Sectra completed its first consulting project in the late 1970s. Today, the company’s products are used by customers in 50 countries and the Sectra brand stands for world-leading products that make healthcare more efficient and protect valuable information.
Sectra is founded
Sectra’s history dates back to 1978, when a group of researchers at the Linköping Institute of Technology were assigned the task of creating a security solution for banks. Professor Ingemar Ingemarsson started Sectra (SECure TRAnsmission) together with his three doctoral students, Viiveke Fåk, Rolf Blom and Robert Forchheimer, to take on the assignment.
"We were working as researchers in information theory and, under the company's name, we did consulting work in data security and image coding," says Professor Ingemarsson.
Linköping University and the Linköping Institute of Technology have been important to Sectra's development. These institutions, from which a number of the company's most prominent employees were recruited, are a valuable source of knowledge.
New strategic orientation is the beginning of Sectra´s expansion.
A few years later Jan-Olof Brüer earned his doctorate in information theory, with Professor Ingemarsson as his advisor. Dr. Brüer was recruited as Sectra’s President and subsequently proposed new ideas about how to transform Sectra into a “proper” company.
“The founders had a good laugh at what we then saw as his dreams. But now I see that those visions have been exceeded,” says Professor Ingemarsson.
The company changed its emphasis under Dr. Brüers leadership, making the transition to selling products and system solutions in the areas of data security, digital radio and image coding. This new strategic orientation marked the beginning of Sectra’s expansion phase.
“We founders were academics and researchers within the information technology field. The smartest decision we ever made was to bring in knowledgeable business-oriented people,” says Professor Fåk.
Sectra won its first defense order.
After spending its initial years working for bank customers, in the 1980s the company began focusing on the customers that have the most stringent requirements of all in terms of security.
“We succeeded in landing a defense order for a new crypto chip as early as 1987. That turned out to be the start of our focus on security products for defense and government agency customers,” says Sectra’s President and CEO Jan-Olof Brüer.
Sectra has been the market leader in encryption equipment for Swedish Defense since the mid-1990s, and today the company’s products are used by civil authorities and defense forces in more than half of the EU member countries.
Sectra´s operation within digital image coding expands to medical technology.
Sectra developed the systems to the first entierly film-free radiology clinic in Sweden, which was dedicated in Mjölby 1993.
Dr. Torbjörn Kronander came to the Linköping Institute of Technology to earn his doctorate in the mid-1980s, bringing with him a strong interest in medical technology and a vision of digital radiology. He was recruited to Sectra and an expansion towards digital image management systems for radiology departments began in 1988. Today Dr. Kronander is the President of Sectra’s medical operations.
“When Dr. Kronander started, we still had only ten people working at Sectra. Medical technology currently constitutes our biggest business area, and our radiology system is world-leading,” continues Professor Ingemarsson.
Swedish healthcare adopted the new digital technology early on, and Sectra developed the systems for Sweden’s first entirely film-free radiology department, which was dedicated in Mjölby in 1993. Today, Sectra’s system is used by more than 950 hospitals worldwide.
The niches in which Sectra operates have been chosen from a long-term growth perspective. At an early stage, Sectra resolved to target niches with global potential. The first office outside Sweden was opened in Norway in 1995. Sectra is committed to international growth and currently has offices in eleven countries. The most recent was opened in Japan in 2008.
IPO at the Stockholm Stock Exchange.
Sectra was listed on the exchange NASDAQ OMX Stockholm AB in 1999. The aim with the IPO was to validate that the company had grown to become a strong player before continuing on its path toward internationalization. Listing on the stock exchange paved the way for strategic acquisitions and financing of the continued international expansion. It also gained Sectra greater legitimacy in the eyes of its customers and partners.
Sectra’s operations have grown both organically and through strategic acquisitions. The first acquisition was in 1995. Sectra then purchased Imtec, a Swedish company which, like Sectra, developed digital image management systems for healthcare applications. The most recent acquisition was made in 2006, when Sectra acquired ImaXperts BV, a Dutch company that distributes medical systems in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.
“Our strategy is to acquire companies with products that strengthen our offering to existing customers, or provide complementary markets for our products,” explains Dr. Jan-Olof Brüer.
Since its inception, Sectra has maintained close ties with the research world and has contributed to expanding the boundaries within the company’s areas of technology. The company strives to lead in the roll-out of products based on new technical solutions that create value for customers.
• 1993, Sectra digitizes radiology operations in Mjölby, making it the first in Sweden and among the first in the world with totally film-free radiology. Today, more than 950 hospitals use Sectra’s system.
• 1999, Sectra delivers the Tiger secure mobile telephone to the Swedish Defense Forces, which becomes the first in the world with eavesdrop-protected mobile telephone communications. Today, Tiger products are used by government authorities and defense forces in more than half of the EU’s 27 member countries
• 1999, Sectra is first out with digitized prosthesis modeling for orthopedists. Sectra’s orthopedic solution is world-leading and has thousands of users in hospitals and orthopedic clinics.
• 2002, Sectra launches the unique mammography system, Sectra MicroDose Mammography. Based on revolutionary photon-counting technology, the system has the lowest radiation dose on the market. To date, the system has been sold to customers in 15 countries.
• 2005, Sectra launches revolutionary image processing methods for extremely large image volumes. Sectra’s new workstations for review of radiology images, which among other customers is used by the European expertise network Telemedicine Clinic, is based on these methods.
Sectra provides efficient and future-proof products to niche markets with long-term growth potential. Competitors are among the giants in the business world and to become market-leading Sectra must be something extra.
”We strive to perform as the customer expects and then also a ’wow.’ We only employ the best of the best and we are not satisfied with high formal expertise. Our motto is to ’hire on attitude and ability, train for skills.’ When I speak with customers, there is great confidence in our employees and I then feel we have succeeded,” says Torbjörn Kronander, President of Sectra’s Medical Systems business area.