The objective – To support Paradiski in improving the skier’s experience

Launched in 2016, Yuge is the general public application for the Paradiski ski area, which links the Les Arcs/Peisey-Vallandry/La Plagne resorts with 425 km of slopes, ranging from 3,226 to 1,200 m in altitude. Ekino helped Paradiski build an enhanced customer experience to improve the satisfaction of its users, the “Yugeurs”.  Ekino’s mission was to technically stabilise a platform that did not benefit from the latest technological developments in the field of mobile applications.

The challenges – How did Yuge manage to adapt to the new habits of skiers? How to digitise the ski industry ?

Beyond the practical transformations that connected leisure activities are currently experiencing (community aspect, personalisation of the relationship, entertainment), we noted that it was the whole relationship with the mountains that was evolving. 

Working hand in hand with the Paradiski teams, our teams of consultants, mobile engineers (Android/ IOS) and PHP engineers managed to overcome many business and technical challenges : 

Business challenges :

• Understanding how ski resorts work;
• Increase satisfaction by setting up a support / after-sales service unit on site and online (app store, google store, social networks)

Technical challenges :

• Adapt to the different solutions and data models proposed by several partners: Teamaxess, Lumiplan, Trinum ;
• Taking into account the constraints linked to the practice of mountain activities: little network on the domain and synchronisation of data to be processed, battery management for an activity that is practiced over a long period ;
• Improve the performance and gamification (tracking) section, mainly on Android ;
• Understand the needs and adapt to the technical constraints of the mobile team (changes in Apple and Google constraints, regulations, etc.).

Organisational and relational challenges: as a new integrator, ekino had to win back the trust of Paradiski’s partners who had experienced difficulties with its previous integrators.

Our solution – A full digital service that responds to the diversification of mountain activities

We managed to stabilise the Yuge platform to ensure a better experience for skiers by putting the domain at the heart of the system. New features have been added and others improved to make the user experience more fluid : photo and video management in connection with the photo spots installed on the domain, improved tracking of ski runs per day with details of performances achieved, badge unlocking system according to performances achieved.

On a technical level, a lot of investigation and retro engineering work was done to stabilise the application as much as possible : a 5-year history of poorly documented development had to be updated. We also focused on the data to further improve the service.

None of this would have worked without synchronizing with the different project partners and testing the application in real life.

The results – A better skiing experience

• A 4.4 rating on the App Store and Play Store
• +10 points of opening rate
• 23 trophies and awards including :
  • Customer Engagement Grand Prix – Strategy Grand Prix 2019
  • Sports App Grand Prix – Grand Prix Stratégie 2019
  • Digital Marketing Grand Prix – Grand Prix Stratégie 2016
  • Big Data Innovation Award – Grand Prix Stratégie 2016
  • B2B Marketing Excellence Award – ADETEM 2016
  • Best mobile application – TOP/COM 2016

• 82% of yugers use the app more than once
• +40% of yugers use the app every day during their stay