Vincit Puts Users at the Heart of Their Development

Meet Vincit

Vincit is a software company that helps their customers develop, design, and deliver digital experiences. From media & entertainment to retail, manufacturing, and healthcare, Vincit solves modern business challenges by taking a user-first approach.  

One of their developments includes the official mobile app of the International Biathlon Union (IBU), which provides live updates for every single IBU competition. The app allows fans to follow their favorite athletes and teams in real-time, see competition statistics, and view athlete profiles. “Our goal is to increase global fandom, increase engagement, and bring sports closer to the people,” said Rene Denfeld, Head of Digital at the International Biathlon Union. 

With this goal to enhance fan engagement, Vincit found themselves needing a solution that would be able to deliver real-time functionality at any scale for IBU’s mobile app—which is where PubNub comes in. 

Delivering live data for millions of fans around the world

Prior to this project, Vincit had previously worked with PubNub on other implementations. So when it came time to turn IBU’s concept into a product, this made the choice of partnering with PubNub clear.

Vincit ended up choosing PubNub as a way to ensure their digital ecosystem is modern, scalable, and secure. “We wanted to have something extremely reliable because we are implementing a live data feed, " said Kyösti Herrala, Solution Architect at Vincit. 

Many biathlon fans are on the app while attending live IBU events. This is an especially difficult environment for a mobile client because the biathlon is often in locations with spotty connectivity or venues surrounded by mountains. Vincit teamed up with PubNub so that they could provide a global real-time digital experience for fans through live data, scoring updates, and leaderboards without worrying about downtime or latency issues due to traffic spikes. And despite the extra challenges, app stability has been consistent, and IBU mobile app users have not reported any connectivity problems.

“During live competitions, there's a ton of updates that need to be delivered immediately and they must be able to reach millions of users, " said Herrala. “And this is delivered by PubNub.” 

Increasing fan engagement with real-time features

By having these interactive capabilities built directly into the IBU app, Vincit helps keep sports fans energized and involved in the action. In fact, Denfeld credits the increased engagement and user sessions they’ve seen to these new real-time features. 

“When we look at the average engagement time across the season, we see that users are much more engaged in the app and the number of app sessions is higher, " said Denfeld.

In PubNub, Vincit has found a partner that allows them to create personalized sports experiences that boost engagement and loyalty. If you would like to learn more about how PubNub can help you build real-time experiences, sign up for a free account.