First-year students tackled a real-world challenge from ABLOY
What is it like to work on an assignment from an internationally known company during the very first months of your studies? HAMK’s Business Information Technology and Computer Applications students got the chance to find out during their Diili studies, when they took on a real-world challenge provided by ABLOY, a company known for its security solutions.
Diili studies bring the world of work into students’ studies right from the start. Students work in teams to tackle genuine business challenges and develop solutions based on the needs of the client. In this autumn’s project, the students explored the ABLOY OS system and looked for new perspectives on its marketing, search engine visibility and accessibility.
For many first-year students, the project was their first experience of working on a large-scale company assignment.
“At first, I wondered whether the challenge was too big for us. But once we got deeper into the project, it turned out to be completely manageable,” one student describes.
Other students described the experience as exciting, practical and a great way to start their studies. Although some felt that the project came quite early in their studies, most agreed that working on a real company assignment made the learning experience meaningful.
Teamwork and understanding the client at the heart of the project
During the project, the students quickly realised that developing successful solutions requires much more than technical skills.
Some of the biggest challenges were understanding the client’s business and organising teamwork. Before developing their solutions, the students needed to familiarise themselves with ABLOY’s operations, products and customers.
“To create a good plan for the client, you first need to understand the company and its operating environment.”
Working with tight schedules, dividing responsibilities and finding effective ways of working together also provided valuable lessons in project work.
Marketing, analytics and collaboration skills
According to the students, one of the most interesting aspects of the project was learning how marketing works in practice in the business world.
During the project, the students explored topics such as developing marketing strategies, improving search engine visibility and evaluating digital services.
“Working with other students and learning how to communicate with each other have been valuable learning experiences,” the students say.
The best solutions were awarded
At the end of the project, the student teams presented their solutions to ABLOY representatives. A winning team was selected for each challenge and received an award from Alessandro Zanni, Lead Software Engineer at ABLOY.
Query Before Coffee was selected as the winner of the marketing challenge with its plan for launching the new ABLOY OS user interface.
Pivot Table Professionals won the SEO and GEO development challenge with its approach to improving visibility in both search engines and AI-powered search.
Data & Drama won the accessibility challenge by evaluating the accessibility of ABLOY OS and presenting recommendations for improving the service.
In addition, User Error Experts received a special mention for the creative and humorous ending of its presentation. As part of the presentation, the team produced a short advertisement video that stood out for its originality.
One colourful detail of the project was the teams’ playful names, inspired by IT culture, project work and everyday office life. The line-up also included Business & Bugfixes, Git It Together, Meeting Escape Artists, Turn It Off and On Again, Agile-Ish, Friday Deployers, Legacy Survivors, Runtime Survivors, IT Depends, Ctrl Alt Elite, Hardware? Hardly., No Ticket No Problem, Version Control Victims, L. Excel-lent Decisions, KPI Krusaders and Out of Office Engineers.
Getting to know the world of work from the very beginning
Diili studies are part of HAMK’s hands-on approach to learning, combining theory with genuine needs and challenges from the world of work. Company assignments give students the opportunity to apply their knowledge in practice, develop professional skills and start building networks at an early stage of their studies.
In the Business Information Technology and Computer Applications degree programmes, students work with topics such as software development, digital services, business and project work. Real-world projects help students understand how the skills they learn during their studies can be applied in practice and what kinds of opportunities the field can offer in the future.
Read more about the Degree Programmes:
