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Earlier this year, Proekspert signed an agreement with the European Space Agency (ESA) to study soccer fields from space. That is just one of the numerous impactful projects and solutions being brought to life by the Estonian IT company.
Did you know that the software used by the German company Krones for the production of beer is powered by Proekspert? In fact, that accounts for one out of every four beers being produced in the world.
Goodbye digital waste
Technological developments bring along the good, the bad, and the ugly. Although this digital era has seen the development and introduction of groundbreaking technology, it has also brought about the oversaturation of outdated or ineffective digital tools. Good thing Proekspert is already a few steps ahead by actively seeking an end to the oversaturation of digital waste. Proekspert envisions “a world without digital waste – the total elimination of inefficient ways of doing things through the creation of new and better human-centric digital solutions.”
According to Katre Purga, a Key Account Manager at Proekspert, “for us, it means that we want to create solutions that are meaningful and useful. To accomplish this, we try to use the combination of Service Design and Data (Engineering/Management). The first is to find out the human problem behind the need, and the other is to support it with the data. Everybody tends to add more and more features and create new apps, but really, sometimes it is better to actually remove something – restriction, feature, or button. What we do is keep it simple and efficient.”
Exporting digital transformation to the world
Estonia ranks as one of the topmost exporters of digital services in the world. Diverse Estonian IT companies provide industry 4.0 solutions and automation applications for both the public sector and private enterprises. For Proekspert, the industry 4.0 solutions offered to its international clientele include predictive analytics, preventive maintenance, smart manufacturing, smart logistics, business intelligence, robotics, and process automation. As of 2015, exports accounted for 64% of Proekspert’s turnover, with that percentage increasing over the past years. Today, the company’s nodes extend to Germany, Finland, Denmark, China, India, the USA, and several other countries. In 2018, Proekspert was awarded the German-Estonian Business Prize for its industry 4.0 solutions.
Katre believes that Proekspert is considered the number one go-to for digital innovation because they actually get the job done. “Well, we actually DO IT. But seriously, the best comparison has been when we have taken over customer projects from other bigger development companies around the world. In these cases, we’ve often managed to get the problem fixed really quickly; it doesn’t matter that the previous partners had been trying to do it for several years.
It is most likely the combination of our competencies, way of working, and culture, with some drops of engineering attitude, that allows us to do it. The other thing is that we have quite a range of different skills and expertise in the company. Our clients have said that their first contact point of new developments is us because of our comprehensive perspective and honesty. We also direct clients to other (Estonian) IT companies that are better in some specific fields when we see that the client would benefit more from that other partner,” Katre elaborates.
Preventive maintenance with predictive analytics
In recent times, predictive analytics has significantly been infused into the Internet of Things (IoT). Predictive analytics is of absolute importance within the economic industries because it provides them with valuable data, metrics, and parameters to ensure efficiency and to counteract possibly critical situations. For instance, predictive analytics is used to forecast machine failures in the manufacturing sector and ensure that automated maintenance culture is put in place to avoid abrupt machine breakdown and production downtimes.
Proekspert joined forces with German entrepreneur Cord Winkelmann and established Sensorise in Bremen, Germany. Sensorise is a sensory technology company that produces and integrates smart machine components. Proekspert developed the company’s IoT smart applications that are used in flanges, water, and wind turbines. The applications collect data to enable automated equipment monitoring, preventive maintenance, early fault detection, and alarms to increase the reliability and durability of the operating equipment. For example, the sensors monitor critical components and the overall performance of the water and wind turbines to give the machine operators deeper insight into the state of the equipment per time.
Contactless payment within public transport networks
Partnering with Ridango, Proekspert developed a contactless payment solution that can be integrated into an existing infrastructure or installed as a standalone system to make transport payments seamless and contact-free. This solution reduces the operational costs associated with the traditional payment system. And with it, weary travellers and even the daily commuters need not start searching for ticket offices or machines. The transport network becomes more efficient, faster, and less reliant on human resources. You simply place the open-loop multi-currency contactless bank card known as the cEMV directly towards the validator, and the transaction is completed. This contactless payment solution is PCI-DSS certified; so, you’re assured that your transactions and card data are encrypted and secure. No better time is this needed than now that we are in the early stages of the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, this solution is already in place in Estonia, Sweden, and Ukraine and is currently being implemented in other European countries.
Big industry clients
Proekspert has detected several use cases and brought forth digital phenomenal solutions for both the public and private enterprises. From telecommunications to transports, healthcare, banking, and finance, retail, and e-commerce, the solutions are limitless. 28 years down the line, with a growing team of 150+ engineers and designers, over 1,000 projects successfully delivered, as well as several awards in the bag, Proekspert has sealed its spot as a digital transformation guru. No wonder big industry players like Microsoft, Ergo Group, Swedbank, Telia, Danfoss, and even the European Space Agency (ESA) are part of its clientele.
An employee-owned company
Katre admits that all the successes and achievements have been due to the company’s management style and client-relations approach. “One of the key factors has been that Proekspert is an employee-owned company. There are over 30 engineers in the company who are also shareholders. They are passionate about their projects and, even though they own company shares, still work on their chosen path as developers or designers. Also, we have the luxury to choose our projects like our hobbies. Furthermore, we have long-term relationships with several of our clients that have grown organically, providing us with some added stability in exchange for us providing them the same” she notes.
Proekspert has been raising the bar in digital transformation and tackling deficiencies in diverse sectors for years; there is no doubt that more is to come.
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