SUPEROPERATOR NEWSLETTER May 2019

17 May 2019 | Newsletters

Top 4 Trends in The Automotive World, Meet Our Dream Team

THE FUTURE IS HERE

The new trends in the automotive industries were estimated in a report by McKinsley in 2016. The development has turned out to be as was forecast, and at Superoperator, we are pleased to provide solutions that meet the needs of the changing industry.

DIVERSE MOBILITY

Car sharing, on-demand mobility services and data-driven services are increasing. Technology-driven development and change in consumer preferences around ownership leads to consumers owning and buying less cars. Shared mobility e.g. car sharing is constantly increasing.* SO’s Platform already enables to have a single application that includes all essential car services from fuelling & charging to parking and washing a car.

AUTONOMOUS DRIVING

At Tesla’s Autonomy Day held this April, Elon Musk spoke confidently about Tesla going to enable their autonomously-driving Robotaxis driving on the streets by the end of next year.* We have already enabled the service that allows an autonomous car to drive in to a car wash. The car will be recognised by its licence plate at the entrance, and once inside, the digitally operated wash will start automatically.

ELECTRIFICATION

Electric cars are becoming more common, and the traditional petrol stations are losing their meaning as re-fuelling stations. Station owners need to start offering new kinds of services. That’s where the digital car wash comes in, as a new attractive service.*This is one reason why Superoperator offers an easy way to keep the cars clean, and why we are offering our state-of-the-art service to petrol stations to help them attract modern customers showing way to others.

CONNECTIVITY

Connectivity, and later autonomous technology, will increasingly allow the car to become a platform for drivers and passengers to use their time in transit to consume novel forms of media and services or dedicate the freed-up time to other personal activities.*SO is a virtual operator that can combine all the needed services in a single application. Raising interest increasingly, there’s a new feature allowing in-app commercial feeds comping up.

CONSUMER TRENDS

Ecological trends: new less-polluting, less fuel-consuming carsLess ownership becomes a part of sustainability as the importance of ecological trends are increasing
* With an SO-powered app, less driving around is needed, because consumers can check the nearest available car wash site on the application. Washing a car in a professional car wash is safer than washing it at home, thanks to the water filteration systems preventing the chemicals from absorbing into the soil.

Prague update

MEet Helena Lindová

Thanks to our Czech Country Manager Helena Lindová the awareness or our service is growing fast in the Czech market. Helena is keen on the new technology and can’t wait for the next steps.

The company’s way of keeping the whole fleet clean is unique for the customers. The cars are recognised at the front of the car wash, and the driver can just drive in. Billing is easy, only one invoice is needed for the entire fleet of cars.

At the moment, customers can use over 100 wash sites both at Benzina’s petrol stations as well as at a number of MOL stations. The installations of digital car wash will continue, and we expect that by the end of the year there will be 120 wash sites in the network.

Contact Helena for more information

Growing interest in Czech market

Our new digital car wash model has gained great publicity in the Czech media, and the number of app downloads is increasing rapidly. We are happy to see our modern pioneer-minded customers adapting the new service so quickly.

Handy for customer groups with specific needs, too

Our service is also a great fit for specific user groups, like for persons of reduced mobility, while the service allows washing without ever getting out of the vehicle. Just buy a wash, choose a program, and launch the wash with the app on your smartphone.

W atch the video

SUCCESFUL COOPERATION

Vincit – Our Technical Partner since 2012

Superoperator’s technology is developed with the software company Vincit Oyj. Vincit provides product development in a close cooperation with SO’s tech team. In addition to the operations in Finland, we carry out development work in the United States, where one of our customers is the rapidly growing franchised car wash chain, Tommy’s Express.

Not another software company

The man behind Vincit is CEO Mikko Kuitunen, who has always been interested in disrupting ways of doing business and developing organisation culture. “Our success stems from two facts; satisfied customers and satisfied employees,” crystallises Kuitunen. That’s why Vincit has been ranked a best place to work, both in Finland and Europe. And the customer satisfaction rate is top class.

Crucial part of our success story

“We started generating ideas together about how we could renew the car wash industry that hadn’t changed in fifty years. It has been a great journey we’ve had so far. I’m proud of Superoperator as well as our own team. I’m confident that Superoperator will disrupt the car wash industry – and it has already done so,” says Kuitunen.

FACTS ABOUT VINCIT

Trailblazer in Service Design and Software Development
Has many Finland’s leading companies as customers
Awarded for a number of their technical implementations
Best Workplace in Europe 2016

Read more at Vincit website

INTRODUCING OUR TECH TEAM

This month, we would like to introduce our team of specialists from different fields.

From right: CTO – Software, Mikko Pitkänen, CTO, Riku Uotinen, and Senior Developer, Jorma Hakala.

Superoperator’s Dream Team

Superoperator’s brain centre is located in Kuopio, Central Finland, where the product development is managed and coordinated from. The team constantly improves the existing technology and develops new features for both hardware and software.

The team is lead by Riku Uotinen who is also the head of the operations in the United States. Our team works in close cooperation with our software development partner Vincit Oyj.

User-friendliness in focus

The starting point for all our development work is user-friendliness, not to mention cost effectiveness. The Dashboard – used for managing the operation of the car washes as well as the customer accounts – is a key part in collecting user behaviour data that enables us and our customers to implement targeted marketing and sales. It also enables e.g. dynamic pricing, which means that the unit sales price of a car wash can be modified according to the usage rate.

Ease-of-use in the core

The License Plate Recognition is an essential part of our digital service, and it was developed to recognise the different letter and number combinations used in different countries. The idea for installing a queue camera started with the purpose of better customer service: The customer can quickly and easily check the queue status from the application on their smartphone. The easy, simple and convenient user and customer experience is in the core of everything we do.