MHG Systems: Offering Next Generation Smart ICT Solutions for Forest and Biomass Management

MHG Systems Oy Ltd is a Finland based company involved in offering next generation smart ICT solutions for Forest and Biomass management. The company innovates by integrating open software technology with years of field experience in the forestry and biomass business behind its back. The combination of innovation and experience results in agile and userfriendly IT services, aimed at facilitating flexible and resilient business models in the rapidly changing business environment. Its portfolio of services includes, but not limited to, remote sensing services for forest asset management, mobile solutions, and field work management. It offers the below-mentioned solutions:
Wuudis: Full range service in digital forest property management platform, connecting forest owners with local contractors, timber/biomass buyers, and authorities.
MHG Biomass Manager: The complete solution for Bioenergy production, procurement, managing, harvesting, and logistics.
MHG Mobile: Mobile real-time management of forest assets, biomass, and human resources enabling more productive business models.
MHG Bio-Plant Optimizer: Feasibility assessment service including bankable reports for Bio-energy Investment.
MHG Systems’ vision is to become one of the world leaders in ICT solutions segment for forestry management, timber/biomass procurement, and to possess all the required data that boost any stakeholder business in the forestry industry. This can be enabled by digitalizing the global forest resource and all biomass flows through MHG Systems services.
The Success Saga 
Mr. Huurinainen was suffering from a problem of managing his more than 1000 hectares of forest property in an easy and profitable way. Almost 13 years ago, the vision named MHG Systems started developing in Mikkeli, Finland to kill this problem and revolutionize the forest and biomass supply chain business through digital services. According to Mr. Huurinainen, his forest property works as a ‘sandbox’ to test MHG’s ICT services.
Today, MHG Systems is one of the most innovative and fastest growing SMEs in the EU with 5000+ commercial users in Wuudis service, dedicated SaaS account of Wuudis with Finnish Forest authority, several active accounts of MHG Biomass Manager Service as SaaS and dedicated SaaS, consultancy projects and participating in several EU and international projects. The MHG Systems committed a team of 10 multidisciplinary professionals to make this challenging journey possible.
About the Leader 
Seppo Huurinainen, the Founder & CEO, has a cumulative experience of 35 years in forestry, entrepreneurship, and information technology. He holds a broad academic experience in GIS, IT, and silviculture with five university level degrees.
He founded MHG Systems in 2005, which currently offers pioneering ICT solutions for forest and biomass management. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, he held several development and research positions within the forest and agriculture industry and has worked for organizations such as the Finnish Forest and Park Service, Metla, Finnish Forest Centre, Metsäliitto, Stora Enso, and the National Board of Education.
Focus on Sustainable Management 
Globally over 2 billion people rely on forests entirely or partially for their livelihood, creating a market of 246 billion USD from the global exports of forest-based products. Despite this huge number, there are very few digital solutions available for sustainable forest management. The reason lies in the usage of old-fashioned business practices for performing daily routines in the sector. However, MHG Systems is taking advantage of the forest digitalization boom in Finland to produce next generation tools and services for the sustainable management of forest and biomass flow.
Tailored Solutions 
“We understood that innovation is the key strategy to become competitive in today’s market. In our company we realize innovations via our participation in the EU research projects, where EU wide best stakeholders from the sector are collaborating with each other to develop the most innovative and useful services and products. Till date, we have raised a total of 1M€ from EU Commission for our research and innovation activities” asserts Mr. Huurinainen.
MHG System’s current services have a competitive edge over existing solutions, as it covers all forest management and biomass flow in one place. This means all forest data and information into one solution, analyzes and visualizes it and shows it, tailored to the user’s role.
Future Outlook 
MHG Systems is in the process of developing accurate forest inventory management solutions utilizing drone technology (from third party) to capture high quality aerial images and thereafter standardize, process, and visualize those images in its Wuudis platform solution to make usable information for forest owner, forest association, and forest companies. This solution will bring significant benefit in improving forest health due to data on every single tree. Another innovation under development is tailor-made forest data to the forest contractors, timber buyers, forest companies etc. with a view to improving their profitability.
Industry Scenario 
Globally, the importance of forest-based industries is slightly overlooked due to many reasons. For example, many private forest owners live in cities and are not aware of the economic potential of their forest assets. The reason is lack of forest management tools and services which can enable forest management right from their living room. Moreover, the traditional value chain of forestry business is dominated by big industrial players and thereby hindering the growth of forest-based entrepreneurs. So, there is a need of neutral solution, which supports the growth of overall forest sector including private forest owners, forest industries, forest entrepreneurs, and contractors.
Source :-The 30 Most Innovative Companies to Watch 2018