Coreteka

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the business manager of an agri-environmental firm, focusing on improving sustainability in the agricultural supply chain

For what projects/services did your company hire Coreteka, and what were your goals?

We engaged Coreteka to help us develop a cloud based, external facing version of an existing desktop app. Our business relies on a custom application that enables us to be fully flexible with service and customer needs. The evolution of our service resulted in a need to apply this logic online so that we can further compete on price and scalability.

We required a business that could understand a niche market, and be flexible enough to work on a system that has no single defined usage.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We spoke to existing vendors within our family of companies as well as searching for options online. Coreteka was introduced to us by another sister business who had glowing recommendations. Coreteka's team, proposal and professionalism helped us with our decision to work with them.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The initial step involved the Coreteka team understanding our industry, service and system through a number of informative discussions. The team then provided us with a proposal backed up with wireframe ideas via Zeplin. The proposal integrated our Azure based system and customisable functionality with a professional and attractive design.

The project deliverables were initially based on the ability to replicate our service in a user-friendly online environment, taking into account the multiple nuances in regards to user types and data protection. The project is continuous and involves more detailed levels of customisation, market accessibility and embedded functionality.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Depending on the project phase we have always been supported by a project lead, project manager, designer and developer. Other team members have engaged in the project based on need and expertise.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The system is being utilised by a number of high profile clients and we have received excellent feedback. Our aim is to transition all clients to utilise the portal for some aspects of our service and we are on track to deliver this successfully.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

The team are incredibly diligent and even though I appreciate they are busy, they are always more than accommodating to our timescales. The team communicates via multiple means such as google meets, whatsapp and email to ensure I can contact them whenever needed. The project manager is incredibly conscientious with ensuring all meetings are promptly summarised and key points communicated.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The Coreteka team is a very hardworking group of people, and also very personable. I prefer to work with a team that is both professional and affable.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

As with many international projects there are always some potential issues that are caused by things being lost in translation. The team in general have excellent English but as stated, international projects can inevitably have problems that native ones may not. At times we have seen evidence of this with testing and project creep.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the project manager at Wiima Logistics Oy, a logistics company based in Finland.

What challenge were you trying to address with Coreteka?

We’re building a platform with Coreteka. It’s a different kind of logistics service in digital form.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’d worked on the platform for a while before beginning our work with Coreteka, and then we continued it with them. Coreteka has mainly worked on software development, but they’re also maintaining our platform. We’ve been planning what else to do and how to do it, and their team is developing the code.

Additionally, they’ve helped us in many other fields. Coreteka helps us with marketing, strategy, and UX/UI design. We offer digital services to our customers, so we’ve had to learn some things from a marketing point of view. Overall, we’ve achieved an excellent level with Coreteka and can now offer it to our customers.

Our clients can get a quotation for the shipment and complete their booking and tracking on our platform. Also, there is a project logistics management platform, which is a large controlling, reporting, maintaining, planning, scaling, and material flows system within the item level. The second software can integrate into the customer, partner, and carrier systems. In the logistics world, mainly all the service providers can provide shipment handling and tracking.

What is the team composition?

We’ve mainly been in contact with 2–3 people, but there might’ve been 10 people involved over the two years. We have one dedicated person with whom we communicate on a daily basis.

How did you come to work with Coreteka?

I don’t remember exactly; it might have been through LinkedIn.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent around €300,000 (approximately $340,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them at the end of January 2020, and our relationship is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Due to COVID-19, we lost approximately 70% of our markets in one night, but now we’ve been able to build a new customer base. We have large global companies in Finland, and they’ve joined us as customers due to our coming services and new products, especially the material controlling service. 

Moreover, we’ve saved a lot of money compared to services from Finland. Coreteka is very customer-centric, and they can figure out new solutions because they don’t think in a traditional way. They’ve helped us in many problematic situations.

How did Coreteka perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve handled the project management. We follow what has to be done, when, and if we’ll achieve the target. We haven't been so strict on following deadlines and monitoring the efficiency, but we’ve improved the controlling a lot. We’ve missed deadlines, but it wasn’t one-sided — either we needed something new or had to expand the requirements.

We communicate daily with them and use Teams and Google Sheets.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their customer-centric attitude is the most impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could keep to the deadlines when there are no surprises from us.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open about your own business and give them the background. Also, keep the information updated and communicate with them regularly and with an open mind.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm an Innovations & Regional Sales manager in TotalEnergies SE (known as Total CFP before 2021) which is a French multinational integrated oil and gas company founded in 1924 and one of the seven "supermajor" oil companies. Our businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas exploration and production to power generation, transportation, refining, petroleum product marketing, and international crude oil and product trading. We are also a large-scale chemicals manufacturer.

For what projects/services did your company hire Coreteka?

We cooperate with Coreteka to get assistance in the launch of our internal startups, projects, and innovations in: CO2-footprint decreasing, EV-related & loyalty apps

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We've started with a small challenge over 2 years ago and valued their innovative mindset along with high involvement.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Details can't be unveiled due to business circumstances and the early stages of the projects.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Innovation managers + software engineers.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Not yet

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Pretty much effective. Coreteka acts quite fast, which has impressed us. 

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

• 1) Despite, sometimes, the hard complexity of issues, they've never answered they have no idea how to solve them;
• 2) They always try to help;
• 3) Price is affordable.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Features to attract customers, and easily achievable architecture to decrease CO2 emissions.