Viria – interesting developments in cyber security, health and social care

Viria, a company specialised in total security and digitalisation, has grown rapidly in recent years. For Viria Group, the Tampere Region is an interesting location.

Security has many aspects and can be improved in a number of ways. Viria’s approach is holistic: there is only one, total security that consists of digital and physical security and is closely connected to information refining and management by information. Pasi Merimaa, Sales Director at Viria Security, shares an example:

– Security is not just the lock on a door, but also the traffic: who may enter, how it is monitored, who’s responsible for the system and information security. As a large company Viria can provide its customers all the elements of security, says Merimaa.

The revenue of Viria Group was over 100 million euros in 2018, of which security business constituted about 65 million euros. According to Merimaa, Viria is the largest company providing total security in Finland.

Promising ecosystem in Tampere

Viria is a national business with 23 local units across the country. The Tampere office was established in 2013 and has recruited a total of 25 employees. Because Viria’s business is about critical security systems, they see that service has to be local and near the customer. 

According to Merimaa, the evolving safety and security ecosystem in the Tampere Region is noteworthy. The region’s safety and security cluster has all it takes to aim high and also achieve the goals, due to both funding and an extensive collaboration behind the project.

– Tampere has a strong industrial heritage and with that a careful approach: we tend not to get carried away when starting something new. In security, a proper groundwork must always be done, and that’s why the local mindset goes well together with security business, Merimaa describes.

For startup companies in security business the demand for long-term thinking is sometimes challenging. Innovative products could use more testing and tuning before they are brought to market.

– A bit more funding at that stage, and there would be very good opportunities for global success, says Merimaa.

Health and social care are getting more important

Viria is providing security for all fields of society. Recently, health and social care issues have been under discussion a lot, and new technologies are seen as a solution to the lack of resources. Viria has, for example,  participated in a pilot project on imaging technology utilising advanced machine vision. The technology can identify situations where help needs to be alerted, for example in hospitals, assisted living units or home care.

– Based on camera as a sensor and automatic video analytics, the solution can detect if a patient rises from bed, falls, leaves the room… One set of equipment can provide many kinds of information, which is also cost-effective, Merimaa says.

The technology developed by Procemex is originally made for industrial use and served there quite a long time. This is how different ecosystems meet: industrial machine vision knowhow is becoming very useful in health and social care operations.

– Viria is closely involved in health and social care safety and security, creating secure digitalisation. We are a good match to bring new technologies into the field. For example, the City of Tampere is an important customer for the nurse call and personal safety system, Merimaa says.

Cyber security, managing information

Just ten years ago all the security camera systems were analog and location-specific, but nowadays it’s all centrally monitored IP cameras. The same trend applies to all technical security systems – and the society in general. Thus the need for cyber security increases along with the business opportunities in the sector.

– In Viria, half of the security business is about cyber security, networks and related consultancy, Merimaa says.

At the same time, IoT devices generate data, and Viria provides services for refinement, analysis and managing information. An example: monitoring the utilisation rate of premises, which is useful for the customer in both daily routines and long-term planning.

– With the City of Helsinki we are implementing a project on smart learning environments. It provides teachers real-time information on classroom reservations, and school administration gets reports on the utilisation rates, Merimaa says.