Connected Mobility

Hands-Free BLE Virtual Ski Pass Solution

Our Client’s Backstory

Our client is a global leader in access management, providing entry solutions for stadiums, airports, and ski resorts in over 100 countries. To maintain their position in the mobility sector, the company sought to revolutionize the winter sports experience by digitizing traditional physical ski passes. The objective was to develop a hands-free mobile solution that allows skiers to access lifts seamlessly via their smartphones, eliminating the need for physical cards or manual scanning.

The Challenges

The project required overcoming technical hurdles related to hardware-software synchronization and time-to-market pressure. Key challenges included:

Hands-Free Proximity Engineering: Developing a reliable Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) communication layer that grants access while the smartphone remains in the user’s pocket.
Ecosystem Interoperability: Designing a plugin-based architecture compatible with a diverse array of third-party lift systems used across global ski resorts.
Mission-Critical Timeline: Fulfilling a four-month development window to ensure the platform was production-ready for the upcoming winter season.
Cross-Platform Parity: Delivering a consistent, high-performance experience for both iOS and Android users within a single development cycle.
Harsh Environment Reliability: Ensuring the BLE signal and application performance remain stable in sub-zero temperatures and high-interference alpine environments.

Solutions

Klika was engaged to lead the end-to-end engineering lifecycle, from initial Proof of Concept (PoC) to global production launch. Our solution included:

High-Velocity Flutter Development: Leveraged the Flutter framework to build a unified, cross-platform application, achieving a 40% reduction in development time compared to native-only approaches.
BLE Integration Engine: Engineered a specialized Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) module that communicates directly with ski lift sensors, enabling hands-free validation.
Validated User Flow PoC: Conducted a product discovery phase to architect a seamless mobile journey, which later served as the blueprint for the entire resort-side plugin ecosystem.
Scalable Architecture Design: Built a lightweight, modular backend to support real-time ticket validation and skier activity tracking across thousands of concurrent users.
Rigid QA & Field Testing: Implemented an end-to-end testing framework, simulating real-world alpine conditions to guarantee reliability at launch.

The Results

The virtual ski pass solution successfully launched across major European resorts, setting a new global standard for the winter sports industry.

On-Time Season Launch: Delivered a feature-complete, dual-platform application within the four-month development window.
Thousands of Daily Active Users: Successfully manages high-frequency access validation for thousands of skiers daily throughout the peak season.
Operational Cost Efficiency: Enabled resort operators to reduce the overhead associated with physical card production and manual ticket window staffing.
Global Market Recognition: The platform's success has positioned the client as an innovator in digital-first ski resort management.