Anora – Renewing a business-critical calendar application for three sites

Anora’s logistics planning and management relies daily on a calendar application that manages the receipt and dispatch of thousands of lorry loads. When the old system began to reach the end of its useful life, Evolver implemented a new solution that was rolled out across three sites – on budget, ahead of schedule and without a single disruption to operations.

The old system was holding back day-to-day operations

The calendar application at Anora’s Koskenkorva, Rajamäki and Brunn sites is a key tool for planning, scheduling and receiving incoming and outgoing shipments. The old system presented numerous challenges: external users were able to make overlapping bookings uncontrollably, different calendars behaved differently, and system maintenance was slow and expensive.

“That old calendar kept malfunctioning and lagging. Maintenance was a hassle, as we had to explain everything from scratch to people who didn’t necessarily even know what our day-to-day operations here were like,” explains Minna Tammela, grain procurement planner and main calendar user at Koskenkorva.

Anora’s IT department recognised the need for an upgrade and launched a supplier review.

Evolver stood out in the vendor selection

The supplier selection was preceded by a thorough evaluation process, in which technology, costs, data security, references and compatibility with Anora’s architecture were scored.

“Evolver stood out as the clear frontrunner in the preliminary mapping discussions prior to the supplier selection, thanks to its understanding of the business,” says Minna Tammela.

The decisive factors were Evolver’s technical expertise, its understanding of core industrial and logistics processes and day-to-day operations, and its ability to deliver a customised solution cost-effectively using Evolver’s productised Mylly.AI platform and development model.

Understanding the business started on the site floor

The project began with a planning phase during which the Evolver team visited the sites to familiarise themselves with day-to-day work, processes and people. Together, we walked through every stage of the site process, identified key issues and practical challenges with employees at each stage, and built a shared understanding of what the calendar actually means in daily operations.

“That’s where the whole project began – with a genuine understanding of the business. We gained a sufficient understanding of what the business actually needs and what goes on in the daily operations,” explains Anora’s project owner, IT Manager Juhana Ovaska.

IT Project Manager Henna Laaksonen also highlights the human aspect: “When you sit in the same place for a day or two, you get to know people, which makes collaboration richer than just pixels on a screen.”

During the specification phase, key business personnel were actively involved in planning the functionalities. Among others, Minna Tammela and Juha Haukkala at Koskenkorva, Kalle Kivistö and Jesse Paajanen at Rajamäki, and Esa Piri and Johannes Röhr at Brunn each brought the needs and practices of their own sites into the specification process.

Three locations, one unified solution

The new calendar application was implemented to serve three different sites on a unified technical platform, but with site-specific configurations:

• Koskenkorva manages the logistics of grain reception, including self-service reception and SAP integration, as well as the outbound logistics of ethanol shipments
• Rajamäki manages both inbound and outbound logistics
• Brunna manages inbound logistics

The solution was built on Evolver’s Mylly.AI platform using modern Java and React architecture. Integrations with Anora’s SAP system were implemented in seamless collaboration with Anora’s other IT partners via the Frends integration platform, and strong user authentication for external users was provided by the Auth0 service. The application also works on mobile devices and for international use, supporting all necessary languages.

Implementation proceeded smoothly – testing yielded positive results

During the implementation phase, close collaboration was maintained via a Teams channel, allowing direct communication between Anora’s and Evolver’s teams.

“Even the very first test version was of a very high standard. It was a pleasant surprise compared to my previous experiences with similar projects,” says Kalle Kivistö, a development engineer at Rajamäki.

Testing progressed efficiently at Koskenkorva: “When we tested it and sent a message saying this needs changing, you did it straight away. We were able to try it again in the afternoon and it worked,” explains Minna Tammela.

Grain procurement planner Juha Haukkala confirms: “I’ve rarely been involved in a project where you see changes happening so quickly.”

Commissioning on budget and ahead of schedule

Production at Koskenkorva began in June 2025 – even slightly ahead of the original schedule. Brunna and Rajamäki followed in the autumn, also ahead of schedule.

“The first day at Koskenkorva went well, the first week went well, and then came Midsummer, when there are usually always problems – but nothing. Everything went absolutely brilliantly,” recalls Procurement Manager Kari Kiltilä.

The project stayed within budget and on schedule. The steering group worked smoothly.

“In the steering group, we smiled, nodded and went for a coffee. Everything was fine,” sums up Juhana Ovaska.

Flawless in production – not a single glitch

The new calendar app has been in production use at Koskenkorva since June 2025 and at Rajamäki and Brunnas since October 2025 without a single outage or significant technical issue.

“In just over six months, Koskenkorva has received over 140,000 tonnes of grain – well over 3,000 lorryloads – without a single problem with the calendar app,” says Kari Kiltilä.

“There have been ridiculously few bugs. Practically everything works first time round. The technical implementation appears to be high-quality, easy to maintain, responsive and fast,” says Juhana Ovaska.

Henna Laaksonen also highlights the smoothness of the update process: “You have your own process in place that allows you to roll out optimisation improvements to production without affecting end-users in any way.”

The solution meets business needs

The new system resolved the key pain points of the old application: calendar blocking functions prevent unmanaged bookings, all calendars behave consistently, user management has been simplified, and external user rights are fully controllable; most importantly, the continuous use of the application in a hectic daily work environment is clear, easy and seamless.

“This delivers exactly what we were looking for. It’s no downgrade compared to the old system – on the contrary, we’ve ended up with an even better tool than we’d imagined at the outset,” says Kalle Kivistö.

Offices are now sharing best practices with one another, and plans are already underway to expand the calendar’s functionality for new uses.

“Whenever Kari Kiltilä sees me in the office, he always mentions that the calendar has worked well – and he’s also thinking about how it could be utilised even better in the future,” says Henna Laaksonen.

Collaboration that works

Smooth, open and rapid collaboration was a key feature throughout the project. The Evolver team was easy to reach, responded quickly and understood the business needs.

“This has been an absolutely brilliant collaboration. It’s rare to have a situation like this in IT. Seamless work, easy to approach, and we always got answers,” says Kari Kiltilä.

“I’d like to offer some criticism, but when there isn’t any, it’s really hard to come up with any. I would recommend you without any reservations for similar projects,” says Juhana Ovaska.

The experience in Brunn is the same: “It was great. Nothing to complain about. It’s working well and it’s easy to use,” say Esa Piri and Johannes Röhr.

Kalle Kivistö sums it up: “I’d recommend Evolver any day, and I’d particularly like to highlight the collaboration, communication and how easy it is.”

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Anora Group is the leading producer of wines and spirits in the Nordic and Baltic regions. The company’s best-known brands include Koskenkorva, Jaloviina and Larsen.

Evolver is a specialist in business-driven application development and AI solutions. We build long-lifecycle, business-critical systems and AI solutions for our clients, combining deep technical expertise with a thorough understanding of business operations.