MJØLNER LETS US SCALE TO DEMAND WHILE UPHOLDING THE QUALITY THAT SETS US APART. Rasmus Lundgaard Pedersen, CIO of Danske Commodities

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1 MJØLNER LETS US SCALE TO DEMAND WHILE UPHOLDING THE QUALITY THAT SETS US APART Rasmus Lundgaard Pedersen, CIO of Danske Commodities 4th Quarter 2013

2 EDITORIAL CHANGING FOCUS WHILE UPHOLDING CULTURE The role of innovation and technology is constantly changing. As a result, our roles as consultants, software developers, and designers are changing as well. Previously, the software industry has played a supporting and cost-minimizing role in business. Today, the services we offer clients span a much wider area. These are services that generate profit by helping our customers create innovative and strategic, business-oriented solutions. In the spring, we reorganized ourselves in order to better support our new role. This formal change was a manifestation of a long and still ongoing process. Looking back at 2013, it is evident that it has already had a great impact. Commodities maximize profit through customized software. Read about our new TouchGFX demo board that enables quick prototyping of high-end embedded graphical user interfaces on low-performance hardware. And get your technology update by learning which Android KitKat features you should know before starting your next app project. Furthermore, we are proud to share our ranking in this year s Great Place to Work survey. Lastly, we tell the story of one of the great annual traditions that captures the unique Mjølner culture. Best Regards, All in all, 2013 has been a good year for Mjølner. We have managed to shift course, while maintaining our unique corporate culture. The final 2013 issue of Mjølner UPDATE underlines this journey. In this issue, you can learn how our software consultants help the rapidly growing energy trader Danske Jørgen Lindskov Knudsen, CEO UPDATE Cover photo: Rasmus Lundgaard Pedersen (CIO of Danske Commodities); Michel Thrysøe, Rasmus Vestergaard, Dennis Madsen, René Schade, Stephan Henningsen & Henrik Jørgensen (Mjølner).

3 CASE Rasmus Lundgaard Pedseren, CIO of Danske Commodities DANSKE COMMODITIES & MJØLNER: IT AT THE TIPPING POINT MJØLNER PLAYS A KEY ROLE IN DANSKE COMMODITIES GROWTH RACE. WE HELP THE INTER- NATIONAL ENERGY TRADER DEVELOP SOFTWARE THAT DELIVERS A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE. make crucial decisions in a fraction of a second and sets us apart from our competitors. - Rasmus Lundgaard Pedersen, CIO of Danske Commodities Scaling to Demand Recruiting the right people at the right time is one of the biggest challenges for Danske Commodities as they have Dennis Madsen & René Schade, Mjølner consultants Danske Commodities doubled in size every 11 months since their founding. One Danske Commodities is an independent, international way they deal with this challenge is by using Mjølner s Agility is Essential I ve been at Danske Commodities for four months now, energy trader founded in Today, the company employs consultants. The energy market is big business - conducted at a breath- and have already worked on five projects using about ten more than 400 people and trades in more than 30 countries. taking pace. It changes every minute, as does the demand for different technologies. I make use of a wide range of my We do not compromise on quality to ensure quantity. customized software. competencies, and when I fall short, I have a back-up team of IT as a Differentiator Mjølner shares our core belief in professional and agile IT professionals at Mjølner. IT and software play a vital role in Danske Commodities software development. This makes Mjølner our preferred Working in this rapidly changing environment calls all your - Christian Stenz, Senior Software Architect, Mjølner value creation. Danske Commodities uses IT to optimize supplier. Their consultants give us the freedom to scale to skills into action, and applying them in the right way, at the management and processes. And most importantly: to give demand while upholding the quality that sets us apart. right time, is essential. Mjølner s consultants ensure flexibility and consistency for their trading activities a competitive advantage. The combination of trading know-how and intelligent IT systems is the key to their success: We optimize and quantify our trading know-how -Rasmus Lundgaard Pedersen, CIO of Danske Commodities The first Mjølner software consultant at Danske Commodities started in April this year. Today, nine consultants work on-site at Danske Commodities headquarter. MJØLNER SHARES OUR CORE BELIEF IN PROFESSIONAL AND AGILE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT. THIS MAKES MJØLNER OUR PREFERRED SUPPLIER. Danske Commodities. Add to that Mjølner s experience and competencies and you have a promising setup. Learn more about Mjølner s software consultants: Ellen Agerbo through software. Customized software enables us to Rasmus Lundgaard Pedersen, CIO of Danske Commodities ela@mjolner.dk

4 PRODUCT GET AN INSTANT PROOF OF CONCEPT WITH THE NEW TouchGFX DEMO BOARD OUR NEW DEMO BOARD GIVES YOU THE OPPORTUNITY TO SEE AND FEEL HOW HIGH-END GRAPHICS CAN BE ACHIEVED ON LOW-POWER HARDWARE. Still, resistive screens are better suited for certain use contexts, just as the price of capacitive touch is too high for certain products. Because of this, we offer demo boards supporting both technologies. Instant Proof of Concept In the last year, our graphical framework TouchGFX has The most valuable benefit of the demo received a lot of attention from interested clients around the board is the possibility of moving very quicly from globe. We ve gotten lots of feedback and have acquired new idea to proof of concept. Using only the board insights, which leads to new ideas for ways in which the itself and the free TouchGFX trial framework, product can evolve. To create a platform that showcases some you can develop your own high-end of the new possibilities, we have partnered with EKTOS and embedded graphical user interface (GUI) created a new TouchGFX demo board. This board offers a on low-performance harware in a great way for our customers to create a fast and effective proof matter of days. of concept. Because the TouchGFX demo During our many demonstrations of TouchGFX we have board comes in discovered a high demand for capacitive touch. So far, there display sizes and exists no other commercial demo board on the market with tions, you capacitive touch. However, in order to achieve an effortless a board that matches your final experience that lives up to people s expectations heightened by hardware platform of choice making it much the proliferation of smartphones, capacitive touch is essential. easier to arrive at a proof of concept. can multiple resoluchoose TouchGFX demo board specifications: MCU s for TouchGFX: - NXP LPC4350 / LPC4353 / LPC4357 Interested in getting your own Displays for TouchGFX: - U.R.T. 3.5 / 4.3 / 5.7 / 7.0 TFT display Jørgen Mygind, Account Manager Touch functionality: - Capacitive / Resistive Typical Application: - Home Appliances / Health Care / Industrial Devices proof of concept with TouchGFX? jmy@mjolner.dk

5 PRODUCT Screen dumps from the preinstalled GUI application on our new demo board. TouchGFX enables high-end graphics with full screen transitions; alpha-blending; transparency; and anti-aliased fonts and kerning. Furthermore, it includes gestures like scroll, drag and drop, and swipe.

6 STORY MJØLNER IS A GREAT PLACE TO WORK THE GREAT PLACE TO WORK INSTITUTE JUST ANNOUNCED DENMARK S BEST WORKPLACES. MJØLNER WAS AWARDED 3RD PLACE IN THE IT CATEGORY AND 7TH PLACE IN THE MEDIUMSIZED WORKPLACE CATEGORY. Great Place to Work is an international research, consulting, In Denmark, Great Place to Work uses five different top-ten This Calls for a Celebration and training firm dedicated to creating and sustaining great lists. Mjølner ranks high in both categories that we qualify Great Place to Work announced their lists at a reception on workplaces all over the world. for: Best Medium-sized Workplace and Best IT Workplace. We re proud! Mjølner is a great place to grow your competencies. November 14th. The following Friday, we celebrated our best combined ranking yet by upgrading our weekly morning meeting to a brunch with all the trimmings. By running an annual survey, they pinpoint strengths and areas of improvement for workplaces. As an extra feature, Trust, Pride and Community the survey is used to rank the greatest workplaces in each The survey is based on three core values: trust, pride, and country. community. 93% of Mjølner s employees participated in this year s survey. Overall, Mjølner moves forward on credibility, justice, community, respect, pride and trust. Mjølner s management is open and responsive. With lots of great new insight from the survey, we ll work for At Mjølner, we have mutual respect for one another. Interested to joining our great workplace? an even better ranking next year! Ellen Agerbo ela@mjolner.dk Here are some of the comments from the survey we are most proud of:

7 TECH NEW POSSIBILITIES FOR ANDROID APP DEVELOPMENT GOOGLE RELEASED ANDROID 4.4 KITKAT ON OCTOBER 31ST. WITH A LONG LIST OF NEW FEATURES, THE OS ENABLES BETTER AND MORE COHESIVE ANDROID APPS. A More Immersive Experience The latest version of Google s dessert-named Android This is probably most relevant for games and e-book software, KitKat, includes a range of new features, three of reader apps, but it s also possible to make the top and which are especially promising. Here are the features you bottom areas transparent and thereby offer a more should familiarize yourself with before starting your next immersive user experience. Immersive mode is another interesting new feature. Immersive mode lets you hide the top bar and Android system buttons and dedicate the entire screen to your app. Android project. More Cohesion and Less Hassel A Redesign that Lets Your Apps Shine A last improvement worth mentioning here is the This first change may seem small, but holds great potential. performance optimizations that let budget devices and Since Android 4.0, the interface has been dominated by a older light blue color used e.g. for text in the top bar. With KitKat, the number Android versions your app needs to support. models run KitKat. In time, this should reduce this is now a greyscale. Furthermore, it means that Google delivers on their The change to a more subtle color reduces the aesthetic clash promise to offer a more cohesive Android experience between the operating system and the visual style of different across all devices. apps. Also, it lets the design of your company s app stand out more clearly, emphasizing your corporate brand. KitKat definitely seems promising, and we are looking - Bjarne Knudsen, Software Developer, Mjølner forward to using its new features in our app development.

8 STORY BUSINESS STRATEGY, BOTTLED WATER & BEING A CONSULTANT WHAT DO THE SUBJECTS ABOVE HAVE IN COMMON? THEY WERE ALL DISCUSSED AT MJØLNER S ANNUAL OPEN FORUM DISCUSSION FOR THE ENTIRE STAFF. HERE S WHY WE FIND THE TRADITION SO IMPORTANT. After this, we dedicate a few hours to a specific topic. This 80 Minds are Better than one It all Ends with a BANG! year, we focused on our new organizational structure having The aim of the open forum, which usually lasts for three After three hours of discussion, we end the day with a bang all the departments present their new role and strategic hours, is to engage in an open and honest discussion where with our annual Christmas party. goals. everyone can voice their opinion on the issues that matter to them. The Floor is Open! This celebration is also full of traditions, one of which is the legendary foosball tournament. This year s winner was Honoring a grand tradition, the structured morning was Having all employees engage in the discussion creates great Every year on the last Friday of November, the entire Mjølner followed by the open forum discussion in the afternoon. synergy and forms a common ground for everyone to share. In staff gathers for a joint meeting. We devote the morning to As always, everyone was encouraged to share the a consultancy where we spend all of our time helping clients going through the year that has gone by and looking in the issues they found important. Every year, the only rule of this improve their business, it s important to create a space for crystal ball for the year to come. session is that no issue is too big or too small and that all strengthening the social and professional aspects of our own. opinions are welcome and equally important. -Jørgen Lindskov Knudsen, CEO of Mjølner Troels Lund Rasmussen. Mjølner congratulates thee!