Messukeskus is Finland's largest and most international event venue, serving over a million event visitors annually. Therefore, the online store must be flexible, reliable, and customer-focused.

In a Nutshell

Objective: A Modern Online Store for Demanding Needs

In the spring of 2019, both Messukeskus’s IT department and marketing acknowledged an inevitable fact: the ticketing online store of the event industry giant had reached the end of the road both technically and functionally. A wide search was initiated to find a new solution provider, and a request for proposals was sent out to fifteen entities. The selection included an old partner, large international ecommerce houses, and a few domestic suppliers. Responses were received from seven, of which a few were chosen for further discussions.

The winner turned out to be Crasman. Medium-sized in Finland, but a small player among giants. Why so, IT manager of Messukeskus, Mikko Levo?

– Important factors for us included Crasman's Finnish roots, impressive references, and a business model where Crasman assumes responsibility for the entire package – the platform solution, implementation, and maintenance, enumerates Levo.

– Crasman's references were in many ways significantly more demanding than our needs required, so trust was strong from the outset.

Because Levo, together with his team, had the capability to technically, temporally, and content-wise evaluate Crasman's proposal, the project was set up for success from the launch phase. Levo's team also conducted risk analyses of the suppliers from whom a partner was ultimately selected.

Solution: Bringing User Needs to Light through Service Design

– We had a very clear vision of what we wanted from the new ticketing online store. Easy maintainability, smooth mobile usability, a direct purchase path, and effective integration with other systems. We also wanted the online store to be directly embedable into the event page, Levo lists.

Successful service design began already in the sales phase of the project. Crasman’s team aimed to understand the organization, business, and end customers of Messukeskus as well as possible before presenting a solution proposal. To support the preliminary plan, a prototype of the service was produced, which helped to concretize the benefits of the solution.

In the design phase workshops, the functional specifications of the service were refined. The service design was done user-centrically, recognizing the needs of different customer groups. This also ensured ease of use, which was high on Messukeskus's requirements. The sales phase prototype was further developed as the specification progressed, and its functionality was tested through user tests.

– The designer who created the prototype was also involved in the actual project. This was of great benefit as the project progressed, as was our ability to allocate specific coders to the project whose time was dedicated exclusively to it, explains Crasman’s account manager, Kenneth Åkerberg.

Results: New Business Opportunities on Top of the Online Store

Pasilan Messukeskus hosts 50 events annually, attended by 10,000 business customers and 1.1 million visitors. They now have a ticketing online store at their disposal that encompasses all of this:

• The ticket selector of the online store can be embedded into the event page, allowing customers to acquire their tickets directly from the same place. They are not directed to an external ticket sales system.

• The online store is integrated with Messukeskus's access, management, and accounting systems – as well as HubSpot, which directs sales and marketing.

• Additionally, the new online store can sell various ticket combinations and program tickets, which can include services and products obtainable from the fair, essentially anything the fair organizer can devise.

The purchase path of Messukeskus's online store became dynamic and flexible, opening up opportunities for entirely new businesses and revenue models. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the online store must also adapt to virtual events.

– Nowadays, hybrid events are part of everyday life at fairs, and we have versatile ticketing tools for them.

– Crasman's implementation delivered on its promises at every stage, so we firmly trust them for the future. We have already used their expertise in ideating a new service portal for exhibitors. We want to develop it towards the online store. Additionally, marketing automation is intended to be further improved, summarizes Mikko Levo.