Becoming Part of the Client Organization
Fonecta has shed its skin. A more agile way of developing services has already been implemented, and new online and mobile search services are on the way.
Starting from the ground up
Tightening competition motivated Fonecta, Finland’s market leader in directory services, to update its online and mobile search services. Competitors in the local market include Google. At the same time, Fonecta decided to completely rethink its way of developing its service business. The goal was to increase agility and the measurability of results. Fonecta selected Palmu as its partner in this process.
Ensuring efficiency and creativity in service development
In under a year, Fonecta’s way of developing online and mobile search services has been totally revamped. Key changes include a new organization and a new development inventory that incorporates a product ownership model and scorecards that take the quality of the customer experience into account. Other changes include a new technological environment and involving customers in product development.
A comprehensive, palmu-led overhaul
Fonecta’s new approach to developing its service business can be characterized as fast and open. Everything starts from the service development team, where the silos between marketing, sales, IT, and operational management have been dismantled. Team members sit in the same room, and product owners carry responsibility for each service’s customer experience and results.
Customers participate in service innovation. Methods of involvement include interviews with consumers and corporate clients, observation, and new service testing. A/B and multivariate tests are used to compare different versions of the same service.
Palmu has led the development of the new organization and services as an integral part of the Fonecta organization. In practice, responsibility for service development and forming the scrum team and organization were turned over to Palmu during the initial stages of cooperation. Responsibility for the new operating models will be phased back to Fonecta’s own personnel as the methods and competence take root in-house.
The first result from the new operating model is the updated www.eniro.fi. During 2011, several completely new or renewed online services and applications will be released.
The project in numbers
| 1.5 | years of cooperation (to date) |
| 9 | new or redesigned services or user interfaces (to date) |
| 60 + | user tests and interviews |
| 1 250 000 | unique users per week |
| 5 | technology teams being managed in five different countries |
What the client has to say
Palmu has been an indispensable help in building Fonecta’s future competitiveness. Cooperation is straightforward, and a genuine interest in resolving the client’s challenges shows in everything they do. Because of Palmu’s working methods, the competence of Fonecta’s own personnel has developed critically over the course of cooperation.