Brødrene Lunn AS was founded by father and two sons in 1995 and started with a small machine park in 1996. It consisted of a truck and an excavator. Since its inception, the company has developed into a company with forty permanent employees. Daily Scandinavian interviewed one of the brothers, Stian Lunn, who explained to us how a Norwegian owned mPaaS technology solves challenging road construction logistics for the company.
Brødrene Lunn AS, based in Lillehammer, Norway, has specialized in mass transport of stone, gravel, crushed stone, fill, asphalt and recently also concrete. Each type of cargo requires a different type of truck, and while some vehicles are owned by the company, others are rented. Some rented cars have their own drivers, while others are operated by the company’s own employees.
Started with 10 Android Tablets
It all started when Stian Lunn bought 10 Android tablets at a computer outlet for use by different drivers for various tasks. One month later he bought another 25 tablets.
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“Until 2014 we used those tablets and Excel. Two employees handled 40 trucks,” says Stian Lunn. “The company expanded and our operational system proved insufficient. We were approached by Appsmakerstore, a mobile app development company, which proved to understand our challenges.”
According to CEO and founder of Appsmakerstore, Rudi Carlsen, a mix of patented technologies and tools, the data of the internet and a highly skilled team of application developers in Ukraine are part of their success formula. “Several years of experience have given us a wide professional approach which is ideal for companies that need a mix of bespoke, easy moving forward and a cost effective mobile app platforms like the Appsmakerstore technology,” he says.
A highly professional team
“2019 was all time high and today one man can handle up to 200 trucks going to different locations,” says Stian Lunn and emphasizes that this is more or less thanks to the app developed by Appsmakerstore in collaboration with his company.
«The Appsmakerstore team has been highly professional and proven to be flexible, scalable and very competent technically,” says Lunn. “The results have sometimes come faster than we’ve been able to cope with.”
Pressure to deliver construction projects on time and to budget has never been higher. In addition to handling the existing logistic solutions, the app operates documentation to suppliers (at present 60 sub-suppliers) as well as to the authorities.
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Listed among the Top Seven in the world
Appsmakerstore has been in the mobile application market since 2010 with their own cross platform mobile development technology, and in 2014, Reuters analysts reached out to over 35 app development software companies with an identifiable track record of successfully meeting clients’ app development needs. The research findings were based on an algorithm of factors that included the breadth of software features, client reviews, and market presence. Appsmakerstore was listed with seven other market players.
Today, Appsmakerstore is one of the top five application makers in the world. “What started for us as our own DIY (Do it yourself with drag and drop) cross platform for making mobile apps for non-coders, has developed into a cost and time effective mPaaS for agencies and their clients. “Our business model also offers options for adding new functions to your project as custom development by the Appsmakerstore team, at an extra cost. Along with building other technologies, platforms and apps from scratch where this makes better sense from our custom department. But we see that 95% of any business request, actually can be solved without any custom development needed.”
Along with our bespoke development department we’re doing custom-made development on the core Appsmakerstore platform or building solutions from scratch for agencies and their clients,” says Rudi Carlsen. “Our specialty is within business and organizations apps. As a mobile development company, we need to provide the highest skills within business processes, culture, user behavior and trends, along with innovation and the pure coding itself. These are ingredients that make Appsmakerstore a truly interesting company to work in, for and together with the right minds,” he adds.
“It’s all about having a good product and volume. This is the information age, adapted to wide-scale use of sub-contracting as well as businesses with field operations.
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More complex construction projects
Construction projects are undoubtedly becoming more complex as the trend towards tiered transactional interfaces becomes more commonplace which means more opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprise suppliers.
“When our staff talks to clients, they are trained to understand the similarity to selling complicated products or services in a store. For instance, in my case, I love cars, but I am not a mechanic. I can fill up my fuel tank, change oil and fill up washer fluid if the car alerts me, but that’s it! For repair and other maintenance, I need a garage. Similarly, it is important for us to focus on the client and their needs,” concludes Carlsen.
“Having a single provider overseeing logistics from the very start of a project can make all the difference to sustainability in all its guises,” emphasizes Stian Lunn.
Norwegian Technology Solves Challenging Road Construction Logistics, written by Tor Kjolberg
Feature image (on top) by Werner Juvik/Volvo