Pulse

nJoin – painkiller for the platform headache

By Lewis - 4 September 2019

G3 interviews Greentube’s Amir Gharani, Head of Games Integration, about the current obstacles facing operators and the reasons why nJoin is the perfect solution

How are platforms changing?

In this age of increasing competition in the B2B iGaming marketplace, providers need to up their game when it comes to platform services. You could argue that innovation at the front-end, especially when it comes to the creation of games that stand out from the crowd, has been the main focus in recent years, with back-end development perhaps less of a priority. But while it’s important to have a diverse and exciting portfolio, if your clients are pulling their hair out trying to integrate your content into their systems, then all the time, talent and energy spent on game creation will be good for nothing. Increasingly, it is the technology and processes employed behind the scenes that offer a key selling point to operators and can differentiate the industry leaders from the masses.

What problems do operators face with platforms currently?

Operators have a lot on their plate with the challenges of increased regulation, tightening margins and changing consumer habits piling pressure on day-to-day operations. The last thing they need is access to content being clunky. Partners value a swift and seamless integration that demands minimal effort on their part. We recently launched nJoin, a new portal for our B2B partners, to spare operators the headache of integration. Our goal was to cut out unnecessary complexity and friction in the process and in turn create a system with seamless endpoint connectivity, API authorisation and wallet interaction. By focussing on the platform at its core, we have succeeded in reducing the length of our on-boarding process from months to a just few days.

What are the most important elements for a smooth integration process?

Simplicity is key. The driving objective with nJoin was to provide a platform that offered partners end-to-end integration from technical kick-off until roll-out on production. The whole process is divided into three clear and easy-to-understand stages, each following a simple template to steer the operator through the integration requirements. A core feature is the innovative sandbox tool, in which operators are able to test implementation through an interactive guide and really get to know our games portfolio. We have found that being able to observe the outcome and fix bugs on the fly has been a huge attraction for our operator partners. With nJoin, they can run a series of automated test cases from the start to the end of the integration process to anticipate where pinch-points lie. Once each case passes successfully, the change management team is given the green light to align and agree on a go live date. The result is an intuitive, self-service platform that significantly reduces the effort involved while improving the quality of integration.

Do you see sandboxes becoming a wider trend in the gaming industry?

Sandbox is a term which is often thrown around in the technology world, but is still a relatively new concept in iGaming. What it offers to our operating partners is the opportunity to try-out, understand and implement the game launch process, while also being able to iron out any issues in a test-case environment before going live. The key here is adaptability: operators need a solution that best fits their needs when integrating our games with their platform, but those needs are not necessarily always the same. Providing immediate feedback through diagnostic tools and interactive log files has proved widely successful in smoothing out unique issues on a partner-by-partner basis. Operators are going to start expecting this level of service, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it becomes more widespread in the industry.

How can suppliers improve transparency in the process?

We have heard the complaint time and time again that opacity in the integration process is often the cause of costly delays. With nJoin, we built in a progress bar for every section of implementation that gives both our operating partners and us visibility on the current state of integration. It keeps track of when tasks have been completed and outlines what steps are still required to pass each automated test case. If both parties are able to clearly understand what needs to be done at their end, then time to market can be drastically improved and operators can go live with our portfolio of content within days. The experience of the developer handling the integration from a technical perspective on behalf of the operator is another factor to consider. Our platform can be easily navigated by different types of operators too, whether that’s a new entrant who needs to know how to adapt our systems to their relevant markets in the face of regulatory constraints, or an old-hand looking to embed our content as well as possible in order to react to specific events that improve the user experience.

How important is it to offer a round-the-clock service?

Ensuring our B2B platform provided one central space for hosting information that is available 24/7 was a no brainer. It’s about flexibility and being able to allow our partners to align resources based on their integration progress. Customer care has always taken priority at Greentube, so of course we carried those values through to our thinking when creating nJoin. We’re confident the new platform will complement our existing Client Space, launched exclusively for B2B partners last year. It’s become a vital tool in communicating with and supplying materials to our customers, offering the opportunity to access detailed information about the Greentube portfolio, including key data about the games and marketing and promotional materials. We want to ensure that our partners are able to quickly build up a knowledge base about our games and platform features so that rolling out our content is as easy as possible. Offering an integration platform that is available round-the-clock is crucial to that. You need to have the internal teams that understand the bigger picture and how to work together to provide maximum collaboration, innovation and efficiency.

How does nJoin fit into Greentube’s business approach?

Greentube’s strategy is to support as many customers in as many regulated markets as possible. Our new platform nJoin will be a catalyst in reaching those goals as future integrations will be more efficient and faster for both us and our B2B partners. In our experience, supporting integration needs on a local level is equally as important as offering a diverse game portfolio to suit specific market demands. Every operator has its own unique trials when it comes to scalability, stability and speed efficiency – that’s especially true for markets where legacy systems are a common challenge.

What else does 2019 have in store for Greentube?

Building on momentum from nJoin, we’re going to be implementing a host of new innovations and improvements in the coming months. The development of the portal from an innovative concept to a tool which we are certain will be a vital part of expansion efforts has been a huge achievement for the team. We’re on an exciting path to become a global leader in B2B platform market – nJoin is just the beginning.