PrimeKey CEO reflects on 2019

It was an all-around great year full of opportunities, a few challenges, and many interesting customer projects. Because things happen fast in the cybersecurity market, it’s important for PrimeKey to stay on top of trends and ensure our solutions are suitable both now and in the future. PrimeKey grew substantially with new business partners and employees this year. This was specifically driven by increased demands within (I)IoT security and the evolving regulatory landscape. Here are my top 9 reflections on 2019.

1. PrimeKey has a competent product portfolio and other companies value our solutions. We offer security solutions to a diverse range of customers from car manufacturers to advanced government agencies to large international conglomerates and it has never been so evident that all organizations need our products. Organizations need to consider security in all areas from processes and procedure frameworks to operational security and more. Because PrimeKey’s PKI and signing solutions address these challenges, organizations that value controlled access to information and the integrity of that information also value our technology. Regulations like NIS, eIDAS and more, have made more organizations and companies realize the importance of PrimeKey products.

2. Our competencies have grown. With the appointment of Martin Oczko as VP of Products, we believe that our product portfolio will become more cohesive and polished. We’re much more than just a software and a PKI Appliance company now as our product portfolio has grown to include new robust hardware options and an extended cloud offering. The digitized society and the speed in technology development have made PrimeKey’s product offering more relevant to all types of businesses. Just as everyone locks their doors, business owners and organization leaders need to ensure their communication, business intelligence and supply chains are secure. PrimeKey’s products secure units and devices from cradle to grave. We have filled out many delivery forms this year and increased our number of employees in Germany, Sweden and in the US.

3. Interest in PrimeKey’s SEE product is growing. In 2019, we built a solid collection of use cases with our PrimeKey SEE. Among these success stories, I am especially proud of the use cases that involve securing the lifecycle of devices and units from cradle to grave. Working with full-scale production can be challenging, so it’s especially rewarding to see these success stories. The interest companies have in these security solutions at the moment proves that it’s not a question of if companies should have PKI, but how. In 2019, we have taken the appropriate steps to make our PKI solutions more consumable and it’s exciting to see all the interest that is being generated in our security solution for full-scale production.

4. PrimeKey made some great investments. I think that the dinosaur suit that our Customer Support Manager, Pamela Kiewitt, bought was probably the best purchase of the year. Joking aside, a great investment was continuing to expand our team with great people.

5. My favorite event of the year was PrimeKey Tech Days 2019. The traction PrimeKey Tech Days has is really inspiring. PrimeKey Tech Days grew to 180+ specialists this year. Talking with so many competent guests and learning from the excellent presentations is a one-of-a-kind experience. I enjoyed the friendly atmosphere and insightful conversations. With expert speakers from organizations like Cisco and Ericsson, to name a few, the two days in Stockholm flew by and we were left with a great deal of new information and connections.

6. Awards prove we’re doing something right. Winning the Gasell award for the third consecutive year was a great achievement because it shows that we’re doing things right. This award is given to the fastest growing companies in Sweden. We stayed relevant and exceeded annual revenue goals by keeping up with increasingly complex environments (i.g. one car can now have around 50 computers).

7. Bonding with the people you work with makes life better. We had a great company retreat in Lisbon this year which brought all our employees from Germany, Sweden and the US together for team building and planning. I thoroughly enjoyed a cooking exercise there in combination with mingling with everyone. PrimeKey has a fantastic culture of trust and openness along with exceptional work ethics. It’s nice to take time to do things together outside of the usual day-to-day work.

8. A few contributions PrimeKey made to the community include donating to EFF and FSFE. PrimeKey has donated to EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) and FSFE (Free Software Foundation Europe) this year. We are proud to support nonprofits defending digital privacy, free speech, and innovation. With PrimeKey’s community offering, we are happy to be a part of the open source community to give everyone an opportunity to use our software and keep communication safe. As our lives become more digital, PrimeKey continues to stand by our values of excellence, trust and openness. Contributing to these organizations and continuing to offer our community software are a few ways that we live by our values.

9. Three words sum up 2019: Exciting as always. This year was exciting and we’re looking forward to next year. The PrimeKey teams continue to bring exceptional offerings to the market. We’re looking forward to showcasing our now polished product portfolio to the masses now that it’s more consumable. I’m looking forward to engaging in a lot of further cooperation to build partnerships and to ensure our offerings continue to be easy to integrate into all kinds of security solutions now and in the future. PrimeKey continues to reduce auditing risks for our customers with FIPS and Common Criteria certification and through smart product functionality. We continue to make our products available in the cloud (on AWS and Azure), making it easy for all organizations to get a state-of-the-art solution up and running in a matter of hours. In 2020, we will continue growing by offering the best products and flexible deployment options to help customers and partners secure their manufacturing, IoT, information-based business models, and to keep up with the evolving regulatory landscape. We wish everyone a happy holiday season!  

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