Case Aurinkomatkat.fi
Evolver has been responsible for the overall development of Aurinkomatkat’s main sales channel, working closely together with Aurinkomatkat’s in-house team since 2010.
As a result of the cooperation, a comprehensive set of solutions has been created that is very long-lasting and which has also been noticed over the years in several different competitions evaluating online services, such as Grand One and the Finnish Web Awards. Aurinkomatkat has also systematically measured the customer satisfaction of its digital services for many years, and the results have consistently been excellent.
Both deep mutual commitment and agile delivery of first-class technology solutions have emerged in the cooperation.
Aurinkomatkat has gotten the best possible business benefit out of its information system solutions and has been able to flexibly expand its business to completely new areas.
Durability and agility for business development in a rapidly changing business
In 2010, Aurinkomatkat felt strongly that the rapidly digitizing travel business and its sales processes required an online service solution that would enable it to survive in the increasingly tough competition.
To meet this need, Evolver (formerly Avarko) designed a high-performance, reliable, monitorable and easy-to-develop solution for Aurinkomatkat that combines fragmented backend services. Fores’ core idea was that the system must be long-lasting and still flexible.
Ilari Pohjola, Head of ECommerce & Marketing explains how the hassle-free and long-term web development has played an essential role in success:
“We have been the market leader in the Finnish tourism business for many years, and of course there are countless things behind that. But yes, our digital services have played a big role in the fact that our business has grown wildly over the past decade. After all, ninety percent of our business comes through the web. You can’t do that kind of business if the digital side doesn’t work very well.”
“NINETY PERCENT OF OUR COMMERCE COMES THROUGH THE WEB. YOU CAN’T DO THAT KIND OF BUSINESS IF THE DIGITAL SIDE DOESN’T WORK VERY WELL.”
Fores makes the backend systems compatible with each other
Fores is an online store tailored to the needs of Aurinkomatkat. At the heart of the system is a responsive user experience for the end customer, enriched data from background systems and modularity that enables continuous development. The solution is based on open-source components and Java architecture.
“The technology and architecture are still the same as in 2010, but many layers and new technologies have been added over the years. The application has been developed very actively all the time, so the technology stack is up-to-date and efficient,” says Ilari Pohjola.
Customer expectations at the heart of the service
Aurinkomatkat’s online store is one of Finland’s largest online stores. The online service must meet the customers’ expectations as well as possible. When selling trips, dreaming, comparison and different search services play an essential role. In 2018, the Aurinkomatkat.fi online store received an honorable mention for considering the needs of customers.
“For several years, we have based our business development on deep customer understanding, regardless of the segment. Therefore, in digital development, the customer perspective is at the very core of the entire process. When the digital service meets the customer’s needs, it is also reflected in the business numbers. We have succeeded very well in this,” says Ilari Pohjola.
WHEN WE TOLD THE OTHER PARTNERS MORE THAN TEN YEARS AGO THAT WE wILL MAKE AN UPGRADE WHICH WOULD LAST AT LEAST TEN YEARS, MANY EXPRESSED DISBELIEF.
In 2023, Fores continues to guarantee Aurinkomatkat a sustainable and agile system that increases Aurinkomatkat’s market leadership in the fast-changing tourism business. Close cooperation and development together with Aurinkomatkat’s own in-house team has led to a way of working that has found the best possible combination of strong internal and externally acquired expertise.
“When we told the other partners more than ten years ago that we were going to make a reform that would last at least ten years, many people expressed disbelief. It is common in the industry that systems have to be renewed every year. However, Fores has lasted more than ten years and is still going strong in 2023”, says CEO Arttu Kataja of Evolver .
“I have to add that once we got this kind of in-house-external hybrid model rocking, working with Aurinkomatkat’s internal team and Evolver, the results have been excellent and both parties have benefited from them,” says Ilari Pohjola.
Turbulence puts agility to the test
The Covid-19 pandemic was a difficult time for the tourism business. Scaling is usually thought of as happening upwards, but in volatile times it may be necessary to scale things down as well. Fores has been flexible with Aurinkomatkat as the situation required, and the size of the team has been reduced when necessary.
However, with a small team, we were able to quickly sell domestic trips in Finland and quickly implement new business ideas within the reach of customers. When tourism started again, business was quickly scaled up.
“During the quieter times we updated some technology and caught up with some of our technology debt. We made the improvements that would help the business take off later,” says Ilari Pohjola.
A long partnership and agile development are reflected in the final results
Aurinkomatkat uses Evolver above all for technical expertise, but the long partnership in the development of the system is also reflected in a deep understanding of the business and the strong cooperation of the internal and outsourced team. There is a lot of aggregation and business logic involved in searching, booking and presenting information.
In the tourism industry, there are also complex and fragmented backend systems of other service providers. The tourism business is also in constant transition. The online service has lived up to the times and met the challenges.
“Evolver’s people are closely integrated into Aurinkomatkat’s overall team. Even though we have a long partnership between us, the way things are done is agile. The way our cooperation has been outstanding compared to the basic vendor relationship is that they have a great understanding of our business. When doing big development projects, it is a big help that the developer understands our business logic and challenges . For example, we can anticipate difficult technical challenges and situations effectively,” says Ilari Pohjola.
THE WAY OUR COOPERATION HAS BEEN OUTSTANDING COMPARED TO THE USUAL VENDOR RELATIONSHIP IS THAT THEY HAVE A GREAT UNDERSTANDING OF OUR BUSINESS
THE COLLABORATION BETWEEN EVOLVER AND AURINKOMATKAT HAS BEEN A MODEL EXAMPLE OF WHAT CAN BE ACHIEVED WITH LONG-TERM EFFORT COMBINED WITH AGILE DEVELOPMENT
The best long-term benefit from information systems
Evolver has been a long-term partner of Aurinkomatkat. Working together is continuous development. Evolver’s mission is to help its customers in the long term to get the best possible benefit out of their information systems and combine it with an agile “yes we can” attitude. Information systems are huge investments and therefore it is worth taking full advantage of them.
“No system is an automaton of value production. In order to realize the benefits of the systems, continuous development and continuous services are needed. In my opinion, the cooperation between Evolver and Aurinkomatkat has been a model example of what long-term effort combined with agile development can achieve,” reflects Evolver’s Arttu Kataja.
“You can say that we are very satisfied with Evolver. The cooperation is going really well in all aspects. They are definitely our trusted partners,” says Ilari Pohjola.
Aurinkomatkat is Finland´s largest and most trusted tour operator and has been making Finns’ vacation dreams come true since 1963.
Aurinkomatkat’s share of completed trips in Finland in 2022 was 36.1%. As Finland’s most responsible tour operator, Aurinkomatkat is committed to long-term work for responsible tourism.
You can easily book a trip in the online store or by calling the sales service. Aurinkomatkat’s product and service selection includes Aurinkomatkat packages and City Holidays.
Oy Aurinkomatkat – Suntours Ltd Ab belongs to the Finnair group. Finnair Oyj’s annual report can be read at
https://company.finnair.com/fi .
Evolver is a creative, business-oriented application development agency. Evolver tackles the challenges that are obstacles to the development of the company’s digital business, solves them and creates new opportunities.
The approach is broad and ambitious. Evolver focuses on what affects development the most, with all the knowledge and skills that an agile and experienced expert company can offer.