1.) Name, title, how long have you worked at Spatineo?
Sampo Savolainen, Head of R&D. I’ve worked at Spatineo since autumn 2011.
2.) What do you do at Spatineo in practice? Tell us about your typical work day!
My job is to design, develop and support the software that runs our business. Basically, I’m the one responsible that our products run smoothly. Together with Ilkka Rinne, we turn ideas from the team and from our customers into designs that can be implemented and finally used by our clients.
My typical work day consists of conversing with clients, discussing future development ideas and working on new features in our products. In addition to my work on Spatineo’s products, I also do consultancy work for our customers.
3.) What is the best thing about your work?
It’s important to me that my work produces something tangible, something that people can use and get value from. I love software development because it allows me to build things and create without getting splinters in my hands!
Combining doing what I love with the dynamic work culture and great coworkers makes me very happy to work at Spatineo. I don’t dread Mondays, instead I look forward to getting to the office in the morning!
4.) If you are a tourist in a foreign city, which map service do you use? Why?
I love Yelp and Citymapper. Yelp is great for finding good restaurants and attractions nearby. It’s simple and gets its job done fast and very well. Whenever I need to pick a restaurant abroad, I first start up Yelp. Citymapper offers a detailed view into public transport options available where you are. Instead of just offering basic routing information, it gives you service notifications, subway and train maps, etc. The maps are also available when offline, which is especially important when travelling. They strive to put everything that is relevant to transit available in a single easily usable app. Unfortunately, it’s only available in a few cities at the moment, but they are expanding their coverage.
It’s important to point out that both apps are powered by Google Maps. Both applications solve very important issues in one’s day to day life and both applications require maps to best serve their users. However, it’s paramount that the developers can focus on the solutions that are unique to their particular application. Being able to use quality maps from a third party allows both Yelp and Citymapper to do just this. This is the power of platforms and of sharing data.
