The collaboration between KMD and Specialisterne (The Specialists) – a company whose employees have invisible handicaps such as autism – now goes back a year. The experiences gained in this time will now help in rolling out the concept to other countries, and the ambition is to create a million jobs for people with specialist skills. Based on the assignments undertaken for KMD, most recently the testing of a product for Energinet.dk, there is a prospect of mutual gain.
When it was founded in 2003, Specialisterne was the first company in the world whose core employees have autism. The idea was to utilise the character traits pertaining to autism to perform valuable business assignments under market conditions.
KMD was one of Specialisterne’s first partners, and the parties have now worked together on a number of projects. Most recently, Specialisterne was taken on when Energinet.dk, an independent public enterprise that maintains the security of supply of electricity and gas in Denmark, was interested in having a random test carried out on a product from KMD. The solution was that KMD facilitated the test, which was carried out by consultants from Specialisterne.
Continuous high quality
“The specialists are extremely thorough, and they don’t make mistakes. Their strength lies in having a good sense of detail and not losing concentration when they have been working on the same task for a long period. The test for Energinet.dk required accuracy and high quality, and for this type of task I don’t think there is a better supplier,” says Henrik Buchwald, Product Manager for Energy at KMD.
“Generally speaking our consultants are good at data processing, including data entry and checking. We're especially skilled at carrying out repeated and well-defined tasks at a consistently high level,” explains Specialisterne’s Managing Director Henrik Thomsen.
Not charity
“As one of Denmark’s largest IT companies, I believe we have a social responsibility to help give these people a good working life,” says KMD’s CEO Lars Monrad-Gylling, who stresses that the project is neither charity nor pure altruism.
“I believe the IT sector needs Specialisterne’s competences. With us they serve as subcontractors on a par with others, and we're very satisfied with the services they have provided,” he explains.
Specialisterne is now working to trial the concept abroad. Thorkil Sonne, founder of Specialisterne, has an ambition to create a million meaningful and productive jobs worldwide for people with specialist personalities such as autism or ADHD.
“The support and interest of companies are vital for achieving the objective, and thanks to the personal engagement we have encountered at KMD – combined with the company’s size and customer base – the collaboration has been one of our most important from the very outset,” says Thorkil Sonne.
An office will soon be opening in Glasgow, and possibilities are being explored in Zürich, Berlin, Reykjavik and Cologne.
“These offices will give us experience to be able to roll out the project all over the world,” says Thorkil Sonne.
* This case is not covered by the independent auditor's report.
