ICT
Karlstad and Värmland have a prominent position as regards the number of employees in companies offering ICT-related services. Most of the major ICT companies in Sweden can be found here, as well as longs of smaller, specialised consultancies.
Karlstad University offers both education and research in the field at a high international level and in cooperation with trade and industry.
Compare
Compare is the cluster organisation for ICT companies in the region. Compare was formed by these companies ten years ago and now has almost 100 stakeholders, with a total of around 3 000 engineers and technicians in the region. Their collective aim from the outset was to find areas where they could cooperate and benefit from one another's marketing, and thereby to underpin the region as an attractive cluster in order to entice staff, new companies and projects to come here. This cooperation has now been extended and further developed to form innovative interaction with players from trade and industry, research and society.
Compare Test Lab
Compare Test Lab – a high-tech centre for independent software testing – is an excellent example of what can be achieved thanks to cooperation between companies, Karlstad University and the rest of society. This is viewed as one of the most important activities for creating growth in the industry. The fact that the lab is independent is crucial to its success. Objectivity and neutrality are vital factors when it comes to signalling quality on an external market. The credibility of such findings is greater than if the same information were to come from a single commercial player.
The objectives is to develop the test lab into a European centre for the development of complex products and services. Testing services, training, consultancy services.
Other networks in the ICT industry in Värmland
Compis – IT companies' leisure association
SAST Värmland – a local association within the Swedish Association for Software Testing, a non-profit association for anyone interested in software testing
Drupal network Värmland – for anyone interested in the open source-based publication system
KNUG (Karlstad .NET User Grupp KNUG) – an independent user group for developers, project managers, testers, architects and other stakeholders interested in .NET technology
Open Source City – a non-profit association for companies, organisations and private individuals working together to create regional cooperation relating to Open Source in Värmland
LINDA (LINjeförening för DAtavetare, the line association for data scientists) – the line association for anyone studying to become a civil engineer on the Computer Technology, Computer Engineering, IT Design or Webb and Multimedia courses at Karlstad University
Informatörsnätverket – a forum where PR officers in the region can get to know one another, learn from one another and take part in collective courses in the field of information and communications
