ImmobilienScout24
ImmobilienScout24 is Germany’s leading digital real-estate marketplace and helps users find their dream home. The platform is the first choice among digital real-estate classified platforms for 50% of consumers and provides end-to-end services in the real-estate sector – from property searching, through official documents, to loan agreements.
| Industry | Retail |
| Technology | Java, Spring, Angular, AWS |
Key Achievements
- A technical redesign and reimplementation of integrations
- Having become an integral part of the client’s operations through close collaboration and a proactive approach
- Zero live issues after a component release
- Successful cooperation since 2013
The challenge
Business Need
ImmobilienScout24 is Germany’s leading real-estate digital marketplace and the sector is highly competitive. To retain their leading position, ImmobilienScout24 needs to quickly validate new functionalities and further develop those that consumers find useful. This requires technical expertise and innovative technology partners. To maintain a dynamic growth, our Client needs to have a lot of people working in parallel.
ImmobilienScout24 decided to divide a large application into integrated microservices. They wanted to have dedicated teams that develop the relevant microservices for different subsections of their business. Those teams need to cooperate closely with the business side creating an organisation that quickly satisfies the end-users’ needs.
The ImmobilienScout24 digital marketplace is used in every facet of the real-estate business (B2B, B2C, C2C), therefore introducing new functionality, or refining old functionality, requires a significant technical effort and speed in delivery.
The solution
Project Details
To ensure the digital marketplace stays relevant to consumers, ImmobilienScout24 needs to constantly reinvent their product. Having transformed their approach to use a set of decentralised microservice-focused hubs, ImmobilienScout24 needed independent agile teams to take on the responsibility of implementing their business goals and successfully collaborate to develop the solution.
We work closely with the Product Owner to define the goals and then our job is to recommend and deliver the technical implementation. Using the DevOps methodology, we align the implementation with the business requirements and keep the solution accessible 24/7 for the end-users.
One of the major features we were responsible for was integrating the ImmobilienScout24 platform with Schufa’s data center. Schufa is a German private credit bureau that protects its clients from credit risk. Consumers who wish to acquire real-estate can easily access Schufa’s records to see if their financial report has any incidents. A financial report is necessary to rent a property in Germany.
We worked directly with Schufa to rewrite the module and to introduce new business goals. We held co-design workshops and created the new module using Java based technologies and AWS cloud. The new module is fully responsive on both mobile and desktop devices. Since its introduction, the ImmobilienScout24 users frequently access the Schufa functionality as it is available exactly where and when they need it.
We operate as a fully integrated part of ImmobilienScout24’s business.
With Objectivity we overcame a lot of obstacles and achieved great products. One of the biggest products was the implementation of the SCHUFA within Scout24. Also the new application package which opened us a new road to connect applicants with homeowners, was a big achievement also in the strategic way where Scout24 will move. The main value and drive of the coorperation is to build great products which focus on solving the big problems which applicants are facing, when they are looking for new homes in Germany. To build these kind of products, we talk how we can get this product on the market and what technical obstacles we might get into it. Based on that we learn from each other to grow stronger as a team. In general I can strongly recommend Objectivity as a partner, since they are working on a high professional level with a good business mindset behind a product which has to be developed.
The results
Business Benefits
ImmobilienScout24 continues to develop their digital marketplace using the dedicated teams we provide.
We have fully embraced the nature of our Client’s business and can quickly (within days) deliver a prototype of functionality that needs to be validated with the users and then delivered. Our agile approach means we can rapidly reprioritise sprint tasks or change our working methodology altogether to support the business needs.
ImmobilienScout24 gained more than a set of resources to be utilised; They gained a proactive and dedicated team that has become an integral part of their operation.
Key achievements
- A Technical redesign and reimplementation of integrations (e.g. the Schufa functionality). This is a very popular feature in the digital marketplace that allows consumers to review their financial report (necessary to rent an apartment in Germany).
- Becoming an integral part of the ImmobilienScout24 operation through knowledge transfer and sharing, close collaboration and a proactive approach.
- Zero live issues after a component release.
- Successful cooperation since 2013.
Case studies
Architecture transformation to follow business growth
Before 2013, ImmobilienScout24 began to transform the architecture of the core solution. The Client decided to transform their business architecture by dividing the application into a set of decentralised, microservicefocused hubs.
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