CEO´s review: A year marked by the importance of standards and growth in cooperation

The importance of standards was acknowledged

The requirements imposed by EU legislation will serve as a strong impetus for the more widespread adoption of standards, particularly in 2024. Business began to increasingly acknowledge the importance of standards, also when it comes to improving competitiveness, making operating processes more efficient and promoting the transparency of information. GS1 Finland’s role was particularly emphasised in situations where companies faced a growing need to share reliable information and reduce the administrative burden it entails.

Meeting these needs is both a challenge and an opportunity for us – we are proud to offer practical solutions that make it easier for companies to collaborate and manage information. For us, a key aspect of developing solutions is the cooperation of GS1’s international network, which facilitates the introduction of best practices and innovations to the Finnish market. At the same time, we actively share Finnish expertise as part of an international network, which strengthens common operating models and supports the development of global standards.

Industry cooperation grew stronger

We continued to focus mainly on the food chain and the development of its data management. The two development projects of the Food Data Finland program completed in 2024 brought practical solutions to the food chain. The GS1 2D code consumer engagement guide was already used in the first launches of the code. In addition, our proposed solution for the flow of information required by the Deforestation Regulation provided the industry with the expected concrete information to meet the requirements of the new legislation. We further expanded the program’s member network, and member network companies also carried out their own projects. The work done in the growth engine program in August received the recognition it deserved when Business Finland granted it partial funding for the next two-year period.

In the construction industry, we were able to participate in piloting GS1 standards in the production chain of prefabricated concrete. The project is a fine concrete step in promoting the digitalisation of the industry. What is particularly exciting is that the experiment is not limited to standardised product identification and capturing, but the aim is also to pilot the sharing of standardised event data in the chain.

In health care, the potential of standards is still acknowledged, but with the social welfare and healthcare reforms, the sector has several challenges to solve, which slows down their adoption. In consumer goods, we made good progress in expanding the use of the GS1 Synkka product information service. Furthermore, we launched a new cooperation in the textile industry, where the requirements of the digital product passport soon to take effect require an increasingly broad flow of information between parties about the phases of the product life cycle.

We started the development of a new service

The development of our new product information management service really got underway in the spring. In addition to the current needs for managing and sharing product information, the service will increasingly meet future requirements. It will provide our customers with real benefits and better usability. We will continue to actively develop the service in 2025, and we will be able to present the results of our work more extensively in spring 2026, when the deployment of the service will begin.

We invested in the competence of our personnel

Employee commitment, a positive attitude and the desire to develop played a key role in our successes during the year. As our cooperation with companies in different sectors increases and our role as a development facilitator grows, continuous renewal and competence development are required of our personnel. In 2024, we invested particularly in developing our corporate culture and strengthening the competence of our employees. We also compiled development needs that we can focus on in order to better meet the requirements of networking between companies and the adoption of standards. We will continue to work to ensure that GS1 Finland remains an innovative and attractive employer.

We build interoperable traceability

In 2025, we will focus particularly on building interoperable traceability. Our Roadmap for food chain traceability development project will be completed and the result will be a roadmap on how to promote traceability in the Finnish food chain. Our goal is to provide companies with information management solutions that can be scaled easily and cost-effectively to changes in the operating environment.

I hope that we can also meet the growing needs of data traceability in other sectors. There are already signs of this in the construction and textile industries. It remains to be seen how the benefits of our standards and our high-quality work will also spread to other industries. We work actively to promote the ability of Finnish companies to use GS1’s global standards and Finnish jointly developed operating models as part of their own operations to an increasing extent, thereby improving their competitiveness and advantages.