Siteimprove to open Helsinki office with extensive accessibility expertise
Nov 11, 2020 - By Kyra Kuik
Helsinki, FINLAND— 11 March 2020
Siteimprove, a digital optimization software company, announced today that they have acquired three employees from Annanpura, a social enterprise owned by Finland’s Association for the Visually Impaired. Siteimprove will also open an office in Helsinki, Finland.
The three Annanpura employees joining Siteimprove specialize in manual accessibility testing and consulting, which lets Siteimprove offer a wider variety of services and implementation plans to customers.
Siteimprove CEO Morten Ebbesen said, “In our experience, software alone doesn’t change results and behavior, but having a technology partner who can guide and advise does. Having some of Europe’s best accessibility advisors and testers on the Siteimprove team means that we can work even more closely with our customers to help them reach the level of accessibility compliance they need to.”
Ville Tuokila, Siteimprove VP of Northern Europe, added “The team from Annanpura has a deep level of manual testing expertise, which complements the Siteimprove Accessibility product and our implementation plans. This team will help our customers get the most out of our product.”
The new accessibility team joins Siteimprove at an opportune time—the EU Web Accessibility Directive has a September 2020 deadline, by which all public sector websites, intranets, and documents published before September 2018 must meet new accessibility requirements.
Siteimprove has been in the Finnish market for five years, having a close partnership with Annanpura for the last three years. The two companies will continue that partnership moving forward. Annanpura’s policy has always been to hire high-performing employees with visual impairments. The three employees moving to Siteimprove, Ari-Pekka Saarela, Kimmo Sääskilahti, and Tero Pesonen, are no exception—all three have visual impairments and are excited to bring their extensive personal and professional experience to Siteimprove.
Saarela mentioned that “We have always enjoyed working with Siteimprove as a company and product, so this move feels very natural.”
Sääskilahti added that “Now we’ll be working with Siteimprove customers from the time they purchase the product, all the way through their accessibility process, so the scope of our new work is deeper and, I believe, more meaningful.”
Pesonen added that “We’re also looking forward to working alongside Siteimprove developers to give them a deeper understanding of how manual accessibility testing and automated testing go hand-in-hand.”
The recently added accessibility team will sit in Siteimprove’s new Helsinki office. Finland is one of Siteimprove’s best performing markets, with notable customers such as City of Helsinki, Helsinki University, and Kela (the Social Insurance Institution of Finland).
Having a Helsinki office will let Siteimprove work even closer with their Finnish customers, including running testing workshops, training, and events. It will also give the Copenhagen-based Finnish team more opportunities to work from Finland.
About Siteimprove
Siteimprove helps marketing teams cut through complexity by making it easier to prioritize work that drives value and delivers growth. Our platform empowers teams with actionable insights that eliminate guesswork and prioritize the most impactful tasks.
Siteimprove has 600+ employees across offices in 15 countries, helping over 7,500 customers achieve their digital potential from a single solution.