Cloud-Based Mobile Service Project: Making a digital leap for the customer

For the last 6 months about 99% of the work for the project has been remote, other than a few days where the application was laboratory tested with the client, and a Co-creation workshop which was allowed at the time following pandemic regulations.

As with most projects, a variety of competences are necessary for it to succeed. This project, in particular, benefitted from a wealth of expertise such as project management, technical architecture, backend and mobile development, service design, UX and UI design, and domain and business knowledge. Along with Etteplan´s own participants, the project also included various contractors and stakeholders.

“I believe that true innovations are created when experts with different expertise work together”, suggests Design Strategist Hanna Remula

Etteplan was selected for the project due to the large scope, and competences required. With the ability to tackle challenges such as new payment regulations, high level technical implementation, and customer expectations meaning that the final product must also have the right look-and-feel and visual appearance that connects it to the customer’s brand. Along with technical expertise, the success of the project was largely due to deep understanding of the customer’s business, user experience, security and regulations affecting the solution. Projects of this scale have a mutually beneficial outcome – Etteplan has exceeded customer expectations, and now have an even broader portfolio.

A great opportunity to solve real problems in a new way

The project team has gained invaluable experience through this opportunity, even for those who have been working in developing solutions for years. “The great thing about this project was that I was learning a lot of new stuff while using the knowledge I already had”, explains Software Developer Ville Lepistö. Working at Etteplan brings you the opportunity to work with different projects, customers, technologies and businesses. You have always a chance to broaden your view.  “There were a lot of areas where I had the chance to increase the depth of my knowledge, such as cloud-based solutions and many new technologies, even some UX Design.”

“My job is all about combining the user and business insights with technical feasibility. Personally, I got a new view on the business of the customer, even though we already had strong knowledge about that area here in Etteplan,” says Hanna. “It is always rewarding to be creating a service that is truly solving problems that the customer and their business face.”

“It was very nice to work as a team and solve the challenge of integrating the payments and the security,” says Software Engineer Raphaël Pinel. “Ville did a huge amount of work to create a diagram of how everything should work. When you break down all the steps to logic it was then easy to follow. You could say working with this team was empowering - together we can do really complex stuff.”

Project Manager Marko Felin demonstrated true leadership throughout the project through his constant support and proactive mindset by always asking the right questions. The team highlighted Marko’s contribution as crucial to the success of the project. “For me, it was inspiring to be in a project where the result is visible for the end users, and they will get to use it,” says Marko having previously worked with more backend projects. “It was very inspiring to see that with the collaboration of designers and front-end developers we achieved great user experience.”

The commitment to the project on the customers end was also apparent in their willingness to learn and adapt to the new systems with Marko’s guidance. With new technology comes new responsibilities, and new priorities, with his teams help Marko had a huge impact on the customer experience.

Top Takeaways from the remote teamwork

• Trust: how to build trust even with new people, who you have never met in person.
• Communication: how to communicate while working remotely. One of the challenges being how to keep everybody in touch, but not too overwhelmed with information.
• Participation and effectiveness: How to tell the others just the right amount of information and how to estimate, who needs to be in each of the meetings. What can you communicate one-to-one and what are the things that should be discussed with the whole team?

Support comes also from the organization

“The atmosphere in Etteplan is very good and open,” says Raphaël. “There is no problem asking for help or questions. Our company is quite transparent in sharing the knowledge. Everybody is quite open even to be disturbed, it is really encouraging. It is frustrating if you are stuck alone and there is no one to ask. Of course, we all have responsibilities, and we need to deliver but you can always get help if you just ask. The human aspect here is very warm and welcoming.”

To create outstanding solutions, you cannot do it alone. You need a variety of expertise and different viewpoints to have an outstanding user experience and great & secure technical implementation. When a consumer or B2B customer needs something, they do not have to think about the complex algorithms, payment processes, data transfer and integrations in the background. They are just experiencing the excellent service, that is making the everyday life easier for them.