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Public sector Application development

Case Traficom

Digia carries out long-term development work for Traficom – Java developers are now being sought for interesting projects  

The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom and Digia cooperate closely and long-term in application development. Many interesting projects are now available for Java developers, of which the recently completed modern Lilja system is a good example. From an application developer's point of view, Traficom is pleasant and interesting to work with, says Niko Kortelainen, Software Specialist at Digia. 

 

The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom is one of Finland's most significant authorities. Traficom began operating in 2019 when the functions of the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority, the Finnish Transport Safety Agency, and partly the Finnish Transport Agency were merged. Traficom's mission is to promote physical transport and digital telecommunications in Finland. The goal is for people, data, and goods to move smoothly and safely, and Traficom employs about a thousand people to do this work. 

At the end of 2020, Digia signed a seven-year agreement with Traficom, in which Digia organises application developers for development projects. The long-term agreement guarantees Traficom, Digia, and application developers a stable environment in which systems and services can be developed long-term. 

Traficom also utilises the help of other companies, but Digia clearly plays the biggest role in the development work. Traficom currently employs approximately 30 Digia Java experts and around twenty new Java developers will be recruited during the rest of 2023 and 2024.

What we did

  • Digia's application developers for Traficom's development projects 
Working with Digia has been very pleasant and smooth. It has also conveyed the impression that Digia is genuinely interested in the customer, application developers and their well-being.

Tero Pänttönen, ICT Product Owner of the Lilja system, Traficom

Varied and interesting projects – even with the most modern technologies

Traficom is responsible for many different types of official services for transport and digital telecommunications. These services are provided by various information systems of different ages, which are constantly being developed. Digia and Traficom cooperate on the maintenance and development of older systems and the construction of completely new and modern systems. 

A good example of a modern project is the Lilja system, completed in spring 2023. The need for the new system was noticed when professional transport licences were supervised and transferred from the ELY Centres to Traficom. 

"The previous licensing system had served for about 30 years and had granted about one million operating licences. We realised that the system is at the end of its life cycle, and it is worth building a new one in its place," says Tero Pänttönen, ICT Product Owner of the new system at Traficom. 

This project was demanding, as the system handles all passenger and freight traffic licences in Finland. These include, for example, tens of thousands of taxi and bus licences. This is a socially important system that other authorities and the tax administration must also receive information about reliably and in real-time. 

"For example, when the police carry out roadside checks on heavy traffic, the police system retrieves the company's or driver's licence information directly from Traficom's system," Pänttönen describes. 

The construction of the Lilja system began in 2018, and it also utilised and tested very modern technologies. One of them was Event Sourcing technology, where data is stored in a chain of events instead of a traditional database, where current data and previous changes can be seen. The Lilja system also uses the AI-based Dynatrace system, which continuously monitors the service and provides accurate information about the system's operation. 

The first parts of the system went into production in May 2023. 

"We succeeded in making the new system very reliable. The services have been in use all the time, and there were no alarms about Dynatrace monitoring during commissioning," says Pänttönen. 

Pänttönen praises Digia's work on the Lilja project and Traficom's projects more widely. 

"Working with Digia has been very pleasant and smooth. We have also conveyed the impression that Digia is genuinely interested in the customer, application developers and their well-being," says Pänttönen. 

"It's really nice people and nice to work here"

One of Traficom's employees at Digia is experienced software specialist Niko Kortelainen. He has worked at Digia through various acquisitions for twenty years, mainly in Java projects developed as tailors. 

"Traficom has a huge variety of things to do. There are small and large projects, maintenance and refactoring of previous systems and, on the other hand, creating completely new systems," Kortelainen says. 

Digia and Traficom aim to ensure that developers can largely choose the projects and technologies they will work with. Kortelainen herself was interested in Event Sourcing technology and, therefore, wanted to work on the Lilja project. 

Kortelainen says that the work at Traficom is very well organised from the point of view of application developers. For example, Traficom's Product Owners responsible for projects have been allocated sufficient resources to promote projects and support developers, which makes the work of application developers easier and helps projects progress well. There is also the possibility of working in pairs on projects, which, according to Kortelainen, is often both more efficient and comfortable for application developers. 

"There are really nice people here, from application developers to business experts. Multi-supplier cooperation has also worked well, and operations between different companies have been seamless," Kortelainen says. 

He praises Traficom's new, modern premises in Pasila, Helsinki. On the other hand, remote work is so seamless that the projects involve developers from almost all over Finland. 

"Equality thinking is also important to us. It doesn't matter if you are an application architect or a senior or junior developer – everyone's opinions are valuable, and we try to take them into account," Kortelainen says. 

At Digia, he highlighted the idea that every employee is actually a "Senior Trainee". The idea is that it is important for everyone to learn new things, regardless of experience and position. 

According to Kortelainen, Traficom also has a great spirit, where partners and application developers welcome feedback and development ideas. At Traficom, Digia has strived to develop smooth work and good organisation. On the technology side, efforts have been made to develop, for example, the utilisation of modern cloud technologies and hybrid cloud. 

Digia is now looking for more Java developers for Traficom. Application developers all over Finland can participate in Traficom's socially influential projects.

"In my opinion, working at Traficom has been meaningful and rewarding. It's nice to work here," Kortelainen says.