Okay? Oh, yeah. Okay. All right, let's start again. So, warmly welcome, everybody, to this Capital Markets Day 2023. My name is Karoliina Malmi, and I'm the head of Communications and Sustainability at Bittium. I'm quite excited to see so many friendly faces here today. We have also a lot of people participating online, so welcome to you, too. Bittium has been going through a lot of changes during the last years, and one of which being as we have transformed the company from service-based business to a house with own strong products. During the last years, we have developed these businesses further, more towards independent business units. And today, we are going to talk about the updated strategy, which we have announced today in the morning. And...
We will also take a bit of time to go through the journey from the past years. We made a few very exciting announcements last week, and we are going to address them as well. Some practicalities for Q&A. Here in the audience, if you have questions, just raise your hand, and a mic will be brought to you. Those online, you have this box, chat box, where you can just type your question, and I'll make sure we address them here as well. We have reserved quite a lot of time for Q&A, so after each presentation, you will have the opportunity to ask questions regarding the presentation.
If you have any other questions regarding the practicalities here, there is Heidi, you met her at the entrance registration, and her colleague. Just ask them if there's something that they can assist you with. I think that's it. We also have our products presented in the room here next to you, and after the show presentations, you can stick around and talk with our executives as well and see our products there alive. But before going into the agenda, I'd like to start with our brand-new company video, which we launch now.
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With world-leading solutions for tactical communications, Bittium provides the best technology for those who keep us safe.
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As a pioneer of mobile communication technologies, Bittium enables security and peace of mind for those who handle critical information.
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Okay, then next, I would like to invite our CEO, Mr. Johan Westermarck, on stage, please.
So welcome to Capital Market Day, and today we're gonna go through the updated strategy. We saw the agenda here earlier, and really to give you a better picture of what's happening in the company at the moment. But before we go into those, maybe a few words about myself. So I have been now with Bittium since April this year, and before joining Bittium, look at my history, work history, so I started my work at Ahlstrom Machinery. And really the key there was what is a strong product, process equipment company, nowadays known as Andritz Pulp and Paper, and my job in the latter part was there to build a service business along the around the product portfolio. Then I have continued.
I've been in Elcoteq, and that's really been interesting when we can see the supply chain management, when you go into production of electronics and products, how do you have to understand really the whole processes, estimates, everything has to work fluently. And then I had been working with Eltel Networks. I picked up there a few things. There was in Germany, that was a turnaround case. Also making unit had to so get some growth and some profitability in place. We're able to do that. Then, Maintpartner in Sweden and Finland, turnaround cases and growth.
And then my last, before joining Bittium, I worked for for Citec Group, and that was owned by private equity, and there as well was starting from a little bit challenging profitability levels, not seeing the growth and and was able to to support with a good team in place to reach these targets. But that's a few words about myself and my background. But let's have a look at our team here. So this is the team that we have been working with to update the strategy. Business segments. The heads of business segments, we have Tommi Kangas here. We have Antti Näykki on the medical, and Jari Inget on the Engineering Services. Here we have really strong know-how and experience of how Bittium is working. Then we have the rest of my team here, and and we have Karoliina.
You all met her here, communications and sustainability. Kari Jokela, not here with us today, but he's the Legal Officer. And then we have two new persons that joined during the summer, Laura Kauppinen, over there. And Laura has been working with several companies to build up efficient lean organizations, managing the change. And then we have Antti Keränen, CFO, and Antti Keränen has a strong background in the private equity and has been working with companies to change companies towards profitable growth. So this is the team working on. And I would also like to introduce here, we have the Chairman of the Board, Erkki Veikkolainen, in place. So let's have a look at the journey. Before we go into the strategy updates, a little bit look in the past.
See, since 2015, where the company has been, we call it, call it R&D phase. Really strong focus on developing new competitive products. Then we're gonna look at the current stage, where are we today? And then we will look into the next two years, what we will focus on. So the R&D phase. Here we had R&D in the center of our business, and we have developed strong, strong development in tactical communications products, which you will also see there in the room next to us, and we will have it in the presentations a bit later here, and then also developing medtech products. So we are in a good position there. And let's have a look at the history. So we can see here from 2015, we were called... Before that, we were called Elektrobit.
We sold the automotive business, and with that also the name was changed. In 2015, we got the new name, Bittium. And a lot of this sale of the automotive business money were used to develop the products that we have today, changing the company to a product house. And here we can see that 2016, we have entered the medical business. We acquired the Mega companies, so we got the product portfolio in the medical business, and also we had a significant. We lost one significant customers with [audio distortion] . And also, we got the first with TAC WIN in Estonia. Then 2017, we can see several frame agreements working with Finnish Defence Forces , LOI, and also we got a shareholding in Coronaria.
And here, 2018, purchase agreement, Finnish Defence Forces, frame agreement, Finnish Defence Forces, MEXSAT delivery started, and also cooperation with Austria, with the TAC WIN. At the same time, on the medical side, we got several approvals, FDA approvals, CE approvals for our medical equipment. And this was also the stage when we had the first frame agreement in place with Preventice, which now is known as Boston Scientific. Tough Mobile 2019 was launched, Tough Mobile 2. Frame agreement, continued working with Finnish Defence Forces, so we have really strong history with Finnish Defence Forces. Here for TAC WIN, EUR 30 million. And then we had also frame agreement again with Preventice. 2021, we launched the Respiro sleep apnea equipment. 2022, first Tough SDR deliveries to Finnish Defence started to do those.
MDR approvals for Respiro, and also then a new frame agreement with Boston Scientific. So we can see in the history, systematically growing the company towards a product house. Challenges, what we have had. We can see the net sales development during the years has been modest, and also the profitability has not been on the level that we should have it. So let's have a look, where are we today? Today, we have really top-notch expertise and know-how in the company. We have really competitive, good products, we have strong customer base, and we have mega trends supporting our business. These are the strengths. Challenges: we are still in the R&D mode of operation, and this is something that we have to change the culture, and that is what we are doing now.
We have a heavy cost structure, and then growth and profitability is a challenge. So let's look at the challenges. Here we can see the, the last 12 months, if you look at the, turnaround, turnover, and on the right-hand side, you can see how the first 9 months have been developing this year. And it's clear: growth and profitability is not on the level it should be. So this is the thing that we are now addressing. Let's go to the strengths, what we have. Excellent know-how in the company. We have products and services, and these we have in the three business segments that we have. We have defense security, we have medical and Engineering Services. In addition to that, really good customers, of which we can highlight there is one new there, is ResMed, that we just came out with a press release.
Let's look at the mega trends that's supporting our business. If you look at the geopolitical uncertainty, what's happening in Ukraine, what's happening in Middle East, it's clearly something that countries are now focusing on defense, increasing their defense spending. First wave is consumables, ammunition, that needs to have in place, but at the same time, we see that the situation in Ukraine, how important it is to have mobile troops, good communication, and not just speaking or discussing. We're talking about communication is streaming pictures, videos, everything, having them mobile. Information security. So happening in the world, cyberattacks increasing. How do we ensure secure communication? Accelerating technology development, IoT. Whatever you can do, wireless, embedded, get information from your devices around the world is increasing. Digitalization of healthcare and aging population.
So we are challenging with hospital, overloaded hospitals, so whatever we can do to increase the diagnostics, home remote diagnostics, is growing. So we can see these are mega trends that clearly support Bittium business. And where are we so far? What have we done so far in this strategy? So we have updated the strategy. It's not a new strategy. There is a good strategy that has been set a year ago. Now we have updated, now we are implementing it towards more independent business segments, bringing transparency into what we do . Defence, security, medical, and Engineering Services. We have chosen the products that we will focus on. We have a good product portfolio, and at the moment, we will focus on the existing product portfolio. We will continue to invest.
We will invest in the current products, making them more competitive, better quality, and continue development in this area. So products and services, the existing ones are the ones we're gonna invest in. Focus on key accounts that we have set up, and that is something that we have a strong relationship, good customers, making sure that we get really the share of wallet there to build a partnership. And then, lean segment organization, put that in place. Also, what we have looked into and taking actions, is to make sure that we get a healthier cost structure... streamlined organization, the processes, efficient way of working, and we will continue to have additional cost savings. One action we have taken here is the change negotiations, which I guess you have all read. So what are we gonna do the next two years? Focus on profitability, growth, cash flow.
Focus on managing customers, existing customers, and also acquiring new customers. Focus on selected products and services, and really focus on develop these products and services to continue to make sure they are best in the world. And then efficient way of working, the organization. So here you can see our core competencies, our mission and vision, and you can all read what's in there. But I wanna highlight something that you can see in all three of these. This is where we are the best: secure embedded technology. And at the same time, strategic intent tend to grow from an R&D house to a growth-oriented technology company. That's the change, with strong product portfolio. And here we see focus areas, key focus areas in the strategy, what we're gonna do and focus on in the next two years.
We have product services, we have sales, operations, processes, and lean segment organization. Let's start with the products and services. Here we have product families, defense, security, Tough SDR, SDR. We have the TAC WIN, Tough VoIP, and also what we have here is the Tough Mobile 2. The medical side, we have the sleep apnea, cardiac, Faros, and neurology, neurology and analysis. Engineering services focus on telecom, telecom customers, working closely with them, what we have done in the past, and also industry IoT. These are the areas we will focus the next two years. Cutting sales, we will focus on key accounts. We have really good, strong customers that will bring-- can bring us... have brought us opportunities so far, but has additional opportunities to us.
So make sure we take good care of the existing customers, and that's a best reference for us for marketing as well. Additional to that, we have to get new customers, and we will do that. Focus on new customers, so we will have both new customers and key account management. We will put in a systematic way of working. How do we manage key accounts? How do we make sure we get win the new customers? And here as well, have to make sure that we have the right persons in the right places to do this. Last thing here is the high forecast accuracy. This is something we have to, by having a really close cooperation with the existing customers, new customers, to get a better accuracy in the estimates, understanding what's coming. That we will focus really strongly on. Then, operations.
Focus on efficiency, efficient production and delivery processes. Here I wanna highlight one. There are several processes that we are focusing, making sure that we work efficiently, but one that is really the key for us in the change, the sales and operations process. Making sure that the sales estimates everything throughout the whole supply chain that we get in there is efficient and top quality. This will help us to make efficient the material handling, and we will also build, use ecosystem partners to help us ensure flexibility and scalability, and making sure the product quality is best possible. Lean segment organization. This is the organization that will be in place first of November... and here we have strong, more independent business segments. We have the Medical, Defence Security, Engineering Services, supported by the enabling functions: finance, legal, risk, security, development, business solutions, communication, and sustainability.
We will have stronger independent business segments, and we will streamline the group organization. Group organization before the change, we had a group organization of 120 persons+ . After the change, we have a group organization of approximately 50 persons. Many of these persons will be also moved into the business segments. At the same time, you have read about the change negotiations, with 61 layoffs, eight termination, temporary layoffs and temporary layoffs, this eight persons. This is a lean organization, the processes behind it. Our targets. Financial outlook for this year, we came out with an updated outlook, September 15th. That has not changed. Long-term financial target has not changed either. Average annual net sales growth, more than 10%, and an operating profit level of 10% is something that we estimate to achieve these goals in 2024.
These are the actions that we have taken in the strategy. Healthier cost structure support us to reach these targets. Now-
Okay, I think it's time for Q&A, and I'd like to give you the opportunity to ask the questions first here in the audience, if you have any questions regarding this.
Yeah, this is Joakim Lind from Inderes. Couple of questions. First of all, I think, there's a kind of consensus that you have high-quality products, but so far, the growth and the sales figures have not been exactly great. So how are you going to win new customers? Do you have some kind of new idea about how to go to market and find those clients that are helping you grow?
I think if you look at our products, what we have out there, and service as well, something that is clear in our strategy is now let's focus on the key accounts, the customers that we have. There is room to grow with these already, and at the same time, what we need to have is good references. So we have got good references, the market, existing customers goes out there, tell our products are great, they work as they should, this is something that we will then use as reference, as marketing to win new customers. So we will focus on existing customers, but additional to that, also look for new customers and have this systematically managed. How do we manage this? These are, you could say, farmers and hunters.
All right. Fair enough. Another question about the group function. I guess you said over 120 persons for it were in it before, and now something like 50. What actually was going on in the group before? Because it seems like a really high figure, even though I understand that the overall, the whole structure was different then, but what kind of business people are leaving the company now? Could you tell, are they in sales, or are they in R&D of our own products, or what is being cut?
I think I will not go into details there, but what we are doing now is going through the processes. What we have changed is, as I said, I'm not saying that we have gone through an R&D phase. We have built a company, the product portfolio that we have today, and this is the solid foundation from where we can take the next step and take the growth, profitable growth. So I don't wanna look backwards, saying what's done and so forth. A lot of good things have been done. Now we are here. Now we have the opportunity. When it's coming to this, what kind of people when we had the layoffs, so it's more like when we go through the processes, how do we make sure we work efficiently from one into another?
This is what we went through, and there we got this, that this is how we can really streamline the organization. As I said, the layoffs. This is unfortunate. This is not something that we would like to do, but we had to do it.
Yeah, I don't want the layoffs either, but I just hoping to understand what was going on before.
Mm-hmm
And what has changed. But anyway, final question for me: Could you give us some kind of idea, what are the IR, R&D costs going to be in the coming years? Because of course, they have been... This phase is over, and you are continuing to develop your current products.... But, it's kind of difficult to say how much they actually need and, how much has been done in some other, other areas that are now cutting.
At the moment, what I can say is that we will continue to develop, we will continue to have R&D to make sure our products are today and tomorrow competitive. So we will do that. Saying exactly what's gonna be the level from here for what it's too early. We are now in the phase of going through. We will see that exactly these product families, how much are we gonna develop them? How are we gonna do this? We are in the budgeting phase going through, so we will have more information later on this one, but at the moment, we do not have this information available.
Thank you.
Okay, thank you. Any other questions here? I can take one question here online. So, what do you think, what is the main reason for company situation... financial situation and lack of sales?
I think it's. Maybe you can so I said, it's we are going through the R&D phase. We have done this. We have now the products, everything, and I would like to put more in the phase that, what are we gonna do next? And not focusing on what we should have been doing. So now we have a solid foundation for growth, and now we're taking the steps and actions to get the growth and have a healthier cost structure to make a healthy company.
Correct, yes. Okay, then, here is another question regarding the component shortage, which we have also disclosed that has eased during this year. But however, there are some geopolitical changes in the world, especially in the Taiwan region. Is the company tending now to increase the stock value to cope with the possible component shortage to come?
I think it's component shortage. First, we talked about the COVID, what's happening in that area, and I think that there we can see that the reason for this one is now we are getting back to normal during this year. But component shortage is something we don't know. What's the uncertainty in the world? What's happening there? And we have to secure that we get the critical components. But if somebody asks that, are we gonna start to increase our inventory to this, that's not the solution. It's a solution to negotiate and make sure we get the components on the right time, in the right place.
Okay. Thank you. In the meantime, any questions from the audience that's raised? There are quite many questions here online regarding financial figures, also financial targets, EBITDA, capital structure, and so forth. But these are not things that we are able to disclose at the moment, and I will skip them now, and if something comes, we will address them later. Yeah, there are a couple of product-related questions, but I will address them later when our business segment heads are presenting. So I'll come back to that. But now, if there are any question- are any questions at this moment, we will take the next step, and I thank you, Johan. And I would kindly like to invite Mr. Antti Näykki, the head of our medical business segment, to stage. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
Good afternoon, everyone, also on my behalf, and welcome to this Capital Markets Day of Bittium. First, I would like to introduce myself. I have a long experience in different product-related roles, being as a product manager and being selling different products and solutions to market, managing sales team, and being general management positions throughout my career, internationally and globally. I've been working with Bittium a bit over four years, and with two last years working as senior vice president of our medical business segment. I will also, after Johan's presentation, go a bit more into the details of medical segment's focus areas. What are our key targets there? What are our focus markets, focus customers?
Kind of more into the go-to-market strategy, and then also talk about a bit more in details about market trends that do address our business in medical segment. In medical technology market in overall, significant developments have been taking place—how to diagnose patients remotely. And this is something also that drives us forward in our daily operations when we enhance our product and develop them and bring them into the markets. A few words about our key competencies. We can proudly say that we already have today a very strong position with some of our solution, namely Faros device, in the market. We have proven our world-class technology know-how working with one of the leading companies in the world, Boston Scientific, on that front.
We want to make a difference in the market, with our advanced technology, with our quality and innovative, innovative products, combined, with economic, competitiveness. So we want to combine all of them, to make products and solutions that can really make a difference. In medical, business segment, I would say that biosignal know-how is our foundation. What is our strength point, and this is something that we will continue to build, our offering and growth, within the business segment. Then few words about the market trends and how they, how we see them affecting our businesses. Overall, the aging population makes the remote monitoring services critical. That's one part.
The second thing is, nevertheless, what your age is, the early detection of any symptoms is critical, if and when we want to decrease the overall expenditure in healthcare globally. Those are really driving the change towards home-based monitoring. Of course, Johan already mentioned in his presentation the importance of digitalization also in medical. This is made to help that everyone, or we can help the healthcare professionals, in terms of resource shortages, but also help decrease the rising costs, and also bring into the market more efficient and also better available services for everyone. There are, of course, certain technical aspects that also are needed, and which are driving the market. One is, of course, the assistance of artificial intelligence.
We want to improve the time used in the process when diagnosing different symptoms. The second thing is, that goes very closely to our core competencies, is secure IoT. We want to have built a robust device that can really capture high-quality biosignals, but at the same time, we want to make sure that biosignal that we do capture is secured in the device and secured on the way, all the way, during the diagnosis process and after that. Remote monitoring market is in double-digit growth globally, and based on the recent studies, it will be in the growth mode for years to come. We work here at Bittium in three different areas of expertise: cardiology, EEG neurology, and home sleep apnea testing.
On the left-hand side, EEG monitoring has been developed the most from our businesses. Then, on the right-hand side, home sleep apnea testing, where we are starting our market efforts. And both of these really go that we can assist our customers to be more efficient in their daily lives, and also provide the monitoring of biosignals in home environment. This, of course, impacts the costs related to the healthcare sector, but also improves the patient compatibility that they can do the measurement in their own environments.
With our cardiology portfolio and home sleep apnea testing, there our key customer segments are value-added resellers, meaning that our customers can utilize our technology as part of their offering and enrich that in the parts that they want. In many cases, they have international or global reach, for example, Boston Scientific being a good example here. Then also service providers that can be more local, and they offer the dedicated service in their countries. And the same key customer groups are also in home sleep apnea testing, where we target the also value-added resellers, that can have a global reach, and also at the same time, service providers that offer that service in individual countries.
Our Brain Status product for EEG monitoring is targeted mainly on intensive care units, ICUs, where our key customer groups also are value-added resellers, but also individual hospitals in selected countries. I will go a bit more in details about this in a second. In EEG, ECG, we have accessed the market already in 2015. The first major deal was done a couple years later with Preventice at that time. We have also developed our market throughout Europe, in selected Middle East African countries, and latest also additions into certain Asian countries where we are present. We are very well known about the high quality of the biosignal.
Also, we can offer full end-to-end offering to our customers, or then our customers can select different parts from our portfolio. Then, measuring home sleep apnea. Our latest addition to our portfolio is Respiro product family. And as Johan said, we were proudly to present the cooperation, which was launched with ResMed to selected European countries. And that gives a kind of good reference that one of the world-leading sleep domain brands is trusting Bittium technology. Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder that often goes undiagnosed for many people. There are studies that almost 1 billion people are having some obstructive sleep apnea symptoms. It's at the same time a very undiagnosed sleep disorder, and there is definitely room for growth.
But how Bittium can really help here? So we have taken into consideration that we have a small device with the latest technology, with the accessories that are needed to conduct the measurement. At the same time, we have one of the first cloud-based, fully cloud-based analysis tools and platforms, together with the traditional measurement type. So combining this, we are in a good position to enter the market. We are one of the first ones to have a MDR or, or CE mark device for European market, and we are in a process to get the FDA approval done also. The global sleep domain business is more than $4 billion. The diagnostic part of that is a bit short of $1 billion.
Also, this front is highly in rise. At the same time, there's also a lot of outdated technology used, so together, these offer growth possibilities for Bittium. Our BrainStatus tool solution that is targeted for intensive care units, first of all, it's very easily and rapidly applicable. It can be set up in minutes rather than the traditional ones that will take several tens of minutes or more than an hour. This is very critical, especially in the early path of the diagnosis, that the medical experts can then make the right diagnostics and start the right treatment processes that they will need. Of course, combining this with high signal quality and location-integrated data analysis, this last one is also very important.
So there are not that many experts in individual countries, and we can offer the data for them remotely and securely. We were. During the COVID, we were not able to access any of the ICU units for a reason, and that took two years from the business development stages, and we are now reentering this market, and doing market development. We have done first deals and deliveries with university hospitals, both here in Finland and in certain Central European countries. It is estimated that this market will grow significantly during the next years, and Bittium targets to be part of this. Few words about our key strengths.
So we have already proven world-class biosignal quality, and we are one of the leading Holter device manufacturers in the world. We also have gained credibility with our customer base, with the, to mention Boston Scientific and ResMed, but also with our local partners. Way of working, we want to be a trusted and transparent partner, both for our customers, but also for our ecosystem partners. We can deliver from devices to accessories to analysis, a full end-to-end solutions in these selected segments. And then, ecosystem network, we are utilizing that in different parts of the design, manufacturing and development, and maintaining of our tools to gain also better market access and improve our competitiveness. Then, how are we gonna do the growth?
So I think there are certainly things that are favoring us from the market needs point of view, and we are addressing those points very well. We are in a good position with our products that are ready for the market. There are certain things that we will continue to invest. There are certain things that we need to have additional regulatory approvals, but we will address all of them. Of course, remote monitoring and the methods around that is on the rise, and we will, together with our partners and customers, address them. We will have a clear focus on selected services.
We will further develop our know-how, and we will focus on those three segments: cardiology, home sleep apnea, and neuro EEG, and really build our foundation on top of them. Then also, as in Johan’s presentation, we want to grow with our key customers. We want to maintain long and strategic partnerships, as we have already done with Preventice, and then after that, Boston Scientific. Of course, we are seeking continuously new customers, new key customers, and addressing the markets that we see that is our potential for us in short and long term. But thank you. I think we can then have a couple of questions.
Yes, thank you, Antti. Questions from the audience first.
Yeah, this is Joakim Lind again. I have questions about the ResMed cooperation. Is there some kind of a minimum commitment that they are going to purchase some amount of devices, or is it just a cooperation now, and hopefully sales will follow?
I think as in the press release was stated, it's a non-exclusive agreement that they will start to utilize our technology in certain, or let's say in selected European countries, and I cannot address any more details about the structure of the frame agreement.
I suppose you won't comment on your targets about the cooperations.
In general level, I can comment that of course, we want to build a Respiro product family in a general, as a strong addition to our market access.
All right. One more question about this cooperation. Is it going to be a Bittium Respiro that they are going to be selling, or is it going to be some white label, like as far as I remember, it was with Preventice?
It will be a Bittium Respiro brand.
All right, thanks. And, you were talking about recurring revenue, and, as far as I remember, you haven't published any figures regarding it, but, could you give some kind of a amount? What is the medical, business, recurring revenue level, and how are you going to... How are you, how are you thinking about, growing it? I suppose it's coming from software at least.
I think as we haven't disclosed the numbers, I cannot comment, but I can... In general, what I can say, there are a couple of things that are in the recurring revenue area. One is that, when we sell our physical devices, we sell them with accessories, which generates recurring revenue with every measurement that has been done. And then the second aspect is the software. So these are the components that the recurring revenue comes, but, as we haven't disclosed the numbers, I cannot comment the percentage on that one.
But, I will just make sure, more units you will sell, and they are being used more and more, you will get more and more revenue. It's not tied to the-
Correct, if they are using our accessories in the measurement phase. That's correct.
All right. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Okay, thank you. Any other questions here?... Okay, but I have quite many online. So, there are a lot of questions regarding, ResMed and the deal. And I think you covered them all, but, one question related to U.S. market: do you think that there could be a help from, ResMed for our, FDA approval, for Respiro?
I think it's very early to say about that part, so I would not probably comment on that.
Okay. However, about the FDA, how is it going? There are many questions related to that. Can you tell us the latest update on that?
Yeah, so, we have been in communication with the FDA regulatory authorities, and we have received their feedback. And it will look certainly that we need to do additional clinical trials in U.S. We are using also external partners to conduct those clinical trials. Together with the clinical trials needed with the FDA process, I think we are currently looking something 12 months or upwards, that the process will take before we have a FDA approval for U.S. market.
Okay, thank you. So can you tell us more about how the physicians have reacted or how they have been commenting our Respiro when they have been trying it?
Yeah, so, overall, the feedback has been very positive. And, yes, that's true that we have done a lot of commercial pilots throughout Europe, and the feedback has been good, both from the healthcare professionals, but also from the business people.
Okay, that's great. What about competition? Who are your competitors in each segment?
Okay, I can mention a few of them. So of course, in cardiology, the biggest competitors are iRhythm and BioTelemetry, that is, a subsidiary of Philips. Then there are a number of others, more local, but those are the biggest one. Then in home sleep apnea, there are Nox Medical, Itamar, SOMNOmedics, to mention a few. Then with our BrainStatus, in neuro EEG, there are Ceribell from U.S., Nihon Kohden, and that's at least a good picture of our competitive landscape. So there is a good mix of well-established public companies and also scale-up phase companies that are strongly financed.
Okay. Can you tell us where the best possible growth is in, from our perspective, cardiac, sleep or neuro, or in which stages we are in?
Yeah, as I mentioned in my presentation, that we are in different stages of all of the three business segments. Of course, there's still a lot of room to growth in the cardiology, and we have a good position to continue that growth internationally, that's for sure. Then, of course, home sleep apnea market is something that we are entering, so we are looking that that will be our one of our key drivers for future. And with BrainStatus, I think before it's starting to generate significant revenues, it will take still some kind of business development work and strong references from the medical segment that we are there also in the right path.
Thank you. What are challenges that you are facing in growing this business?
Of course, there are challenges like in any business. One of the challenges has been that not always all the regulatory work goes as planned in a Excel sheet, but that's very typical in our industry. Also, other companies face the same challenges. Regulatory authorities also the all the regulatory approval processes develop constantly, and we need to develop also ourselves. That's definitely one thing. Then, of course, we were very unfortunate during past two years that we did suffer quite a bit about the component shortage. And also, as Johan said, we are now in a much better position there, but that was definitely something. And also, that it takes time, especially to develop a strategic partnership.
It will take a lot of time and also effort. That's also something that we are very willing to work with.
Okay, thank you. And the final question, it's about AI. So what, what does it mean in your business, and what's your strategy in it?
Yeah, so, we are utilizing AI in our home sleep apnea solution. Our Respiro analysis is utilizing AI-enabled analysis. Also, in cardiology, we are developing algorithms to be more efficient, to be more accurate in the analysis part. And also in BrainStatus part, we also are using ecosystem partners, and they are using AI in the final analysis. So AI has a definitely a big role currently already in with our products. It will continue to have even more in the future, and I think there will be a combination of AI, both in the device level and also on the analysis level. So definitely plays a critical role now and in the future.
Okay. I will ask just one more question because they are keep coming up. I know the time is running, but about the ResMed case, one more question. Why exactly those countries? Does it have something behind, like from the market perspective, or why did you choose these specific countries?
There's no specific reason for those markets, but I think if you look kind of from the reimbursement point of view, those countries do offer good reimbursement. So, that's one of the things that kind of drives also the market, not only in the home sleep apnea, but also in the cardiology and short- and long-term Holter measurement business, that the countries that have the best reimbursement also have the most lucrative business models for service providers in those countries.
Exactly. Thank you, Antti, very much.
Thank you.
Okay, I think it's time to move forward, and I would like to invite here now Tommi Kangas, our head of our Defense and Security business.
Okay. Hello, everyone, and welcome to this Capital Markets Day from my behalf also. My name is Tommi Kangas, and I have over 25 years experience, and I have been working for 25 years for Bittium, previously for Elektrobit. I have a strong experience in R&D projects and sales and business management. I have, for example, been in sales over 10 years, selling our R&D services and also our products. In the previous task which I had, I was leading this Engineering Services business unit for four years. And now I'm leading. I started as head of Defense and Security business unit in mid of August this year, so 2.5 months.
Okay, so I will give you a strategy update, which is in a nutshell, so that we will focus on our existing products and system sales, and then we will focus on our customers, key customers, and also we will target, and we will go to the profitable growth. I will go through where we are the best in the world, what are our market trends, and also what is our offering, and what are our strengths. And then finally, what are the growth drivers which we expect that we can get this final target, which we have set for the whole company. So this is where we are the best in the world. Our competitive advantage is top-level defense communications architecture and product portfolio. We have superior waveform quality.
We have also ability to integrate our solutions for our customer systems. And then also, we support for sovereignty. It means that end users can maintain their systems in a crisis situations by themselves. Okay, let's talk about market trends which are supporting our growth. I will give you some examples. Digitalization of the troops. There is an increasing data throughput and growing demand for mobility all the time. That will help us also sell our products and systems. Air defense systems and sensors, modernization is needed. There will be high-quality video and data stream capability needs all the time, and they will increase all the time. And then active NATO membership. We will believe, and we are already going to the new forums.
We will get the new opportunities for, for the product sales and also for the programs, R&D programs, where we can develop on new technologies. And we will get their business growth in a long term. We have analyzed also market sizes, so for total market of tactical networks and radios, it's expected to be $16 billion by 2027, and this is from MarketsandMarkets report 2022. And then total market of ultra-secure smartphones, it's expected to be $4.9 billion by 2025. It's from Allied Market Research 2019. Okay, I will show you our product offering about our tactical communication systems. You can see here the illustrated picture about the battlefield.
There are these command posts, then there are vehicles, and also soldiers. The broadband backbone is needed to be built for the whole network, so that the communication can be done. This will be done by Bittium TAC WIN Broadband IP network. And then we will need also radio communication between the command posts, vehicular, and also the soldiers. And this can be done by Bittium Tough software-defined radios, which are both vehicular and handheld devices. And this connects soldiers and enables mobility of the troops. And finally, we also have this kind of routing possibility, automatic routing possibility for voice over IP and routing in tactical networks done by Bittium Tough VoIP phones. I will talk something about waveforms also.
Waveform is a software that takes care that the data and voice gets through from one place to another. And I would like to emphasize also the importance of waveform development. The waveforms are at the core of the performance in tactical communication systems. Those are the core of the high-level voice and data performance, and those are also the core for security and reliability of the network. And this all, this hardware and software, creates our tactical communications hardware and software architecture, and we will continue to develop and maintain these products by quality, by functions, and to meet the evolution of electronic warfare. Then I will give you some strengths in our tactical communications.
So Bittium TAC WIN for military use and peer-to-peer warfare, there is wide bandwidth with high data rates and automatic network configuration, low information latency, it's less than 20 milliseconds, and mobile and quickly self-healing for mobile ad hoc network routing. Then, Bittium Tough SDR radios for connecting mobile troops to command centers. Versatile RF performance. As it is software, it can be easily upgraded, and it is easy to adapt to different situations. Superior IP MANET, mobile ad hoc network, connecting vehicles and dismounted soldiers, and uncompromised security. Waveforms are at the core of high-level data performance, security, and reliability of the network, as I said in the previous slide already. Then, I would like to show you also our high-security product offering, Bittium Tough Mobile 2 is here in my hands. Bittium has a strong know-how and unique product portfolio in the secure communications area.
We have high secure products and systems. We have three product families in this area. Bittium Tough Mobile 2, with three separate variants in the same platform. Those are used, for example, by governmental high-level officers, but also for tactical communications device with SDR radios. Bittium Secure Suite, used for device management and encryption of the data. Bittium Secure Call, secure voice, video, and messaging application with end-to-end encryption. The highest level of security can be done with Bittium Tough Mobile 2, included with the Secure Suite and Secure Call, which creates a confidential level certification. And then our tactical communications and security system provides following strengths: superior situational awareness from frontline troops to brigade level, next-level performance, effectiveness of tactical troops, leading the troops is easier based on the up-to-date situational awareness, and more reliable connections. Routing excellence. Dynamic routing capabilities improve network reliability.
The highest level of security for mobile communications. That mobile is a system of security in the device itself and its software. Then let's go through these factors which are accelerating our growth and which are helping us to get this target which we have set to ours. There are market need for modern tactical communication systems. Increasing demand of situational awareness and command of mobile troops. It's increasing all the time. Active NATO membership, we expect to have positive effect on the demand for Bittium's products and systems. Growth with key customers. We have strong key customers which we are developing all the time, and we will have a strategic long-term cooperation with them, but we also seek for new customers.
There are some examples about our key customers: Finnish Defence Forces, Estonian Defence Forces, and Austrian Armed Forces. Then growth with the partners. We have several partners for different purposes. We have integrators, who are the companies who integrate third-party solutions and devices to the end system, which they provide for the defense forces. And then we have the system providers, who are having some own system, for example, air defense system, where they need some kind of tactical communication to be integrated, and we can help them to provide our tactical communication system to them. And they will then provide that whole system to, for example, air defense system for some army. Then we have international cooperation with NATO and Association of Finnish Defence and Aerospace Industries, AFDA, which called PIA in Finnish.
And then we have R&D cooperation with ESSOR, and several, actually, several European defense industrial associations:European Defence Industrial Development Programme , European Defence Fund, European Defence Agency, and then also with Business Finland. I think that was all about my presentation. It might be the time for questions then.
Yes, thank you, Tommi, very much, and first, the questions from the audience, please.
This is Joakim again. First of all, this is a kind of a broad question, but, could you give us a overview of the tenders that are currently ongoing in tactical communication? I suppose, Europe is the area that we are focused on.
I think that I am not able to do that.
Yes, I think you are referring to tenders after now, the Russians' invasion to Ukraine and the tenders.
Yeah, any update on the countries that are possibly going to update-
Yeah
... their tactical communication equipment and are tendering for that?
Yeah. I actually looked at it before this event, and we are not currently able to disclose those, some of which may become official later. As soon as there is something we can tell, we will obviously let everybody then know. But-
All right. Perhaps in couple of quarters.
Let's hope so.
This is another that I'm... Well, I'm hoping that you can comment at least something, but what is going on in Austria? Are they happy with the TAC WIN order that you have delivered? Have they done trials with Tough SDR or anything that you could comment or give color? Is the client happy?
Yes, in general level, I can comment that we are doing integration with them already, and we are ongoing project. And I think that the customer all is happy already about the quality of our products and our performance.
I'm afraid that you are going to say you cannot comment, but I'm going to ask anyway. Is Austria going to? Can they actually buy from you, if they decide to buy from you, the Tough SDR handheld radios for TAC WIN? Can they do it without a public tender offer that all the competitors can apply, or is it going to be-
Unfortunately, that's a process that, from customer's behalf, we can't comment that.
All right, another hard question coming up. Maybe you can comment. I just noticed that, these, these are English terms, so, I'm sorry if they, they are pronounced horribly, but, there is a purchase, purchase agreement, with additional option for Tough SDR radios with the Finnish, armed forces. But for example, every other, like TAC WIN, there was a frame agreement, in the first slide that was, regarding to this. I'm just wondering, what is the difference between a purchase agreement with optionality, and a frame agreement, and are we going to see possibly a frame agreement before actual purchases?
I will try to explain. So the, say, the frame agreement is the basis for the purchases. So under the frame agreement, customer will order and will make those purchase agreements.
But there is no frame agreement for the over EUR 2,000 million from the Finnish Defence Forces currently. It's just an additional option.
I'm not sure about that.
Yes, there is an addition to the purchase order, which was announced, I think, 2022.
A long time ago already.
Yeah, no, that. Yeah, okay. But, yes, there is an option, and they can use that option.
Okay.
It doesn't require, on my understanding, any new frame agreement behind that.
All right. I'm just wondering if there's a... Because all the frame agreements have been used, like full amount always has been bought. But I'm just wondering if there is risk with Tough SDR, with the Finnish Defence Forces, that this is not going to be used, and that there's some kind of a delay after delay.
That's hard to comment.
Yeah
... from a customer's, yeah. Yes.
Yeah.
We are not able to comment on the detailed project order or purchase order level.
All right. I'm sorry about the difficult questions, and I will shut up now.
Okay, no worries. I'm gonna continue from here. We have a couple of questions-
Okay
... online as well. Okay. There's a long question about the drones and air defense. Is this an interest area for Bittium?
Yes, it is. We are, of course, targeting to get these air defense customers in the defense sector, of course.
Okay, can you explain a little bit more, like, what does it mean, the what kind of products they could use from us, or?
For the air defense systems, our customers can use our TAC WIN and also these as SDR products for the air defense systems commanding and then controlling. So they can implement those devices and products to their own air defense systems, and they can then command these air defense systems.
Throughout that. Okay, thank you. Also, related to that, do you see that Bittium is a relatively small-sized company, that is a challenge? And if so, how... What do you do to mitigate that?
Okay, so we have world top-class products, which we can have a very competitive advantage in that sense, and we also collaborate and cooperate with our partners. For example, those integrators and also these system providers.
Okay, thank you. Can you tell us more specifics, what is the situation in HX projects ? Is there anything that we can disclose?
I don't think so, that we can disclose.
Yes, I believe so, too. I... We are in several projects-
Mm.
Correct me if I'm wrong, and we are also even leading one of those or two of those.
Mm.
At this stage, they are not public, and we cannot comment on them yet.
Yes.
This is something we have disclosed already earlier. Unmanned systems, what's Bittium role in those? Do we see any interest in unmanned systems?
Yeah. So we have participated in the R&D programs-
Mm
... targeting these unmanned systems, and we are also searching and researching these kind of opportunities in the markets at the moment. And this is very good example how to create more growth in our business, because that's one key future thing what they will do in these armies.
Okay, thank you. Finland joined NATO lately, so what possibilities that have given or will give you?
Yes, so of course, those are very long term, but, but as I said already in my presentation, we will see that there will be opportunities for the collaboration with the NATO and NATO countries, and also we will see these opportunities to get product sales and system sales for the NATO countries.
Okay, then also a question for you about AI. Do we use AI in our defense and security product portfolio?
Yes, so I would say so, that we are researching that AI item, and for example, these unmanned systems are one of the key area for AI.
Okay. I think we have covered all the questions. One, one last maybe I think you almost already answered this, but how do you plan to enter or elaborate in the market in the defense side, also from current customers? You have been talking a lot about current customers and existing key customers, so how do you try to get new customers?
So we have also, in addition to these key customers, we have also organization and sales organization to acquire new customers in all over the world. So they are searching and acquiring all the time new customers and having discussions and having demos with the new customers. That's the way how we can acquire those.
Okay, and those processes are extremely-
Yes
... extremely long.
Yes.
Okay, final question. Actually, there are a bunch of questions related to satellite terminals. Is MEXSAT satellite project still running?
Yes, it is.
How do you sell those products there?
We have there a partner who will sell the products for the local customers, and we will help them all the time to sell those products.
Okay, so it's ongoing business.
It's ongoing-
Okay
... sales project, I would say so.
Okay. Well, thank you, Tommy, for this.
Thank you, Karoliina.
I think it is time for us now to move forward to our last, but not least, part of the presentations, before going to summary and closing. I would like to introduce Jari Inget, the head of our Engineering Services business, and welcome him on stage.
Okay, good afternoon. My name is Jari Inget, and I'm leading our engineering service business unit. I have a long history in Bittium, so over 20 years, and all the time I have been working in our R&D service business, so where we are delivering project to customers. I started my career as a RF design, which is designing radio hardware. Then I have almost 10 years' experience in different management roles in our projects, and now last six years, I have been working in our business management. I'm going to give you update about our strategy of engineering service, and I will cover market trends, our offering, customer segments, and growth drivers. Let me summarize engineering service in a nutshell. Our foundation lies in know-how, and I can proudly say that we are number one in radio know-how in the world.
And when we combine that with the life cycle design competence, we can help customers to design embedded and secure wireless products for various industries. And then shortly about market trends, which are supporting our growth. So more and more devices and sensors are connected to the cloud, which will enable new services and new business model. So instead of one-time fee you will get from the product, you can have a subscription model that you will can get monthly recurring fee, and that requires connection to the cloud. And also, technologies are evolving all the time, especially wireless technologies, and that bring us two co- types of opportunities. So the first one is that we could help our customers to develop the actual wireless technology. And then secondly, of course, that technology could be utilized in the new products.
The products will be smaller, they are have better operating time. It will enable new use cases... and customers are not having the required radio competence in-house to design such products. So it will take lot of expertise to design LTE product for the global market. And then, due to the geopolitical situation, there are a lot of Western companies that are increasing their local R&D and manufacturing capacity and capability, which also brings opportunities to us, because they need to seek the local partners instead of the partners from Asia. And about the market size, so there are several market research, researches that are predicting that for the IoT device market, it will be double-digit growth year to year. So the market is heavily growing. And then, about our services, and those are covering the entire product life cycle.
Here, I will give you two types of examples about our typical project. The first one is a bigger project, where we are doing the whole product development. A customer is typically having some of their own core competence, for example, certain sensor hardware and related embedded software algorithm expertise, and related cloud software expertise. What we bring to the table is that we can design the other parts of the device, meaning the hardware, RF, antenna, mechanics, and so on. At the end, the customer will have the final whole product. We start our design in the analysis phase, so the customer is bringing the requirements and the use cases, and we are analyzing those.
And then we are moving to the concept phase, which is the system design phase as well, where we are selecting the technologies, the main components, based on the customer requirements. And then we are entering to the product development phase, which is, of course, the biggest one, where the actual design work is done, the software is written, and the hardware and other schematics are done. And then, when the design is ready, it will be tested, of course, during the development. But when the development is ready, it needs to be certified, and the product needs to have country approvals for the global market. And there we have good partners, and together, we can help customers so that their product is ready for the market.
Of course, it's very important that our design can be produced, so we are helping our customers to transfer the device to the production. The production facility could be the customer's own or some EMS company. Of course, we will help our customer to maintain the product on the market. So we provide support and maintenance service, which in practice is software, new software features, and very important is security updates to the software. And in some cases, there will be hardware end-of-life components, so we need to do some redesign work and do some certification again for the customer. So that one was the bigger project.
Then another example is smaller project, where we are, for example, providing RF and antenna expertise to the customer, and they are just doing, for example, the product concepting and product development phase, and the customer is taking care of the, the remaining part there. And then, we have two, let's say, main customer segment. So the first one is industry IoT OEMs, and here we have a clear core, offering, which is embedded connected device design service. And this is applicable for a wide range of different industries, for example, logistic, construction, mobility, medical, well-being, and sports. And here, what is common among customers is that they need to have a custom-designed product.
They have certain requirements for the product. It's working in the harsh environment or regulated environment, and they cannot purchase the product from the market as is, so they need to have a custom design. Here, with our radio, radio expertise, we are helping the customers to design this kind of device. We are looking for a long-term partnership with the customer, so be a strategic partner, not just to develop one project, so, so years and years and multiple projects. Here are some nice examples about our public customer references, like KONE, iLOQ, Philips, GE Healthcare, so all world-class brands, and there are many more that I cannot, unfortunately, disclose due to NDA reasons. Certified systems are very important for us because those act as enablers. So without ISO 13485, we couldn't design medical-grade devices.
And also, we have a lot of expertise about different industries' standards, like locking industry standards, which affects to the design. And then another main customer segment is telecom, and here our offering, again, is based on our radio and embedded know-how. And here, we help our customers in two ways. So we provide service to their technology development when they are designing the technology that they are using in the products, and of course, the normal product design. And here, what is common among the customers is that they are looking very specific expertise or know-how, like certain software operating system knowledge or certain protocol stack knowledge, and our team of professionals can provide that to the customer. And the service we are providing to the network OEM customers is related to the radio unit platforms and variants and other proprietary radios.
And for the mobile OEM customers, we are providing embedded software and hardware design for their chipset ICs or modules. And what is important here is that we are not providing services to design those actual chips or ICs. We are providing service, so a software that is running on those chips or hardware around those chips. And then about our strengths. So know-how is number one. We have over 30 years of experience in radio, so we have experience of any kind of radio, starting from the short-range Bluetooth radios to the cellular LTE radios and all the way to the satellite radios. And here we are number one in the world. We have full design service coverage. We have all the competencies in-house, hardware, software, mechanics, and so on.
Our services are covering the full product life cycle, and we have a lot of expertise in our company. We have also our own products. Then way of working. So when we are developing together with the customer, so it's very important that we are having transparent way of working. We are using the same design environments, we are using the same design tools, so we can adapt depending the customer needs. And then facilities. So these are very important in our business as well. So customer is trusting us very sensitive, very business-critical information, so we need to have secure facilities, secure IT system to keep all the information safe. And also, we have very extensive in-house laboratories, which we are using, and that will shorten the project development time. So it will shorten the design and testing cycle because those are in-house.
Finally, a few key points about our growth. The market really needs wireless devices, and we have such expertise. We have some knowledge to design those devices. We have a clear, focused offering, which will be developed constantly to be number one in the world. We are creating strategic and long-term partnerships with the customers. We learn how the customer is operating. We learn the customer-specific know-how to accomplish projects with them. We are also creating systematic go-to-market plans and activities with partners to acquire new customers. Here, partners are, for example, LTE radio module component suppliers, which are meeting a lot of customers, and those customers require wireless communication to their products. In many cases, the customers are not having the expertise, so our partner can recommend that Bittium could be the design house. It's a clear win-win to both parties. Thank you.
Thank you, Jari. Do we have questions from the audience?
Hello, it's Juha. I will keep this short this time. What are your main competitive advantages when it comes to this high-end space where you are, as far as I understand? Because, maybe. Okay, let me rephrase.
Okay.
What has changed from before? Because I—as far as I know, you had the expertise already for years and years. You had the history with radios, and you haven't been growing too much, and that tells that there is not a significant competitive advantage or there's a challenge. And the challenge might be that you haven't been able to recruit, which has been significant and more difficult in the past years. So, I was hoping to be brief, but I was very complex. Hopefully, you got what I was asking.
Yeah, I think, like Johan said, that we have been a kind of R&D-oriented house and developed a lot of our own products, so I think that's one focus of the company has been. And, of course, now we have, let's say, clear, focused offering, and we know how to get more customers on that sense.
I will challenge a little bit. How are you now getting the customers when you before didn't? I understand the focus helps, but I'm not quite sure if I believe in the growth story yet in your business.
I would say one very important is that, of course, the normal sales work that we are doing, but also more like doing with the partners. So we know that we will get a lot of good references and recommendation through our customers, and then also through the partners, so we are strengthening that part to get new opportunities that we could provide our service.
Thank you.
Okay, thank you. Any further questions here, or can I... I have also a few here. AI strategy in your business, can you elaborate that a bit?
Yeah. So because we are focusing to the embedded design, so we know that there is a certain, this kind of TinyML , tiny machine learning, that is coming, and, and like Antti also mentioned that in their product, so that's some, some area we are, let's say, looking for. And, and that's something that is, let's say, really matching with our offering. So that's something we will, we will certainly look very closely. And if think about, let's say, the AI that is running on the cloud based on that data, so there, there we would use our, our partners for that one.
Okay. Thank you. I think this also comes back to Joakim's earlier question as well, and about our focus strategy. Are there any services or any kind of business line that you have decided to stop or not no longer offering customers?
Mm, I think we are more like focusing under these two main customer segments and focusing the same kind of offering for that one.
Okay. Then there is a question about automotive segment. It needs, in the future, a lot of technology and security. Do you see that as one potential segment to Bittium again?
Yeah, I think the automotive is something that it's part of our strategy update. It's part of our industry IoT offering, and the mobility is their one, this customer segment where we are providing actually service all the time.
Okay. At this point, I think that was all the questions, unless there are at the audience any furthers. Then, thank you very much, Jari.
Thank you.
We can continue now to our next part, the summary and closing, and I would like to invite you, Johan, back to the stage to continue with this.
Last thing here is why to invest in Bittium? I think first is what we have gone through here today. We see the past, where we have come from, where we are today, and what we need to do the next two years. So we need to change, and we have done part of the change, and we will complete the change, and we have a committed and highly skilled management to do this, and the personnel as well. We saw the solid foundation of growth, the products that we have today in defense, security, in medical, and the services in engineering solutions, the customer base that we have, so we really have a good, solid foundation for the growth has been built. The change is the updated strategy we have gone through today. This will take us towards the profitable growth, being a healthy company.
We have the world-class product services, strong customer base, and we have the mega trends to support us. So a lot of the challenge, the change, is up to us, the management, the company, that we now complete the change the next two years and go forward. We know what to do.... And the final. Sir, would you like to have the mic?
Yes, thank you, Johan. We still have time for questions and answers here as well.
Yeah, it's Johan. About the financial targets in 2024, of course, you have said that you expect to deliver this 10% growth and 10% EBIT margin. Now that we have gone through all these businesses, could you kind of give basic assumptions that you have behind this, the most important things that need to happen in order to achieve these targets?
Let's see. First, if we look at the profitability, one is, of course, to make the healthier cost structure. Actions have been taken. We expect to get the full EUR 6 million cost savings next year in this area, and we will continue to look for additional cost savings coming from efficient processes, ways of working, and how we do things. On the growth, we have good products in the medical, what we had there. We have good customers there, and we have the defense. Unfortunately, defense side, so we were not able to answer a lot of question, but confidentiality is really key in that sector. So we will stick clearly to that. But we see that there is opportunities, there is existing customers which we need to focus on, and existing customers can provide us a significant part of the growth.
So this is what we have in-house, and now it's up to us to do this.
I will just continue a little bit on the same topic. A lot of times when you have you announce that you have a new deal or something, and you- it will say, this is basically included in the guidance. So you have a lot more visibility than the outsiders, let's say, like that.
Mm.
How good is your visibility and, at the same time, and confidence level to the next year already? Or is it, like, half a year, or how much visibility do you have?
Of course, you know, it depends on, and if you go into to the different type of businesses, the visibility is different. One thing, what I mentioned here in the strategy is the key account. It's really working closely with the existing customers, understanding what are their decision-making, what are their needs, and align their needs with our plans, getting estimates that we believe in, and this is something that we have been working now since the summer. So with this information is that this is how we see it. So with this information, we stick to the guidance for next year.
Finally, maybe you will speculate a little bit. Let's go. Forget this period in 2024 and 2025, and let's go five years ahead. So definitely not a financial guidance, but what are going to be the share of revenue in Bittium? Let's say you have the same businesses still intact.
Mm.
What are the biggest businesses, and what are the most profitable businesses, based on the outlook and the dynamics that you see right now?
I would say that we have good opportunities in all business areas. But I would say that I'm really positive towards defense, this part, as medical as well. But again, I want to... At the moment, what I want to do in the company well is focus on the next two years. Now, let's make the change. Of course, we will think about the future as well, so I understand your question. But this is really the message to the organization and the whole thing, that now we have to change from R&D house to technology-oriented product house and really get the business up and running, make a healthy company, because that is the foundation where we then can go for the future. But I see a you know, good future for the company.
Many thanks. Thank you for the presentations also.
Thank you.
Okay, thank you. Any further questions here? If not, then I will continue from online questions. Regarding the, actually, the growth target, 10% year-on-year, wouldn't you consider it quite modest, considering the market segments, how they are working with double-digit market growth?
I would say that now let's focus on... We have the guidance, 10% operating profit, over 10% growth. That's something that we now have to reach. Then we will look into the future, what's the next possibilities there. But now we have a very focused thing. We know what to do in the next, next months, next year, next two years. Do the change, have this change done, and, and go forward.
Thank you. There are quite many questions regarding next year's dividend, which I already know we can't disclose yet since it is the decision of the board of directors to present to a shareholders' meeting. And about the dividend policy, are there gonna be any changes to that, or?
I think there is no, to my knowledge, no, no changes there, and it's defined on our investor site, so, so you can read it from there.
... then there are questions also asking how do you think to change a technology-oriented company into a sales-oriented company?
I think we are changing towards a technology-oriented sales comp. So from first, right, we are technology. The products, the know-how, what we have, embedded secure technology, that's something what we have here. That's not- we're not gonna change that. That's the foundation for the future, to build the future. But really putting into the sales is something that now that is a big thing that we will focus in the coming... We have been working now with it, we'll continue to work on it, and continue next two years and from there forward. And that is really understanding. First, focus on existing customers, make sure that you get the share of wallet you could make. Grow significantly with existing customers, strengthen the partnership, and that is the cheapest way to grow. Getting the best references out there. Looking for new customers.
are different types of salespeople: the ones who are taking care of the key accounts, growing partnerships, and then the hunters. This is what the change that we are doing at the moment in the company. So we are stepping up the sales efforts.
Okay, thank you. Are you planning to sell some parts of Bittium?
I have no plans to sell anything, so...
Okay, then there are questions concerning the same topics. What opportunities do you have to make your organization more efficient in order... In other words, how to sell more with less work and costs? But again, I think-
I think it's. So I said, this change that we are coming from the history where we are today and what we're gonna do in the next two, that's a huge organization-cultural change in the organization. We have started it. We have expertise in this area. The lady sitting over there has done it before several times. And above all, there is the will in the organization to change. Everybody understands it, so we want to change. We can do it.
Thank you. Then we have been talking about focusing in, in every step of the way.
Mm-hmm.
What products or services are no longer in focus?
We have gone through now the products that we will focus on. Some products will be end of line, or we're coming up with some new things, end of life. So we will not end anything, something, but we will not put the efforts in R&D in these products. So at the moment, let's focus on the products that we will build a future on in the next two years, and those are the ones we have gone through here.
Thank you. Do you see that our R&D projects that we make in our Engineering Services for other companies restrict the opportunities to develop our own products?
First, I would say that looking at the past, we haven't had any restrictions to develop own product. Today, we have excellent products, good products. We have done it. Now, we will put the focus on further developing, making sure they stay competitive, making sure the quality is the best possible with these products. Engineering services will work with customers, our partners in that area, to utilize the core competence, the knowledge that we have, to help them reach their targets.
Okay. Thank you. I think I have reached my target to present all questions here. And all presentations are available online at Bittium.com already, so you'll find them here. Also, the recording of this event will be there. And as said, we have our executives here today, and after these presentations now, you have the opportunity to discuss with us. And also, the products are presented in the room next to us, so we can continue the discussion also afterwards. I'd also like to thank our participants online who have joined us. There were quite many participants and a lot of good questions, so thank you very much for those. And thank you also all our presenters from this day, and thank you for making it happen for us. Thank you.
Thank you.
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