Wunder loves Turku – the benefits of a long-term partnership

The partnership between Turku and Wunder goes as far back as 2014. A web service specialist and a project manager for the city of Turku, Mira Koivumäki-Lindholm, opens up how it’s like working with Wunder on long-term development. She also pinpoints what exactly makes Wunder such a special partner for them.

– The City of Turku and Wunder met in 2014 when Turku renewed its web service. The new Turku.fi resulted from close collaboration between Wunder, Citrus, and Druid in a multi-vendor environment. In the active phase of the web service development, Wunder was one of the three developers, Mira tells.

Mira wasn’t in charge of the development back then, but she has executed smaller projects utilizing the multi-vendor model. From the customer’s viewpoint, she finds many upsides to the model.

At best, Mira says, the multi-vendor model provides the customer with multiple outlooks and the best experts available.

– We can segment extensive development projects and ask the vendors to split the tasks themselves to best benefit from each agency’s strengths.

For the customer, the multi-vendor model offers expertise in abundance. But especially in the public sector, there are certain challenges that come with it. Koivumäki-Lindholm recognizes that the fast-paced development of the digital world doesn’t always go well with the structures and practices of public administration.

– It sure comes with its challenges. We must adhere to the Procurement Act, and the multi-vendor model requires operating through so-called mini tenders, which take time, so the daily work is not always as agile as it could be.

There has been plenty of work even after the site was launched, and over the years, Wunder’s role has changed.

– What is new is the pretty extensive turku.fi’s maintenance. Through tendering, Wunder was selected as our maintenance-partner. Turku.fi consists of the so-called turku.fi “main-site” and dozens of subsites with different language versions. Wunder has a significant role and responsibility for the architecture and server environments of turku.fi and its parallel and subsites.

Mira sums up that the role is very different from what it used to be and adds that a long-term partnership brings significant benefits to both parties.

– Now, Wunder is responsible for securing that everything runs properly, and luckily, we can trust Wunder with that!

The only sure thing in developing digital services is change – in needs, technologies, and consumer trends. That is what makes an available pool of experts so significant.

– Wunder’s strengths lie in mastering many fields, such as search engine optimization and analytics. Their diverse expertise has benefitted us and taught us to pay attention to analytics in developing the site.

– Thanks to Wunder’s experts, we – as a client – stay up-to-date with, for example, Google’s everchanging and ever-developing services. Amid rapid changes, we can focus on doing our jobs and trust the experts to support, help, and guide us, says Mira.

Chill experts who dare to say no

Wunder is known for colourful personalities and letting everyone be themselves. Though, most important is the expertise and will to develop web services in the best possible way to achieve the best possible result.

– They don’t just get the job done, but really think about what is best for the customer and what is the best solution to the situation at hand. We truly appreciate that.

Disagreeing with the customer requires a good view of the big picture – and expressing dissenting opinions require courage. In a long-term partnership, bringing up differing opinions and views both gets more significance, and the threshold for it gets lower.

– Wunder’s experts also dare to say no. The customer does not necessarily know how to order the ideal solution. Wunderers have managed well to explain the possible outcomes of different solutions to us. They are capable of offering us excellent solutions we did not even know to ask.

Mira emphasizes how necessary the experts’ in-depth knowledge is. And the depth naturally grows during the years to the point where the experts understand exceptionally well the customer organization structures and their long-term visions. Growing mutual trust benefits both the customer and the service provider.

– Wunder’s experts are true gems: they let their fun personalities show, but also possess cutting-edge skills which create an environment of trust.

To Mira, however, the most important link between the customer and the service provider is the account manager because, in extensive web services, everything affects everything.

– Our account manager at Wunder provides us with advice and support for the various questions we have. And if there’s something Tuomas cannot answer right away, he quickly finds out the answer to our question.

P.S The City of Turku’s account manager Tuomas Leppänen has worked at Wunder for over a decade. He joined the Turku team as a developer but became an account manager four years later. Tuomas has studied network and system administration and has a bachelor’s degree in business administration.