Jouko Vierumäki (pictured), founder of the Estonian technology company Fromdistance, says that the smart phones in our pockets are full of sensitive personal information, whereas no one has really thought about the security of this information. No one, except for Fromdistance.

Fromdistance is a software company based in Tallinn, which develops mobile phone service platforms and applications for corporate customers that it sells to end-users via third-party retailers. Although the company is just five years old, its products are used in more than a hundred countries. “Yes, we are a boring company in that we have been doing the same thing for five years now,” says Vierumäki with a smile.

Unique mobile device platform

The company’s main product is Fromdistance MDM – a uniform mobile device platform for businesses, which offers safety, convenience and financial savings. How?

In Vierumäki’s opinion, mobile network operators do not understand customers’ needs. They sell a mobile phone to the customer (paying them for it) and conclude a binding contract with the customer. But they overlook the fact that international customers will have to conclude separate contracts with different operators in each country, whereas the services and terms vary greatly between the countries.

“Vodafone has tried to create global offers to its customers, but they have also failed to create some kind of a uniform service portfolio,” says Vierumäki. He cites his own company as an example. It has operations in five countries, with its headquarters in Estonia and branches in Finland, Norway, Spain and Italy. But there are no operators who would be available in all five countries. A separate contract must be concluded in each country.

Guarantee for smooth functioning

“The platform we offer allows for the comprehensive management of the services of different operators. We help companies create a uniform infrastructure for mobile phones as well as computers,” explains Vierumäki.

The Fromdistance software is like a guarantee that the company’s mobile devices will function smoothly and without problems, all nicely under control.

When do we usually have problems with our mobile phones? Whenever we need a software update or download a service; or when we replace our phone with a new one, lose our phone, or when our phone gets stolen (Vierumäki says that stealing a mobile phone is the easiest thing in the world).

Fromdistance will help to keep bigger problems at bay. The updates are done without you noticing; your old data appears as if by magic in your new phone; any lost data is restored thanks to a backup copy, and so on. With the uniform platform, you can also stipulate customised updates and access terms, for the different phones of a company (e.g. only selected employees, as opposed to all the employees of the company, have downloading rights); prevent the downloading of spy-ware onto a phone due to ignorance; or view the movement of data in phones at different times and in different networks.

Fine-tuned user support

The simple and convenient customer support of the Fromdistance platform is very important. We usually get extremely angry and irritated if we cannot access our emails or another service through our phone, due to some technical problem. Now, we are given very clear instructions on how to solve the problem.

The most important contribution of the Estonian company seems to be data security. It does not take much more than a few lost phones in a large corporation or state institution, and business secrets or even state secrets could go missing with the devices.

Vierumäki notes the strange situation on the communications market – much more is spent on the security of cable networks as opposed to mobile telephony networks. “Mainline networks have firewalls, anti-virus software, WPA certificates. But mobile phones have practically nothing, and this is a source of great alarm,” admits Vierumäki. “I have kept my main calendar on my phone for years now. If the wrong people were to get hold of my phone, they could describe almost my entire life: where I go, what I do, to whom I talk.”

Smartphones of Finnish parliamentarians

The Parliament of Finland is one of Fromdistance’s customers. It employs the 200 MPs plus a further 500 employees. Almost all of them use smart phones and are always on the move, due to the nature of their job. They interact frequently with each other and the world; their phones store thousands of contacts, notes, etc. Essentially, they are keeping a great amount of very sensitive information in their pocket. “I don’t see why we couldn’t also co-operate with the Estonian parliament,” says Vierumäki.

It is five years since Vierumäki moved to Estonia and founded the company. The first four years were spent on active product development, and the company is only now entering the global market more vigorously. “We are running a marathon, not a sprint,” says Vierumäki.

For 15 years before that, the Finnish entrepreneur worked in Finland and Italy. While in Italy, he ran a Telecom Italia subsidiary called Neticos; and that is where he first felt the need for management services for mobile computing devices. After some market research, he came to a startling conclusion – there is no competition! This led to the question: does it mean that there is no business either?

Mobile computing is skyrocketing

There is plenty of business potential, as people’s use of mobile computing is skyrocketing. IT management is offered by several US corporations such as Microsoft, IBM and HP. But they have two problems. First, they have not given much thought to mobile phones. And secondly, they only focus on large-scale customers. Only a few Estonian companies (like Swedbank and Eesti Energia) could be their potential customers. The others would never be able to afford such an investment. 

Vierumäki: “In Estonia, not many companies are using mobile computing at the moment. Small businesses have not invested in mobile computing. The larger companies usually have their headquarters abroad, with these matters handled abroad as well. Our typical customer has 50 or more company phones. There aren’t very many companies like that in Estonia.”

A tool for everyman journalism 

In addition to solutions that facilitate the management of mobile devices, Fromdistance also offers services for mobile journalism or so-called citizen journalism.

The Mobile Professional Reporter service allows media companies to upload the photos or videos made by reporters on the publication’s website within a few seconds. For web portals, the speed of reporting is one of the most essential criteria.

With the Mobile Citizen Reporter service, anyone can instantly send their photos or videos to the publisher of their choice. Since most people now have a camera phone, they can capture any exciting situation or shot, which online portals are happy to publish. This service was declared the most innovative mobile application of 2007, at the Forum Nokia Innovation Event in Amsterdam.

Both of the reporting tools offered by Fromdistance are, among others, used by big Finnish media groups such as MTV3, YLE and Helsingin Sanomat.