The company Askås introduced itself to around 70 IT students at Karlstad University during a Snits lunch on 21 February. Peter Smersfeldt, HR director and in charge of customer services gave a talk about the company, its e-commerce system and the underlying technology.
Askås celebrates a 20-year anniversary in 2017. Twenty years ago the entrepreneur Jonas Askås started to develop an e-commerce system to sell bicycle components. Today, the system is used by around 270 customers in branches such as fashion, health, furniture and nutrition. In total, the customers have a turnover of 3 billion SEK every year.
”Askås develops, markets and delivers an e-commerce system, a platform for selling goods on the Internet. Some major e-commerce businesses develop their own solutions but many come to us for help,” says Peter Smersfeldt.
20 years of developing and modifying
The Askås system has been developed and modified throughout the twenty years. The system also integrates other systems such as pay systems, marketing spaces and business systems, to which it has to be continuously adjusted as well as to customer needs.
”As far as I know, we have not yet said no to a customer request for a new functionality. One of our strengths is that the system is in its entirety was developed by us and we know every single component.”
Intelligence and sleeplessness – important issues ahead
According to Peter Smersfeldt, the company has a favourable situation as they do not have to sell actively but are contacted by prospective customers who want to buy their product.
”Many who contact us are companies wanting to expand and develop their e-commerce through new functions. So, it’s very important to us to keep a check on the future of e-commerce and which functionalities are important to our customers. We know for certain that it’s important for the future that the system is made intelligent so that the users are presented with the right product at the right time, and also that seamlessness is created, which, for instance, means erasing the lines between the digital and the physical shop.”
Snits – a good channel for finding technological expertise
Technological expertise is not always easy to find, which also Askås has experienced. Askås is the latest company to join the cooperation group SNITS and the lunch lecture was their first appearance.
“The membership in Snits has helped us finding technological experts,” says Peter Smersfeldt. "Several of persons on our staff have studied at Karlstad University, and the the latest year two participants in the mentorship programme have been associated with us. They will return in the spring to do their degree projects in conjunction with us."
SNITS (cooperation between industry and IT students at Karlstad University) organises study visits, guest lectures, mentorship programmes, practical placement and degree projects for IT students at Karlstad University. The group consists of representatives of CGI, Elvenite, Evry, iBiz Solutions, Askås, Prevas, Sogeti, Stamford, Tieto, ÅF and Compare. Karlstad University is represented by Information Systems and Computer Science and a number of students.
The next Snits lunch is on 11 April and hosted by iBiz Solutions.
