life, creating value for our customers, bank and finance area, EVRY has a strong history and has to the benefit of society – there are two particularly import- always worked to develop its expertise in a targeted way. ant elements that we must deliver: We are similarly focused in our other industry verticals. We are building up our expertise and are also recruiting experts Contribute to the transformational journey: Our solutions who have a lot of industry experience. We are prioritising and consulting advice must be anchored by an understand- those areas where we already have a strong presence, and ing of the customer’s business challenges and opportunities, our aim is for our insight to be a competitive advantage and and must support the customer’s transformational journey. a source of support for customers as they face the need to implement significant changes. Life cycle commitment: A complete IT services portfolio must help customers with their IT development at every Closeness to customers phase of the IT life cycle - from planning and development EVRY has a decentralised structure, with 50 offices in through to implementation and production. the Nordic region. As well as strengthening our focus on customer insight, EVRY will follow a strategy in which a Customer insight and closeness to customers are common regional and local presence will continue to be an import- components to both these elements. ant and differentiating part of our service offering. In an increasingly globalised market, EVRY’s geographical and Customer insight cultural closeness to its customers means it is in a better Big Data, Mobility, Cloud Services and Social Media stand position to understand its customers’ requirements and out as four key trends in the development of information therefore to deliver value-adding services with a high de- technology. The question is not whether but how our cus- gree of precision and trusted commitment.