Visma

Norwegian software and IT company

Visma is a privately held company headquartered in Oslo, Norway, that provides business software and information technology related development and consultancy. The majority of the company is owned by HgCapital, a private equity firm. The company was formed in 1996 in Norway, through the merging of Multisoft, SpecTec and Dovre Information Systems. The group comprises five business areas: SMB, enterprise, custom solutions, cloud infrastructure services and commerce solutions.

Visma CEO, Øystein Moan (born 1959), earned an MSc in computer science at the University of Oslo. Prior to Visma, Moan was the founder and managing director of Cinet AS. After becoming CEO of the Visma Group in 1997, he grew the company from 300 to 8,500 employees and increased the revenue from NOK 250 million to NOK 11,389 billion (2018 figures). In 2020, Moan was succeeded by Merete Hverven.

1996: The Visma Group had its first year of operations and was listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. Shortly after listing, Visma started operating as a public company. MultiSoft ASA, SpecTec ASA and Dovre Information Systems AS merged. They had three key products: SpecTec (marine), Visma Logistics and Visma Business. 1997: Due to growth ambitions that exceeded the company's resources, the company experienced a financial crisis in the year's second quarter. The company had to be re financed and re structured and most of the management and the Board of Directors were replaced. The turnaround: Øystein Moan joined as CEO and a new strategy was put into action. The new board managed to raise MNOK100 in new share capital but had to lay off 1/3 of its staff. 1999: Visma established subsidiaries in Denmark and United Kingdom. The company made its first step towards SaaS launching Visma Business e commerce and starting work on developing web and WAP extensions of all the Visma applications. 2000: The major event of 2000 was the sale of Visma Marine ASA's operations to Dutch company Station12. Visma received a cash payment of MNOK730. The considerable financial resources was used to generate vigorous growth. The new strategy was to offer both software and outsourcing within accounting, finance and payroll. 2001: Visma acquired (formerly Scandinavian PC Systems), the Swedish market leader within the small business segment. Later in the year, the company entered the Finnish market through the acquisition of Liinos. 2002: With the Spcs developed software “Avendo”, Visma entered the Norwegian micro market. The BPO division entered the Danish market through the acquisition of Bogholderi & Administrasjon and the acquisition of Møre Datasystemer saw Visma enter the public sector. 2003: Visma entered major cooperation agreements with Norway's largest bank (DNB) and the national postal service. 2004: Visma established an electronic data center in Oslo, which processed 2 million incoming invoices in 2005. The company also made big strides in the public sector with debt collection and temp services added to the portfolio. 2005: There was steady growth – both organically and through eleven acquisitions. Visma's Management Trainee program was initiated. 2006–2008: Visma entered the Dutch market through the acquisition of software company AccountView. A change of ownership saw British private equity firm HgCapital become the new majority owner. HgCapital de listed Visma from the Oslo Stock Exchange. 2009: The company's Retail IT division was established, providing retail businesses with hardware and implementation to consultancy and support. This was also the year Visma's signature headquarter building in Skøyen, Oslo was completed ready to house 800 + of the company's Norwegian staff. Visma reached 10,000 SaaS users and became Finland's second largest accounting firm. 2010: KKR acquired a 76.9% ownership in Visma. At the time, the transaction valued Visma at an enterprise value of NOK11 billion. Visma was KKR's first investment in Norway. HgCapital, the previous majority owner of Visma, retained a significant minority ownership of 17.7% Management of Visma increased its ownership in the business to 5.3%. Earlier that year, Visma entered the IT consultancy market in Norway, Sweden and Denmark through the acquisition of Sirius IT. 2011: In Norway, Visma acquired Mamut, its rival in the micro segment. Included in the acquisition was an international web hosting company Active24. 2012: Visma launched Visma. net – for small and medium sized businesses. At the launch, the suite included ERP, CRM and Expense Management. Later that year, Visma introduced Net Promoter Score – a renowned customer satisfaction and nurturing program. 2013: Visma signed its biggest deal to date to develop administrative and communication solutions for Norwegian schools. Through the acquisition of the Duetto Group, Visma entered the Finnish debt collection market. 2014: Visma widened its shareholder base to include Cinven and was valued at NOK21 billion. The new owner structure became Cinven, HgCapital and KKR with 31.3% ownership each, and the Visma management with 6% ownership. 2015: Visma established a new business unit – Visma Employee Management – dedicated to payroll and HRM outsourcing services. Visma also conducted several major acquisitions: e conomic (DK), SpeedLedger (SE), Huldt & Lillevik(NO), PBJ (DK), Viklo Oy (FI), Aditro Public (SE), Digital Booker (FI) and Abalon (SE). 2016: Visma sold its BPO division (outsourced accounting, payroll and HR services) to HgCapital to focus on its position as a cloud software company for business customers. Visma also acquired 20+ cloud software companies all over Europe. 2017: Through acquiring Bluegarden, Visma's largest acquisition to date, the company gained a significant position in the Danish payroll segment. During the year, Visma acquired a total of 12 companies, among them were Admincontrol, Megaflex Oy and NYCE solutions, expanding its offering in several new business areas. In June 2017, Visma's shareholder structure changed after KKR sold its entire remaining stake in Visma to an investor group led by HgCapital together with GIC, Montagu and ICG. 2018: Visma acquired Raet, a large Dutch enterprise providing payroll and HCM (Human Capital Management) software. 2019: Visma had a total turnover of NOK 16,500,000,000. 2020: Visma acquired Yuki, a Dutch bookkeeping software platform. 2021: Visma acquired ProSaldo. net, an Austrian bookkeeping and billing software platform, and Holded, a Spanish ERP and accounting company. 2022: Visma acquired Dutch financial software company Lyanthe and Belgian software developers IonProjects and Teamleader. Visma sold one of its Lithuanian subsidiaries to CVC Capital Partners. The remaining one is Visma's external programming service, based in Vilnius CBD. 2023: Visma acquired German financial software companies H&H and Buchungsbutler.

Visma has been the title sponsor of Visma Ski Classics, a long distance ski championship, since 2015. In 2018, Visma signed a five year sponsorship deal with the professional road cycling team Team Jumbo Visma, which was one of the teams that competed in the UCI World Tour. As Visma was one of the team's two named sponsors, the team had entered the 2019 season under its new name Team Jumbo Visma. The team won the 2022 Tour de France with Jonas Vingegaard, the 2023 Giro d'Italia with Primož Roglič, the 2023 Tour de France with Jonas Vingegaard, and the 2023 Vuelta a España with Sepp Kuss. It also took the Green Jersey in Le Tour de France Femmes with Marianne Vos. Following the change of the CEO at Jumbo and its subsequent withdrawal from World Tour cycling sponsorship, from the beginning of the 2024 season, Visma took over as the primary sponsor for the team now called Visma Lease a Bike.