Study Guide

Teaching methods

Project implementation mode: the project will be carried out as a P2P project in cooperation with 15 tourism companies that are implementing Johku web shop to market Helsinki Seaside as a one Tourism destination.

Project content: Johku.fi tourism platform implementation to Helsinki seafront companies, productization of Tourism experiences and planning of possible integrations to other sales platforms. Possible cooperation with students from University of Sanya, China.

The aim of the project is to think through the customer path and help companies to create experience products in johku.fi webshop.

Seaside Helsinki tourism is also one of the key strategic objective of Helsinki City and Students will write papers and presentations on how to use service design tools and methods in marketing this.

This project can also produce knowledge and credits in other modules, such as Project management (PJ), Competence in business and entrepreneurship.
Coaching and communication: will be agreed in the beginning of the project/semester
This project is suitable for blended learning students (monimuoto).

It is recommended, that the students participating in this project will also participate to either or both sprints: Digital wellbeing sprint https://digitalwellbeingsprint.fi/ or 10 days 100 challenges https://10days100challenges.fi/

Here is a blogpost of the project: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/merellinen-ekosysteemi-rakentuu-johkun-p%C3%A4%C3%A4lle-jukka-punam%C3%A4ki/

--> Google translation to English below:

The marine ecosystem is built on Johku
Published on January 15, 2021
Jukka Punamäki

Advisory Board Member at Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences

The maritime strategy is one of the city of Helsinki's key projects. The aim of the development is to bring helsinki's marine environment closer to city dwellers, for example by improving the archipelago's infrastructure and developing accessibility. One of the key elements is the business involvement of companies operating in the marine environment. From a tourism point of view, the sea and archipelago are the nature of Helsinki. an unpolished diamond. There's a lot of potential.

The cornerstone of success is the discoverability and ability to buy of products. If the information on water traffic tickets, restaurants, activities and places to visit is very fragmented, the customer will not be able to make full use of the offering. And even if the information were available, it would have to be available for purchase as well.

Marine operators are now moving towards a broader ecosystem built on the online travel store Johku. Johku enables easy cross-selling between companies. For example, a water business owner can sell products from a restaurant on the island in their own online store so that the money is automatically transferred to the restaurateur without any interim statements. This will enable cooperation between companies and the package of products in a completely new way.

Vallisaari – which will serve as the venue for the Helsinki Biennial in the summer of 2021 – has already used Johku as its own e-commerce platform for a good while. Johanna Karusuo, CEO of Sea Sales Finland Oy in Vallisaari, says that "Johku has made it easy to assemble different products on a single sales platform. The system also functions as a sales system in the background and enables easy packages of products. For example, transport, guidance, meals and afternoon coffee can be added to the package. The system automatically makes reservations to the partners' calendar and no separate emails are required. This is significant in terms of customer experience and service path, as everything succeeds in one place and is faster, easier and more cost-effective."

The Ehrensvärd Society, which organises guided tours in Suomenlinna, has also been using Johku to sell its products for a long time. Carita Wilenius-Rantala from ehrensvärd emphasizes that "already most sales are made through e-commerce and in the future online sales will only accelerate".

The Governing Body of Suomenlinna is also exploring the possibility that all the sale of Suomenlinna could be carried out through a common platform. Which Öystilä from the Governing Body of Suomenlinna highlights the importance of the ease of buying. "Suomenlinna's website has over half a million visitors annually, and this channel could be used much more to promote the business of the island's companies. The nursing board is not an actual sales organization, but that is precisely why a tool is needed to get products into one channel. Each company produces the content and pricing of the online store itself and also receives the settlements directly for itself. In the end, the care board will only be responsible for including the channel in the marketing of the place of visit. Suomenlinna is launching a digital guide this year to improve both the discoverability of services and the availability of purchases. In the future, it is also worth investing in cross-selling between companies in a completely new way – including with companies outside Suomenlinna."

Natura Viva, one of helsinki's largest programme service companies and especially a company operating in the maritime environment, has also been using Johku for several years. In addition to the fact that Natura Viva is already actively packaged through other companies' products through Johku, Johku has brought clear benefits during the crisis. Ilkka Lariola from Natura Viva says that "sales through e-commerce increased by tens of percent in the summer, as Finns started to enjoy the Helsinki archipelago by canoeing, for example. Without a functional online store that also enables resource management, this growth would have been impossible. As volumes increase, sales and back end must be in order."

Aava Lines, one of the key operators for the accessibility of maritime Helsinki, uses Johku to sell its tickets. "We have been working closely with Johku for some time, and it would be really great if we could get other actors involved in the same ecosystem. This could bring completely new dimensions to productise the Helsinki archipelago as a top product of international tourism", says Johannes Rautava, CEO of Aava Lines.

Lyna Island Suomenlinna on the side has done a great job of bringing the island into the marine ecosystem. Ville Wäänänen from Lotna is now investing more and more in building an ecosystem. "We are currently exploring the possibility of a so-called "2000". Island Hopping product to be launched in the Helsinki archipelago. In such a product, you need to bring the services of many companies together, and Johku seems like the perfect tool for this."

Seapoint is also one of Johku's users. Among the diverse maritime offerings, Seapoint sells fuel, the sales process of which is built on top of Johku. Juva Shipping, which owns Oskari Juva Seapoint, says that "Johku has surprised with its versatility and flexibility. The sale of many marine products belonging to juva shipping's group has been carried out through Johku". Oskari highlights, for example, the rental of boats and the seasonal boat service launched for next season, which are also on top of Johku. Boats have real availability in the online store that is connected to the underlying resource management.

Forum Virium Helsinki has started the Maas project on water transport funded by the City's Innovation Fund since the beginning of the year. The aim is to get water carriers' tickets to a common interface from which other operators could take them on their own channels for sale. The project was preceded last summer by a successful pilot for JT-Line and Whim. Project Manager Helmi Tuori says that "the aim of the project is also to connect Johku with interfaces to utilise the ticketing ecosystem".

In this respect, the management is a good choice, as a large number of other municipalities in Uusimaa have chosen Johku as their regional e-commerce platform. This also makes it possible to package products outside Helsinki in the same ecosystem.

It is essential that marine operators produce their own products to suit the online store. It's also the biggest and most demanding job. The technical platform itself is just a platform. However, it is in everyone's interest when products are put into an online store that they can be easily rounded up and cross-selling by companies. Another option is for everyone to go to different platforms and wrapping and cooperation to become significantly more difficult.

Minttu Perttula, project manager of helsinki's maritime strategy, says that "during the pandemic, it is more important than ever in the city to enable the development of recreational and local tourism services in the vicinity of Helsinki residents. This also involves the discoverability and online availability of services.".

Digitähti-hake organises training related to the Johku online store for companies working in tourism in Uusimaa during the early spring. The training is free of charge and suitable for all kinds of companies - from market traders to water carriers. More information and registrations for training here.

Location and time

Pre-briefing on August
Briefing in the beginning of September
Project meetings weekly at 9-10am (if needed: 10.30am)

Learning materials and recommended literature

Sustainable Tourism
Service Design
Tourism marketing
Johku webinar

Suitable sources will be discussed in the beginning of the project according to the project´s assignment and targets.

Important dates

Start of the project on August
Mid term evaluation on October.
End of the project 15th of December

Forms of internationality

Study is suitable for exchange students

Students workload

The student will work approximately 16 hours per week for this project; 8 hours for teamwork and 8 hours for independent work.

Content and scheduling

Project plan
Knowledge bases 1
Project implementation
Knowledge bases 2
Results for the client

Grading scale

H-5

Evaluation methods and criteria

Evaluation criteria will be gone through in the beginning of the project.

Requirement level 2
Please find the requirement specifications below:
https://laureauas.sharepoint.com/sites/studentEn_studyperformancesandevaluation/Jaetut%20asiakirjat/Forms/AllItems.aspx?id=%2Fsites%2FstudentEn%5Fstudyperformancesandevaluation%2FJaetut%20asiakirjat%2FAssessment%20criteria%20for%20bachelor%20students%2Epdf&parent=%2Fsites%2FstudentEn%5Fstudyperformancesandevaluation%2FJaetut%20asiakirjat