Happy clients

HAPPY CLIENT’S STORY – CASE VR

How to make an app that attracts hundreds of thousands of mobile users

The year 2018 began in the midst of dramatic transformation in VR (former Finnish State Railways). The technology on which the digital services and sales system relied at the time was outdated and difficult to maintain. It had been decided that the entire foundation would be rebuilt.

Vanessa Lehtinen, who had just come from Telia to lead VR’s digital services, marketing and brand, was excited but uncertain about the project.

She had a lot of ideas, especially for the upcoming mobile app. The goal of the new app was to replace previous commuter and long-distance traffic applications.

But development work wasn’t progressing like it should, especially for mobile.

Lehtinen wasn’t comfortable with how mobile and web were seen as one big ticket shop, without understanding the unique features of each distinct channel.

“Personally, I felt that the website should inspire the customer to travel by train, while the mobile app would then help prepare for the trip and during it. For example, the app would notify the user about schedule changes and destinations. But this did not fit the mindset at the time”, says Lehtinen.

Another problem turned out to be the process itself: there was no direct way of communicating with developers who happened to work outside VR. In addition, there was little in-house expertise in design or development.

Six months later Lehtinen realized that things couldn’t go on in this way.

Together with her colleagues, she decided to try something new and turned the direction of the project in terms of mobile application development. For this purpose, a separate team was assembled at VR's premises in Pasila.

The new React Native technology was chosen as the development tool because its code runs on both dominant mobile operating systems, Android and iOS. But one question remained: where to find experts in this fresh technology?

It took some time until developers from PolarSpin were finally found. After that Jouni, Petri and Vasant took responsibility for the front-end development of the application. Later, the team expanded with developers from Futurice and Netlight.

A small group began to create new practices in real time. Agile ways of working quickly spread to other parts of the organization as well. And so the VR Matkalla mobile application became the spearhead of the development project.

The team worked effectively: the first version of the app was released for testing in six months and publicly available after a year.

“There are all kinds of consultants, but Jouni, Petri and Vasant are really solution-oriented and always deliver their best, and not just what is asked. They have invested more in this than anyone could have hoped for”, says Lehtinen.

New features for the application are constantly being developed.

“In the future, the app will serve passengers throughout their journey. One day you will be able to order food from the restaurant to your own seat, or if there are free seats in the Extra class, we can even offer a free upgrade for regular customers. ”

Lehtinen is surprised at the success of the app.

“It has already been downloaded more than 700,000 times even though we got season and series tickets on sale only recently. People have switched from the old digital services to the new application organically, without marketing support. Measured in terms of money, the app already accounts for a quarter of the value of the entire digital business, which is a lot.”

Collaboration with PolarSpin has continued for over two years now. Lehtinen is very satisfied with their work.

“The current business owner of the team, who has seen a wide variety of developers in her career, came to me one day and said she has never worked with such professionals. They are able to evaluate content, chat with designers and understand how to strive for quality at every level. These guys are real gems!”

The success of the application has increased the importance of mobile in VR's portfolio of services. It suits Lehtinen, whose goal is nothing short of creating the best possible customer experience.

“When we succeed, VR's mobile services will make the daily lives of hundreds of thousands of Finns easier and more enjoyable. There is also a masochistic mission to this: to make VR a sexy brand”, Lehtinen laughs. ■

“The app has been downloaded over 700.000 times without any marketing efforts. These guys are real gems!”

Vanessa Lehtinen
Head of digital, marketing and branding,
VR