Client story: An app designed to restore your confidence in taxis
The 02 Taksi app is a service which gathers the domestic taxi companies in one place and allows the user to book and compare taxis. The app aims to restore the Finns’ trust in taxi travel by making booking a taxi easier and by providing a fair and balanced comparison of rides throughout the country. An ambitious goal to say the least.
What was the collaboration between 02 and Rakettitiede like from the client’s point of view?
Year 2019. The domestic taxi market had opened up with a bang just a year earlier. 02’s number service recognised a need for a safe, quick and straightforward way to make a taxi booking. Practically a household name, 020202 provided a good foundation for a broad user base.
A committed core team brings results
Today, 02 Taksi is one of the top apps in Finnish app stores based on user ratings. Reviewers have been particularly impressed with the app’s ease of use. That’s something we can really pat ourselves on the back about, because the goal was to create the best taxi app in Finland.
“Both sides were active in getting rid of unnecessary management, jargon and barriers. High-quality software development also requires that the developer understands our business and sales”, summarises Petteri Niemi, Chief Operating Officer at 02 Taksi.
“The project required excellent and committed developers, especially in system development. We were looking for top-rate software expertise and happened to come across Rakettitiede. Ultimately, a lot of it comes down to trust. If you manage to find the right experts, it creates a solid foundation for the success of the entire project,” explains Petteri Niemi, Chief Operating Officer at 02.
Rakettitiede’s Tuisku Salminen, one of the main developers of the app, shares Niemi’s views on trust. Salminen has been involved in the development of both the front and backend of the app and continues to work in 02’s team even today.
“The 02 Taksi team is an exceptionally welcoming bunch and a laid-back work community. The team has had altogether four developers from Rakettitiede, and we’ve been given the opportunity to make decisions and develop our own professional competence. We truly get to shine when we’re allowed to tackle challenges for the client,” says Salminen.
No unnecessary BS
The 02 Taksi service has separate interfaces for customer service, the web and mobile devices. At the beginning of the collaboration, Rakettitiede developers created a Finland-wide GIS system. The backend of the online service ran on a fully serverless AWS cloud platform. Since then, Rakettitiede developers have taken on the role of lead application developer.
02’s Petteri Niemi says it was important for the developers to be able to form an understanding of the company’s business and the customer base of the application already at the beginning of the project. Both sides were active in getting rid of unnecessary management, jargon and barriers.
“We don’t believe in micromanagement. Instead, we want to let the developers themselves solve the challenges they face. As a rule of thumb, I’ve found that close cooperation makes achieving success more likely – even when dealing with slightly less-experienced developers. On the flip side, drawing clear lines between the client and the consultant can make the work of even the best developers more difficult. Being able to have an open discussion about difficult topics or slip-ups is an absolute prerequisite when working with us,” Niemi says.
Good interaction carries the project over the finish line
“The successfulness of a software development project is a combination of candour, casualness and competence”, says Rakettitiede’s Tuisku Salminen.
Salminen agrees on the importance of close interaction and mentions that the successfulness of a software development project is a combination of candour, casualness and competence.
“It’s important to create a dialogue between the developers and the decision makers. The work community needs to feel relaxed in order to solve problems and achieve top quality. The developers’ individual competence also needs to be high. No project will reach the finish line if the developers can’t carry it there themselves,” Salminen says.
Niemi agrees but takes a more client-centred approach.
“The starting level of the developers determines the outcome right at beginning of the project. With Rakettitiede’s developers, specifying the level required and also upgrading it as needed have felt like natural parts of the process. When everything goes according to plan, the developers of a software development project start to feel like your own employees. I can’t stress enough how important that is.”
Niemi points out that the client needs provide sufficient support to make the developers’ work a success. When a software project fails, it’s often because the client hasn’t made the goals clear enough or because the developer has been too optimistic about the schedule. With Rakettitiede, creating an active dialogue was easy.
What has Niemi been particularly pleased with during these years?
“Outside programming work, I’m immediately reminded of the positive experiences we had with sales promotion. Rakettitiede’s developers won us a new customer under some intense time pressure. A similar project could have easily taken a week or two to complete, but we and the Rocket finished the job within days. As a client, I can appreciate the fact the developers are able to step outside their basic role and tackle challenges in the event of a critical disruption or a sudden sales opportunity. In situations such as these, hardcore talent really stands out,” Niemi summarises.