Rakettitiede helped accelerate Cactos’s growth and internationalisation
Customer
Cactos
Industry
Energy
Services
Full stack
Technologies
Python, React, TypeScript
Energy sector pioneer Cactos brought Rakettitiede into the fast-paced daily life of a growth company to learn the demanding complexity of the electricity markets. In applying batteries to the electricity markets, even an experienced developer has to stretch their capacity to learn to the limit, when learning comes from left and right.
Cactos’s energy storage systems are integrated into properties, where they protect customers from fluctuations in electricity prices, ensure the availability of backup power and optimise the use of local electricity generation. In addition to local benefits, a key function of energy storage systems is to support the stability of Finland’s transmission grid, that is they are part of society’s critical infrastructure. Needless to say, the whole package requires a great deal of demanding development work to function.
Cactos ambitiously manufactures the battery storage systems itself in Finland, with only a few components excepted. The battery storage management software has been developed in Finland by the company itself.
Kim Dikert, Cactos’s Head of Software Development, describes the pace of growth: “At the beginning, there was a description of the business on the lid of a cigarette packet and a small bag of electrical cables. Everything –the product and the entire business – has been built from scratch in three years. The growth targets are ambitious: we have quadrupled the business every year, and that target remains the same.”
CHALLENGE
Cactos wanted to expand its product and the way it participates in electricity markets. The system needed an update on a tight schedule, because the company has ambitious growth and international expansion goals.
Diving into the secrets of the electricity market
So it is no surprise that the company needed a little extra support. Rakettitiede developers became part of the system expansion, carrying out integration with electricity market information systems and, at the same time, supporting internationalisation. Kim Dikert says that their work requires a great deal of expertise: a “normally sharp engineer” needs two months of learning from morning till night to get up to speed.
“I have been pleased. Rakettitiede developers came right into the heart of our core operations to optimise the battery’s functions. The work is extremely challenging. The developer needs a broad understanding of how the system works technically, while keeping the business objectives in mind. It has certainly been difficult, but they got to grips with the work very well,” Dikert says, praising them.
SOLUTION
Rocket science developers joined the team to speed up the development work.
The key advantage is finding just the right, motivated people
Communication is central to a developer's work. For Cactos, it has been important that the partner does not develop a “black box”, but communicates the progress of the work. “Our team has been kept well in the loop, and we have worked as one team. Everyone has kept an understanding of what kind of extensions the consultants have made to an extremely critical matter”, Dikert says.
According to Dikert, the start of the collaboration involved some good luck: Rakettitiede's Timo Jaakola managed to send the message at the right time and win them over. “Rakettitiede genuinely wanted to find the right people for us. Rakettitiede has a professional approach and the process is in order. They try to help the customer succeed and get the most out of the collaboration”, Dikert says.
Dikert says it is even surprising how motivated the visiting consultants are: “Rakettitiede has succeeded in finding developers who are willing to give a piece of their own thinking and put themselves on the line – even though they are in the role of a visitor. As a customer, it is a positive surprise to get that extra push. It is not done by hours worked and quantity, but by quality.”
FINAL RESULT
Cactos was able to expand its operations by creating a new electricity market product, and the developers at Rakettitiede offered ideas to support the development. Software development will continue.
The consultant’s role is to offer adaptability
What has collaboration felt like from the developer’s perspective? Rakettitiede consultant who was part of the team says it has been a refreshing change to do something very different for once – to be in a fast-paced growth company rather than a big, solid software firm. They describe Cacto as a skilled pioneer whose way of working is down-to-earth and informal.
They think a consultant must offer versatility to the client, for example, by mastering both the server and user interface sides. “A consultant must be able to offer broad expertise, initiative, and the ability to absorb information. Adaptability is the most important thing, regardless of the environment in which one works.”
The stint at Cacto will be remembered as a great assignment.
“Isn’t it great to see batteries in concrete, real-time operation and, under the guidance of an industry pioneer, learn how the electricity market works,” they note.
“The way Cactos works and the energy-sector-specific nuances are very difficult to learn. The developers at Rocket Science have done a really excellent job of internalising things and getting the job done. That would not have been possible without considerable mental effort.”
Kim Dikert, Head of Software Development, Cactos
“Rakettitiede genuinely wanted to find the right people for us. They have a professional approach and their process is well organised. They try to help the customer succeed and get the most out of the collaboration.”
Kim Dikert, Head of Software Development, Cactos
