Growth: 453 per cent over the past five years
Activities: PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) solutions for financial services and public
administration, Consulting
Location: Linkoping, Sweden
Last reported turnover: € 22.3 million (SEK 203, 697 million) in 2004
Held: Public, listed on the Stockholm Exchange

WHY CEE? Public administration upgrade there means need for better security technology. The company has a contract already with the Austrian government, and another with the Croatian financial services provider Halcom.

IT security companies operate in a highly structured market, and so they don't often make the news. Yet for three straight years, Technology Nexus AB has ranked high on the Deloitte Technology EMEA Fast 500 list. The company's performance, with 453 per cent growth over the past five years, is indeed unusual for an IT security company, especially since the overall market for such activities has seen a marked decline since 2003. Technology Nexus works both in financial services and in government IT security and the ramp-up in overall protection in both areas has served them well.

With the European market for PKI set to jump from less than € 4 billion to € 5 billion in the coming year, according to the research and consulting firm IDC, Technology Nexus can expect less pressure on sales and more opportunities for expansion. The company is well established in Sweden, where it works in both defence and administration security, and where it works closely with the major players in the financial services area.
Technology Nexus has launched a new PKI client (downloadable at www), the fourth in its series, in time for the expected market expansion. This client was developed in cooperation with the leading banks in Scandinavia and has led to Nexus now having signed an agreement with Finansiell ID-teknik which means that Nexus Personal 4 will now be used for BankID's electronic identification (e-identification).

"Central and Eastern Europe is a logical expansion target for us, because the region is in the midst of a major upgrade of its public administration, and security is a priority in this move," says Thomas Holmström, CTO for PKI at the company.

The upgrade in CEE is part of an overall effort by the European Union to make national information security structures interoperable. For now, each one has its own PKI standards. There is an EC directive governing PKI and electronic signatures, but it has been implemented in an idiosyncratic fashion by the different Member States. "Now that the EU has to establish a pan-European security policy, it's essential for all the 25 nations to find ways to integrate security technology. The production of a biometric passport for EU citizens will drive this as well," Holmström continues.

Technology Nexus is well positioned in Central Europe to take advantage of this move, because the company already has a contract with the Austrian Certification Authority A-Trust.

Technology Nexus began life in 1984 working solely as a defence contractor, and it continued along that path for the next 11 years. In 1995, the decision was taken to expand the company's product line into financial security, and it began winning contracts, the first major one with the Swedish Post. Since then it has expanded into consulting for public administration around Europe, and has subsidiaries in Germany and Spain. A contract with Siemens announced last year has boosted sales at these companies, and they have performed well during the past year. Germany shows a sales growth of around 16% and Spain around 6% compared to 2003. Technology Nexus went public last year, and so has a war chest of funds for research and expansion.

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