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Golfgamebook.com

We are extremely happy to announce that we have been working for several months on a very exciting project that brings real-time scoring and social media features to golf. Now the system is live, the iPhone app can be found at the App Store, and golf season is just starting.

Below you’ll find the formal announcement:

Exove has played a central role in Golfgamebook.com concept and visual design, and technical implementation onto Linux, Apache, PHP and MySQL technology platform.

The site concept and layout was designed by Union together with Exove and Free Drop Innovations. The emphasis was on bringing the social features of golf, typically discussed mainly in the clubhouses or privately, to larger audience in the Internet. These features were supported by a number of typical social media features fit to the golf environment – such as online friends, discussions, and sharing golf game results.

The service was built on ExoveIgniter, a framework based on CodeIgniter offering a versatile set of social media features. The system was built in a modular fashion that allows easy extensibility and fast upgrades. Based on the concept and visual designs, Exove implemented the required HTML code and integrated it into the system as Smarty templates.

The most important features of the system are live connections to scorecard appliances, including also an iPhone client developed by Qvik, full features social media services, integrations to key external services, and fluid user experience with strong branding.

The implementation project delivered a turnkey solution for the client in a multi-vendor environment.

The co-founders of Free Drop Innovations Kalle Väinölä and Mikko Manerus describe the result of the development project as follows: “GameBook is unique within golf’s marketplace as the only product that provides real-time electronic scoring for individuals as well as golf clubs. The scope and timetable of required server side development and web-services were extremely challenging, so we knew we have to pick the right partner in order to reach our ambitious goals. Exove did not only succeed in execution, but they also acted as a true partner throughout the project.”

Mikko Rantanen, CEO of Free Drop Innovations, continues: “We set the standard for our web presence and on-line community very high as we knew that in international golf marketplace only the best products and services prevail. The end result speaks for itself and further distances GameBook from its competition. We are in particular extremely proud of our web-based community, the GameBook Clubhouse. It provides players opportunity to connect with one another through a sophisticated and innovative community platform.”

If you are a golfer, please check www.golfgamebook.com and register. The best game just got better.

Selecting a framework for implementing web applications

We have been lately working with several web applications and social media systems. Every system has a unique business model and value proposition to the customers and the visitors, and thus the functionality we have been implementing vary a lot between the applications. However, when digging one level deeper, similarities start to surface.

There are a lot of typical features in web applications, such as registration, signing in and out, viewing your details, and so on. On the admin side, one needs to be able to list, add, modify, and remove items — whatever they might be — and to manage users, see log files, etc. If we drill one more level down, there is a need for a common set of library functionalities, such as image manipulation, friend and group management, session handling, and protection against SQL injections and XSS / XSRF attacks.

If you are coding all components mentioned above, you are either in framework business or doing something wrong. There is no need to invent the wheel again. Instead, you should be focusing your energy on selecting the correct wheel for your needs.

There is a plethora of different web application frameworks in the market. Some of the publishing systems, such as Drupal or Joomla! provide their own application frameworks within the CMS. The selection is not easy, because approaches to the challenges of web application development are different, and sometimes even not directly comparable.

When we selected our core set of tools (Drupal, WordPress, eZ Publish, and CodeIgniter), we looked at the following items:

• Easy of extensibility. How easy it is to extend the system using the API provided? Or do you need to take shortcuts and fight against the system when there is a need to make anything fancier?
• Availability of third party components. Can you rely on third parties to solve your problems completely or partially? What is the quality of these components? This resonates directly with the needs listed above.
• Separation of content and presentation. Is there a proper template system with easy enough syntax? Does the system enforce good policies for separation, or do components produce HTML directly?
• Performance. How long is the route to your code through the system? Does the system provide mechanisms to cache data in various levels? Some of the systems are notoriously bad in this area, and constant attention needs to paid to the performance throughout the project — others are lightning fast.
• Documentation. How well the system is documented? This can be a real killer, as reading code is way slower than reading through good documentation.
• Fit for the purpose. What is the problem that the system tries to solve? Is this your problem, too? Developing applications against the system is a constant uphill battle and not worth the money and the effort spent.

None of our systems are perfect. WordPress has issues with separation of content and presentation, and the performance is not optimal. However, it is an excellent tool for small and medium scale web sites. CodeIgniter is fast, but you need to implement a lot of functionality around it. There is a good number of third party components, though, and active development going on. Within Drupal, there is typically at least one module that solves similar problems you are working on — sometimes the approach is not valid, or the module is half-baked.

After selection of the systems, we have been steadily gaining knowledge of good modules and extensions that can improve the projects at hand by cutting development time and thus prices. Further, we have been implementing a commonly used functionalities, as mentioned in the beginning, into libraries and components that can be used in any project requiring such functionality. We do not believe in coding for possible future needs, so the components grow based on the needs of the project — and the next projects get more features from the same components. One just needs to keep the solutions generic enough so that they can b reused.

We have been able to use the components so that some projects have been able to implement a large set of functionality, such as group management, with only a few hundred lines of own code.

Haemme PHP-kehittäjää / We are looking for a PHP Developer

9.2.2010: Hakuaika on päättynyt. Kiitoksia kaikille hakemuksensa lähettäneille. Olemme teihin yhteydessä lähiaikoina. / The application period has ended. Our thanks to everyone that sent an application. We are in touch with you soon.

Haemme kasvavaan tiimiimme lisää osaajia ja nyt rekrytoimme PHP-kehittäjää haastaviin projekteihin, joita tehdään pääasiassa Drupalilla ja CodeIgniterilla. Lue tarkemmat speksit avoimet työpaikat -sivultamme ja laita hakemus tulemaan.

We are looking for a new members to our growing team, and now we are recruiting a PHP Developer for projects that are implemented on top of Drupal and CodeIgniter. Read the spec on our open positions page, and send an application.

World Design Capital 2012 site on Drupal

As many of you probably know, Helsinki has been appointed the World Design Capital 2012 a week ago in Singapore.

We had the pleasure of working with the World Design Capital project team, and the skillful designers of Kokoro & Moi to design and implement a Drupal based site for the World Design Capital 2012 Helsinki.

Drupal was a perfect fit for such a site. Please visit www.wdc2012helsinki.fi for further information about the project.

Customer survey results 2009

We have held our annual customer survey again this autumn. We got excellent results last year, and keeping up with that was more than challenging.

This year, we got somewhat better results in certain areas, and somewhat worse ratings on others. This is partially due to a couple challenging projects during the summer.

Our service was regarded mostly excellent (35%) or good (45%), but also average (10%) or poor (10%). The share of excellent rose from last year, but average and poor ratings were introduced now.

More than 70% of the customers think that we are better than our competitors. Further, most of the customers have either already bought from us, or would buy them in the future. We are really pleased to hear this, and will continue to strive further to keep or even increase these ratings.

Regarding our assets, responsiveness, keeping promises, and understanding customers’ needs were regarded very high, around 80-85% good or excellent. Our customers also like our staff, and we are seen both friendly and professional — a rare combination that we are cultivating constantly.

If you feel that we could be a good — friendly and professional — partner for you, get in touch with Janne Kalliola, +358 40 558 1796 or janne@exove.com.

Haemme PHP-ohjelmoijaa / Looking for a PHP Developer

13.11.2009: Haku on päättynyt. Kiitoksia kaikille hakemuksensa lähettäneille, olemme teihin yhteydessä. The search is now closed. Thanks for everyone who submitted an application, we’ll be in touch with you.

Haemme kasvavaan joukkoomme PHP-ohjelmoijaa. Tarkemmat tiedot ja hakuohjeet löytyvät avoimet työpaikat -sivultamme.

We are looking for a PHP Developer to join our growing team. For more information about the position and how to apply, visit on our open positions page.

Meet us at DrupalCamp Finland on May 27th

Updated on May 26th: Kalle has two presentations.

A few developers of us (namely Erno, Kalle and Rami) are visiting DrupalCamp Finland on next Wednesday, May 27th.

Kalle will also give two presentations: on Drupal performance and caching on professional track and about comparing Drupal against a selected posse of open source content management systems on introductory track. The latter presentation also explains how we select the best suitable system for our customers. If you are around, please pop in to hear benefits and drawbacks of each system.

In case you cannot make it to the camp — it has been already once sold out, additional tickets were available while writing this entry — we can always come to visit you to discuss using Drupal within your organisation.

DrupalCamp Finland’s site can be found at www.drupalcamp.fi.

Web 2.0 Incubation

We have been working with several web 2.0 and mobile 2.0 services for our clients during the past year. The projects have varied from complete turn-key solutions to taking care of only technical implementation of the system. Besides design and development, we have also helped our customers to assess their business plans and roadmaps with regards to way of working on the Internet, advertising revenue, and understanding their customers.

The client list is interesting and surprisingly diverse; there seems to be on-going innovation in several areas in Finland:

• Blyk provides free mobile service funded by advertising in the UK.
• One Did It is a community oriented service to help people live ecologically sustainable lives.
• 123play.com provides free mobile games with advertisements.
• Hyvälääkäri.fi allows people to provide and get information about good doctors and thus gain better treatment.
• Vuosikerta.fi is a shared biography writing service designed for baby boomers generation in Finland.

There are some interesting things still under the hood, hopefully we can share them later with you.

For these systems, we have provided the following services:

• Concept development and user experience design.
• Visual design.
• Software architecture and database design.
• Software development, including XHTML.
• Quality assurance.
• Deployment, training and support.

If these lists looked compelling for your business, please get in touch with us. We are more than happy to help you.

Parempaa bisnestä verkossa

Eräs päätavoitteistamme jokaisessa projektissa on varmistaa, että asiakkaamme pystyy tekemään parempaa bisnestä verkossa.

Maailma digitalisoituu ja suurin osa ihmisistä on helpoiten saavutettavissa Internetissä. Yritykset voivat ja niiden täytyy tehdä liikkeitä digiavaruudessa, sekä houkutellakseen uusia asiakkaita että palvellakseen nykyisiä paremmin ja edullisemmin.

Tietyt teollisuudenalat, kuten media ja telecom, käyvät läpi radikaalia murrosvaihetta, jossa sekä liiketoimintamallit että -avut muuttuvat. Näissä yrityksessä täytyy arvioida todella tarkasti erilaiset mahdollisuudet siirtää tai kytkeä liiketoimintaprosesseja Internetiin, esimerkiksi tarjoamalla avoimia rajapintoja ja muita yhteistoiminnallisia ominaisuuksia suojaamaan pääliiketoimintaa eroosiolta — joka syntyy uusien, pelkästään Internetissä toimivien pelaajien takia.

Toiset alat pääsevät vähemmällä, joten he voivat olla pelkästään läsnä oikeissa paikoissa ja oikeiden yleisöjen seassa verkossa.

Uusien asiakkaiden hankkimisessa banneri- ja hakukonemainonta vie tietyn matkaa eteenpäin, mutta ei riittävästi — ei synny aitoa keskustelua, ja asiakkaat eivät integroidu yritykseen verkossa. Tämä tilanne voidaan muuttaa tarjoamalla mielenkiintoisia ja arvoa lisääviä palveluja, jotka tukevat ja parantavat perusliiketoimintaa.

Asiakaspalveluprosessien muuttaminen itsepalveluksi verkossa on haasteellista, mutta ajan kuluessa säästöt voivat olla mittavia — esimerkiksi tarjoamalla palveluun liittyvät tiedot kaikkien saatavilla, jolloin osa ihmisistä alkaa auttamaan toisiaan. Tässä tilanteessa perinteiset ylhäältä ohjatut mallit, kuten puhelintukeen nojautuvat asiakastukijärjestelmät, ovat huomattavasti kalliimpia ja jäykempiä. Kun tukijärjestelmä on tehty oikein verkossa, ihmiset saavat enemmän ja nopeammin aikaan verrattuna aiempiin ratkaisuihin, mikä näkyy asiakastyytyväisyydessä.

Ratkaisut

Tarvittavat ratkaisut ovat harvoin puhtaasti teknisiä; ne ovat monipuolinen kokonaisuus keskenään verkottuneita prosesseja, konsepteja, käyttökokemuksia, visuaalisia ulkoasuja ja järjestelmiä. Suurin osa teknologiatoimittajista keskittyy vain jälkimmäiseen, unohtaen kaiken muun.

Meidän mielestämme toimittajan täytyy ensisijaisesti ymmärtää asiakkaansa liiketoiminta, strategia ja oleelliset verkkotrendit. Seuraava askel on etsiä yhdessä asiakkaan kanssa tarvittavat muutokset liiketoiminnassa ja prosesseissa.

Näiden pohjalta meidän on helppo suunniteltu paras ratkaisu sekä itse muutokseen että sen mukanaan tuomiin haasteisiin. Kun tämä on tiedossa, loppu on suunnittelua ja toteutusta — leipätyötämme.

Innovation is alive and well in Finland

Despite (or due to) the hard times in financials, web related innovative companies are alive and kicking here in Finland.

During this year and especially this autumn, we have helped a number of companies to jumpstart their business by helping them to conceptualise their offer, designing user experience, and implementing the needed systems to actually run the show.

Besides readymade and on-going projects, we are working with a number of other startups that have good and grand ideas for services that will shake certain segments or niches on the markets.

There is happening a lot also outside of Exove, too. Finnish startup scene has been pretty lively for the past year or so.

This all is due to the fact that implementing a web based business has become really cost-effective compared to the old ways of doing software business.

If you are pondering on an idea, consider also discussing with us. Let’s talk.