Neste
Significant sales growth and improved customer experience with Neste digital service channel
Neste designed and implemented a digital service channel together with Exove and gained significant business growth.
Neste challenges the oil refining industry by offering increasingly clean fuel solutions and applications based on renewable raw materials.
Exove designed and implemented a new digital service channel for the Neste Retail business unit combining e-commerce, self-services, and web content management for both private and B2B customers in Finland, Russia, and the Baltic countries.
Service channel
Efficiency and increased sales
After publishing the Neste service channel web sales has grown with a multiplied speed and since the sales team no longer needs to handle the orders manually Neste has saved time and money with the solution.
Improved customer experience and increased sales with a future-proof platform
Neste wanted to improve their customer experience and drive sales by creating a flexible and future-proof platform to realize the potential of the digital channels. Neste decided to renew the old neste.fi website, extranet, and integrations to various backend systems.
Neste also wanted to treat this project as a pilot in order to learn more about adapting agile service development as a way of working within their own organisation.
The project continued the collaboration between Exove and Neste, which started on the renewal of the corporate website neste.com, and continued through renewal of the retail websites in Russia and the Baltic countries.
Seamless and agile collaboration
The project started with a service design phase and the creation of the digital concept, and a plan for content production in close collaboration with Neste business teams, customer service, and selected customers.
Our experts worked at Neste’s premises and alongside their own teams. This was a great way to share knowledge of agile service development, and make sure that all the solutions we suggest were technologically feasible – a real consideration when dealing with a very complex system architecture constructed over several years.
End-users’ needs investigated with research in Finland and the Baltics
The end-user is always in the center of our focus. This is why we began the project by interviewing real users of the two B2B eCommerce portals we were replacing. Interviews took place in four countries, both online and face to face. We then sent out surveys to verify our findings from face to face situations, and changed parts of the service based on this feedback.
We used online surveys during development to get instant feedback that steered development in the right direction.
Scalability and data flows set the requirements for technology
To ensure a seamless end-user experience in an environment of varying backend legacies, Exove engineered a unique Node.js middleware solution. This solution ensures that all relevant data flows quickly and accurately between backend systems and the customer’s screen.
Heating oil, lubricant, and gas ordering features were built with the Drupal Commerce engine, which we customized to fit the needs and desired customer experience, and to work well with the Neste ERP system.
We combined Drupal with extremely fast Node.js and MongoDB technologies to connect the service to Neste ERP and other backend systems in a scalable manner, and to provide APIs for connecting various Neste’s own and partners’ services and devices to the new digital platform.
A new star was born
The project was a major undertaking, bringing one of the biggest online order channels in Finland to a completely new level in terms of customer experience, business support, and technology. The service was published successfully, and new orders started flowing in just minutes after the launch.
Web sales has grown with a multiplied speed compared to Neste’s other sales channels combined. All the same, since the sales team no longer needs to handle the orders manually, they have more time for customer acquisition and other important tasks.
Our long-term cooperation with Neste still continues, and we are eagerly looking forward to the development of digital services in the fuel business.
