Case study: Successful 15-year relationship with Iskon

Iskon is one of the Croatian broadband providers, which somewhat later became a part of Deutsche Telekom Group. Known for its flexibility, competence, and an accomplished relationship with its users, its website had to be able to respond and to keep such a righteously demanding reputation. 

We started our journey with Iskon by creating a corporate website that was built in a way to serve different company customer segments as the main point of contact, with a vast information base and multiple touchpoints for customers such as additional offers, discounts, lead generation etc. 

During the entire time of our cooperation with Iskon - the challenge always remained the same - developing a solution that could comprise a large amount of content and many online services, but also supporting many new quick adaptations. 

Being a part of the telecom industry, constantly introducing new services, products and innovations in general, Iskon had to be able to respond to constant swift needs for changes, engaging us in multiple iterations of its corporate website, and other projects as well. More than that, the website was also built to serve as the primary online asset for marketing and sales campaigns. Iskon products and services were pre-set and configured in bundles to provide the flexibility required for a modern telecom company. Services were filtered and customized, based on their availability on different users' locations. 

Besides the corporate website, in 2013 we supported Iskon with an additional project - Iskon TV, website intended for the company's IPTV users, providing them with easy access to various TV-related services. The site was made to be fully integrated with the Iskon backend IPTV system and has included an electronic program guide (EPG), an integration with movie rental service and interface for managing logged in user data. Simply put, Iskon TV was completely integrated with TV set top box systems in customers' homes. The users could choose TV content they are interested in, rent movies, vote for favourite shows or just stream videos, and then easily switch from web to TV interface. So in other words, the integration was seamless all the way. 

In 2018, we jumped on another challenge and started working on an internal application - Iskon CPQ. We helped Iskon to connect their web services with a new internal backend they have been transitioning to at the time. As a part of that process, we had developed a dedicated web application used by sales agents and new iskon.hr modules for end customers enabling them to order Iskon services and create contracts - all in one place. 

In this project we were (and still are) especially focused on the user experience and interaction design definition, but also in charge of frontend development of web modules and React.js application used by Iskon agents in the field, as well as for the full backend integration with Iskon new CRM systems. Basically, we were equally engaged in all stages of the process - idea creation, business consulting, UX and testing, visual design, integration and development. A special effort was made to include Netgen into the agile framework used to coordinate multiple subcontractors with internal teams of both Iskon and Hrvatski Telekom. Scrum methodology is used here, enabling Netgen to be fully integrated in the iterative process of continuous improvement of the applications.

Despite many projects on our plate, somehow the journey through them went easily, especially with the help of Netgen Layouts, which we implemented on the latest website for Iskon - customer support portal - https://pomoc.iskon.hr/. The quick adaptations of the website are now easy and quick to manage, and the general idea behind this implementation was that the Layouts act like a technical backbone onto which all Iskon sites will be implemented through time. The first segment we implemented with Layouts was the support portal, but the next segments should follow soon. We believe that this will help our client to maintain its websites even more efficiently in the future. 

Iskon might be one of the best examples of our long-lasting relationship model, which we try to have with as many clients as possible. Supporting Iskon with such an immense amount of work, with careful and precise implementation and often abrupt changes, helped ourselves to sharpen our own competences and expertise. At the same time, the client can count on full and continuous support from a trusted partner - immersed in their business, knowing them well and understanding and immediately anticipating where some issues might arise.