A Mobile app in every entrepreneur's pocket

Suomen Yrittäjät is the largest central organization in the business sector in terms of memberships, advocating for entrepreneurs as well as small and medium-sized enterprises. There are nearly 70,000 members in the local associations of the organization and around 36,000 members in the trade associations.

Digitalization is crucial for Suomen Yrittäjät. In recent years, the organization has heavily invested in developing digital systems: a new CRM (membership register, billing, customer management) has been implemented, and significant efforts have been made in their web services.

The latest of these investments is a brand-new mobile app, which Suomen Yrittäjät started developing with us.

A route into every entrepreneur’s pocket

The need for a mobile app arose from a very concrete need: plastic membership cards were becoming a thing of the past, and Suomen Yrittäjät needed a new solution that every entrepreneur could have in their pocket going forward.

The goal was also to engage young and new entrepreneurs, as well as potential future members, in the activities of the organization.

A mobile app was an excellent way to digitize the membership card and deliver news, current member benefits, and events directly to entrepreneurs.

For Suomen Yrittäjät, it was important that the basics were in place; the app needed to be user-friendly, modern, and capable of distributing essential content to members.

We started by jointly defining the app, allowing the project to begin smoothly with needs understood and goals clear. Together, we examined the necessary integrations and which fields from WordPress should be included in the app. From a technical perspective, it was crucial that the app could be downloaded on both operating systems and that the implementation was cost-effective.

In addition to the membership card and benefits, the app includes access to legal advice and event registrations. The mobile app also personalizes the view according to the local association to which the entrepreneur belongs, allowing members to see all the benefits and events in their area in a customized manner.

The long-term overarching goal is to get all members to download and use the app.

Hion was chosen as a partner for the project for a combination of reasons: the alignment of price and schedules, as well as our understanding and experience with the specific needs and requirements of organizations, influenced the client’s final decision.

The project was divided into two phases: the most critical functions were developed first, and then the range of functionalities was expanded.

The main contact for the project was Janne Pärnänen, IT Manager of Suomen Yrittäjät. “The project proceeded well within a tight three-month timeframe. Developing the user interface and the ‘look-and-feel’ was a nice iterative and forward-moving process, and the team genuinely listened to us. The end product consistently improved over time,” Janne praises.

A modern and constantly evolving app

The app has received positive feedback from users for its design and functionality, and at the time of writing this case text, it has been downloaded over 12,000 times.

“The app is modern, visually appealing, functional, and highlights our key content. With the app, we are keeping up with development and can now engage a potentially younger entrepreneurial audience. In the long run, we can also develop the app as an independent entity and are not tied to, for example, our website,” Janne summarizes.

Now, the second phase of the project has been completed, and new features have been added to the app to deepen and enhance the member experience.

The continuous development of the app and the journey towards the goal of having it in every member’s pocket continues.

Features of the App:

• News, events, and member benefits
• Membership card
• Maintenance of personal membership information
• Highlights and notifications of current benefits and events
• Notifications for important dates: For example, users receive a reminder notification on tax filing deadlines
• Calculators: Salary calculators, discount calculator
• Favorites: Ability to add content to favorites
• Events: You can add events to your calendar app, and receive notifications for favorite events in advance
• Simplified event registration: Automatic form filling and no need to switch to a browser
• Content filtering by regional and local associations