A remarkable woman
Hanne Jørgensen, founder of WorkPoint, resigns after 29 years
After dedicating the last 29 years to the development of one of the most innovative tech businesses of the time in Denmark, Hanne Jørgensen is resigning to fully enjoy other aspects of her life such as being a grandmother of two and spending time at the family beach house – as well as the occasional ad hoc project.
A trip down memory lane
Before WorkPoint, Hanne and her husband Peter, former CEO of WorkPoint, lived and worked in Switzerland where Hanne was primarily focusing on Oracle. When they decided to move back to Denmark there was not a lot of companies doing the kind of work Hanne did, and for the few that did, a competition clause from Hanne’s previous employment made it impossible for her to join them.
Therefore, it was time to try something completely new, and Hanne became self-employed in 1995 starting Vest Consult.
She quickly became an external consultant for Oracle, while simultaneously working on some of her own projects. Her customers included big names such as Kellogg's, Vølund, and Novo Nordisk. Time flew by, and 4 years in, by 1999, her husband Peter joined the business, and they established an office in Esbjerg – the city where one of our offices is still located today.
Esbjerg office located now at White House.
Hanne's first ever business card.
The original idea was always to be a consulting company, but it had to be more than just that. They wanted to create a real product of their own.
While they ventured into different areas such as ERP systems, networking, hardware, and hosting – including the development of their own system for company presentations, Vestsite, they eventually turned to Microsoft and have been following Microsoft ever since.
For a long time, Hanne and Peter were resellers of a smaller Outlook based CRM system and an Email Manager. And while they were busy developing their own CRM system in SharePoint, their partner unfortunately went bankrupt, resulting in Hanne and Peter buying the smaller CRM system and the Email Manager from their partner – the Email Manager is still part of WorkPoint today. As time passed, they took over their former partner’s customers and introduced them to SharePoint. Some of these customers, we still have today.
With the ambition of always being driven by innovation and the latest technological development, they sold the hosting part of their business, which was the first step in a very important shift from being on-premise to the cloud. Here, WorkPoint was a true first-mover, as it was one of the first and only companies to do this at that time in Denmark – and with great success. This was a true milestone for WorkPoint and one of the best experiences Hanne has had in her time at WorkPoint.
The wildest thing we did was to move everything to 365 [the cloud]. There were major potential consequences, but also major opportunities.
Fast forward to 2022 when Hanne and Peter decided to sell WorkPoint to Norwegian Viking Venture. Hanne jokes that the real motivation for selling was that they had become old. In reality, they wanted a better future for their employees and their business. They knew they had a great product, but they needed more expertise and manpower to take the next step and scale the business. Both Hanne and Peter stayed in the business after the acquisition, and while Hanne now resigns from her role as our Product Specialist & Senior Business Consultant, Peter continues to stay on as a Board Member.
A bright future for WorkPoint
Leaving WorkPoint was not an easy decision for Hanne, but she’s confident in the future development of WorkPoint and the plans that are already being implemented to scale and grow the business even further.
The direction [for WorkPoint] that has been chosen, is the right one, and it will help us get the product out to even more people. We’re on top of our tech and product and staying at the forefront of the latest technological development with things such as AI is something WorkPoint will continue to do.
A challenging but exciting journey
Being an engineer and working in tech, when asked about how it was to be a woman in an otherwise male dominant industry for many years, Hanne says that it was of course something she noticed but it has never been a disadvantage though she has heard the occasional “does a girl know how to do that?”. In the early days, she felt a need to prove herself more, but as the industry developed and things such as STEM for girls got more awareness, she hasn’t felt like that in a long time. “You thought about it, and we were a minority, but it has never felt wrong.”, says Hanne Jørgensen.
Her career and journey with WorkPoint have been nothing less than remarkable. As she says:
It has been challenging, but incredibly exciting! At times, things were difficult but that’s part of being self-employed.
And though things were difficult sometimes, Hanne shares that she has had an extraordinary number of good experiences in her journey with WorkPoint, and being able to create a product that really helps businesses has been incredibly rewarding.
When she started WorkPoint, her mantra was “we’re drowning in information, but gathering knowledge”, and how to transform that into a product that helps businesses get the most value out of their data, is still very relevant at WorkPoint today.
Another very important part of Hanne’s journey with WorkPoint was her husband, Peter.
A strong partnership - in more ways than one
From day 1, Hanne and Peter had a strong partnership, both at work and at home. When Peter joined WorkPoint in 1999, he took on the more outward facing role of CEO at WorkPoint, so Hanne could focus on consulting which is what she’s most passionate about.
Being self-employed is a massive responsibility and requires flexibility in other ways. WorkPoint took up a lot of time, both at work and at home. Peter has been a large part of how the business has developed. It has been our strong partnership that has driven the business forward.
What's next?
Now, what the future will bring, only time can tell, but one thing is for sure, and that is Hanne will be spending more time with her grandchildren, enjoying life at a slower pace at their family beach house, as well as starting the renovation process of a new house and Hanne and Peter recently purchased. She’s still open for ad hoc projects, but time will tell what happens.
I’m making less plans – what will happen, only time can tell.
From all of us at WorkPoint to Hanne, we thank you for making everything possible. If it wasn’t for you, WorkPoint would not exist. We will always be grateful to you.
Your WorkPoint family.