Europress

Europress, a pioneering manufacturer of waste compactors and balers, produces waste management and material recycling solutions that advance the circular economy. The company continuously develops its SMART product range in cooperation with Vincit. The SMART service and machine learning technology used make it possible to optimize waste management and predict when waste containers need to be emptied, resulting in cost savings for both the customer and the service provider, as well as a smaller environmental impact.

Challenge

Accelerating the development of a smart service package

Europress SMART is a system of digital services that provides visibility over the status of waste management equipment through precise, real-time data. The need to modernize the system emerged early, prompting the company make the development of the platform more agile and manageable.

Europress set out to find an experienced and visionary partner and build a long-term relationship of cooperation with them. Its aim was to team up with a company that would have in-depth knowledge of the processes and best practices of software development. In the end, company culture, software expertise, agile methods, and references from companies of the same size tipped the scales in favor of Vincit.

What we did

Cooperating closely with a broad range of experts

Some of the key objectives of the SMART project included the design of a modern, scalable architecture and implementation and further development of the system. The SMART system is developed by a well-functioning team operating across organizational boundaries in seamless and straightforward cooperation.

We’ve brought in a broad range of experts: the development of the SMART system is handled by two full stack developers, but the comprehensive development has also made use of data scientists, mobile application developers, UI designers, and embedded systems experts.

Prioritizing the user and environment in product development

In addition to continuous development, we’ve also assisted Europress in separate product development projects. The skills of our data analysts and embedded systems experts came in handy in a project that successfully developed a machine learning-based prediction model. The learning algorithm predicted when the waste compactor would fill up, making it possible to empty the container at exactly the right time.

Used by garbage truck drivers, among others, the SMARTwaste mobile app lets the user know where a waste compactor is, how full it is, and when it will fill up. The application is a joint effort by Vincit’s service designers, UI designers, and application developers.

Outcome

Growing the portfolio and sales with brand new services

The cooperation has given Europress completely new digital services which it has been able to add to its portfolio and which have produced added value for the company’s customers. Thanks to systematic work, the SMART service is now productized, allowing it to be sold and developed further. The sales of the SMART products have increased steadily and created a foundation for the growth and international expansion of Europress.

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Europress is a growth company with strong goals. Knowing that we’ve been able to expand our portfolio with services that create added value to our customers is important for the whole company. In recent years, we’ve made a name for ourselves by developing smart solutions and having advanced them as much as we have has allowed us to set ourselves apart from others. Machine learning predictions are just one example of the edge we like to have over our competitors.

Tommi Häkkinen IT Development Manager / Europress

Client

Founded in the 1970s, Europress is a pioneer in sustainable and smart waste management that manufactures, sells, and maintains environmentally friendly and comprehensive waste management solutions. The company’s objective is to harness the power of smart technologies in order to promote recycling and sorting and to reduce the emissions caused by waste management. Europress Group Oy and its affiliates operate in Finland, Russia, Sweden, Norway, Poland and the Benelux countries. For more information, visit: europressgroup.com