Airpro's largest business area in terms of number of employees is the Airport Services’ Security Service unit at Helsinki Airport. A new time management software has been developed for the Security Services and it is a result of the collaboration between the unit’s staff and Airpro's digital team. Toni, supervisor at Helsinki Airport, explains how the Security Service unit has been able to develop a digital tool for everyday management and its impact on daily work.
Operational staff play an important role in digital projects as testers before the digital systems are ready for use. Testing helps to ensure that the digital project is a quality product and meets the needs and expectations of users. Everyone benefits from this kind of project: the digital team gets assurance of a quality product from the end users, and the employees get an interesting job opportunity.
Toni joined the company in 2008, and over the years he has become very familiar with the daily roster used by coordinators and supervisors. The roster is used as an operational tool and allows to keep track of security officers' shifts, breaks and workstations throughout the day.
Enormous experience and digital development
Toni is thrilled to have been involved in the development of the digital timetable. Through experience, he has a vision of what was - and still is - needed for a digital timetable. "We are creating a tool that is always a little bit better than the older version. I involved the coordinators and my own team in the testing phase. Their vision was the most important, because they could concretely say what was needed."
Information on the progress of the project came after Covid-19 in October 2022, and by March 2023 there was a version in test use. As early as June, the company switched to using only the redesigned version. There are still some feasible ideas that could be added to product, and Toni is looking forward to the future: "There is still a lot of small development going on, digital world offers possibilities!"
New lessons and opportunities
Overall, the development work has been interesting and instructive: "I am excited to have the opportunity to be involved in the project. I've learned a lot of new things, such as how to describe my needs to those outside my field. It is important to co-operate with the end users especially in test phase. It's also motivating to be able to develop something useful for a large group of people."
Now the digital roster travels on a tablet with the coordinators. Toni adds that he is happy with the way Airpro involves its staff and the opportunities for career progression - sometimes the career path can change direction through involvement in projects.
