When looking from AAC Global's office windows in Ruoholahti, Helsinki, one sees the open sea and port containers that will be delivered far away. The horizon of AAC Global is also open, and know-how is delivered globally.

AAC Global, the leading specialist company in multilingual communications in the Nordic countries, is growing and becoming more and more global. With new operations in Sweden and Russia, the company has over 200 employees and a total of eight offices in Finland. In 2006, the company became part of the SanomaWSOY group, as the group acquired 51 per cent of AAC Global's share capital.

Rooted in language training

AAC operations are rooted in language training. A family-owned business established in 1969, the company developed a diverse learning method of its own, significant parts including study material development and publishing. The company quickly became an important player in the fragmented line of business.

Eventually, the operations expanded from language training to cultural and communications training and multilingual product training. In addition, AAC produces and publishes study material for adults both in printed and digital form.

In the 1990s, AAC Global was annually giving language training to a total of nearly 20,000 corporate key people. Since the customers often requested additional services, the company made the strategic decision of expanding operations to the field of translation business. Nowadays, AAC Global is the leading translation and localization agency in Finland.

Term database development has naturally become a third large business area for AAC Global. A uniform, standardized terminology offers a strong foundation for multilingual communications, and is useful to both training and translation operations. The standardization process of the forest cluster terminology, for example, has brought AAC Global also international recognition.

Language technology became AAC Global's most recent business expansion in the early 21st century. Led by CEO Janne Nevasuo, the development of technological solutions in order to enhance customers' multilingual communications processes achieved a strong position in the operations of the company. AAC Global also expanded its operations to digital products and marketing communications in a wide range of languages.

A pioneer of multilingual communications

The AAC Global of today has come a long way from a small language school it once was, to become instead an expert in multilingual communications, with a strong technology basis. The growth has continued for thirteen years already.

In a rapidly changing operating environment, however, only training and a translation or term database, are not enough. Customer intimacy is essential in order to success. It is also important to strive toward better corporate processes so that the know-how, content and technology will meet the needs of the customer.

In 2007, the view from Ruoholahti is very positive. AAC Global is the leading language trainer in the Nordic B2B sector. As the line between language and substance training has dispersed, the focus has transferred from language training only to cultural and communications training and multilingual product communications. Training in digitalization processes is an important development trend.

As a result of the acquisition of Noodi Oy, the partner network has become more global, and translation services have become genuinely international. In fact, AAC Global is the world's 15th largest language services company at the moment: at best, customers are served in a total of 60 languages.

The growth continues, the Baltic Sea and Eastern Europe as directions

The multilingual training business is growing very rapidly at the moment. Also AAC Global continues its growth both operatively and by corporate acquisitions.

CEO Janne Nevasuo considers the future with confidence. "Our mission to help companies to communicate their message is now taking effect better than ever. The constant internationalization of our customers, more and more similar products and tightening competition are ideal for furthering our own internationalization process."

At the moment, plans are being made in order to cooperate with the Poland-based Young Digital Planet and the Hungary- and Romania-based Perfekt, both of which are SanomaWSOY group companies. In the future, the most important focus area is the domestic market area of many customers, i.e. the Baltic Sea area and Eastern Europe.

The preconditions for growth will be further strengthened as a number of AAC Global functions will be integrated with WSOYpro. AAC Global started as a family-owned business, and as result of the integration it will become the Baltic Sea area's leading communications expert focusing on multilingual communications, know-how development and content industry.