Henry Arousell, CTO at Björn Lundén: “Open Payments frees up time for more valuable work”

Björn Lundén is a knowledge and software company that helps SMEs with their invoicing, accounting, and tax-returns. Since the autumn of 2021, Björn Lundén has worked closely with OpenPayments, a successful collaboration with an exciting future.

For over 35 years, Björn Lundén has delivered software solutions to thousands of companies. Björn Lundén offers Information that is easy to understand and practical tools to manage accounting, invoicing, salaries, financial statements, and tax returns. Since 2021, they have worked with Open Payments to simplify and streamline the flow of their payment solutions.

Henry Arousell, CTO at Björn Lundén works daily with piecing together a technical ecosystem for their clients. He sees that the collaboration with Open Payments has added value to their portfolio:

– In my position, I look at the added value we can provide after the accounting and the basic functions are in place. What additional services do our clients want? Banking and payments have been one of these additional services.

Effective and simplified bank transactions

Open Payments offers the possibility for a business system to automate bank transactions, such as supplier invoices, salary payments, and taxes – all in real-time from different banks through one integration.

“Being able to develop a good flow of transactions and not having the need of integrating several banks cut down costs and provide an added value instead.”

Financial transactions have previously been an unnecessarily complicated and expensive process where several bank API:s needed to be integrated. This results in unnecessary transaction fees and intermediaries that have stopped the streamlining.

– For a long time, there has been a big interest among our clients and users to streamline and improve their bank payments. Being able to develop a good flow of transactions and not having the need of integrating several banks cut down costs and provide an added value instead, Henry says.

Open Payments eliminates the complexity and friction for businesses by integrating the API:s of several banks into one unitary API. This saves both time, cost and allows businesses to be at the forefront of payment solutions and to be competitive in a future marketplace.

Choosing quality over quantity

During the years, Björn Lundén has been approached by both banks and Swedish and international players, but what made them choose Open Payments was the quality over quantity.

– We started using Open Payments due to their strong technical solution, and the more we got to know each other, the better it felt. Since they offer one joint technical solution for all banks, it is a significantly less complex technical solution for us. They are a good example of the new kind of business where fast communication comes naturally with always being available to solve complex issues as fast as possible, which is very valuable for us.

“We started using Open Payments due to their strong technical solution, and the more we got to know each other, the better it felt.”

-Having one direct bank connection with an efficient solution that works in the same way regardless of banks is outstanding. Otherwise, you have to log into different internet banks, sit and fiddle with it, and enter the data with a multitude of different solutions, everything just becoming very time-consuming, Henry says and continues:

– And I appreciate that they focus on relevant banks rather than trying to make a lot of smaller European banks available. We’ve been in contact with international companies trying to do the opposite, but it has only resulted in poor quality. Now, we save both time and money, and get better control over our business. No entrepreneur starts a business for the administration; Open Payments frees up time for more valuable work.

“With Open Payments, we save both time and money, and get better control over our business.”

A consensus on the future

Henry realized quickly that the collaboration between Björn Lundén and Open Payments was going to be successful:

– We started our dialogue with a specific problem and today we are discussing the rest of our product portfolio. We have a very good business climate with a consensus on strategic choices, quality as well as how expansion should be executed and this is something I believe will be beneficial for our future business.

“I’m convinced that solutions like Open Payments will be a must for everyone in the near future, and that we already are well-positioned by using it now.”

Björn Lundén is on an international journey which they share with Open Payments, both regarding ambition, plan, and the specific countries, which Henry sees as support as the industry continues to develop:

– Our type of business systems and what has traditionally been considered the core of the banking world will merge. I’m convinced that solutions like Open Payments will be a must for everyone in the near future, and that we already are well-positioned by using it now. The world of banking and business systems are merging, and this is a natural step in that development. 

When discussing with Henry, he mentions six USPs as key factors in choosing Open Payments:

1. It’s easy to get started - with a low technical entry barrier and starting cost

2. The technology was superior to others

3. The team was easy to get in touch with and very service minded

4. The business model worked very well together with Björn Lundén

5. The joint vision for the future helps to explore technical possibilities further

6. The main pain point it solves for the users is that it saves time and money

About Open Payments Europe

Open Payments Europe is a Swedish venture capital funded fintech company that, through its unique platform for developers and third-party providers, offers a cutting edge “Platform as a Service” (PaaS) infrastructure that is required for open banking to become a reality. Founded in 2017, and with offices in Stockholm, Open Payments aim to become the hub of the new ecosystem for open banking.
For more information visit: https://openpayments.io or contact sales@openpayments.io

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