Marko Leppik, the founder of the successful Estonian IT company Trinidad Wiseman, says that a number of deals with foreign partners possibly might have failed if they did not have the opportunity to use Estonian country brand materials.
The company, which is focused on user experience designs, business analysis and software development, has introduced Estonia to partners from Singapore, Afghanistan and the island state of Bermuda, where the negotiations were attended by the prime minister of the country. Although the services, experiences and the value offered by the company still play the most important role when establishing new business contacts, the success story of e-Estonia bolsters the reputation of the whole Estonian IT sector.
In Afghanistan Trinidad Wiseman developed a content management system and a design language which is now used by more than 180 government agencies. The goal was to create a platform which meets the needs of ministries as well as smaller government agencies, but also schools which employ people with very different IT skills. Leppik says that they have had to introduce to partners the concepts of e-ID, X-road and e-Education. All these subjects have introductory materials available for download on the Brand Estonia webpage.
To talk about these subjects Trinidad Wiseman has used ready-made presentations, but also modified them to suit their specific needs better. For Leppik the most valuable Brand Estonia assets are the videos introducing Estonia. The videos are of high quality and talk about complex concepts in an easily understandable way and convey a reliable and professional image. “The speaker points in the presentations are also useful as they provide a chance to read up on facts and details about the subject matter,” adds Leppik. He has also used fact sheets, which are a convenient way to find information and statistics that could be of interest to potential partners.
Without the Brand Estonia toolbox, creating materials to introduce Estonia would prove to be too costly both time and money wise to many private companies, as it requires thorough research and high-quality graphic design work.
Leppik noted that the image of Estonia has improved significantly in Singapore over the last five years, now no longer seen as post-soviet country. “I can’t even imagine telling the story of e-Estonia without the supporting materials, they make it just so much easier to build confidence and to be persuasive,” adds Lepik.
With Brand Estonia materials every Estonian company has the chance to tell a more compelling story about themselves by also introducing the success stories of their origin country Estonia.