The transformation at Marseille Provence Airport (AMP) store began when their team recognized the need to completely reinvent their online shopping experience. In 2023, with over 10 million passengers flowing through their terminals, AMP took a bold step forward by partnering with ACSEO, our Premium Solution Partner, to modernize their airport’s website.
The story begins with a familiar challenge in the aviation world – an aging digital platform struggling to keep up with passenger demands. For AMP Store, their Magento 1-based system was actively holding them back from delivering the digital experience that modern travelers expect.
The limitations became increasingly apparent in day-to-day operations. Passengers wanted to book their parking spots online, skip long queues with digital tickets, and secure their VIP lounge access with a few clicks. However, the aging platform made even these basic services feel clunky and outdated. The dynamism that characterizes modern eCommerce was notably absent.
After careful consideration, Sylius emerged as the best choice for AMP’s new eCommerce project. Its combination of flexibility, security, and broad integration capabilities aligned perfectly with the airport’s unique needs, particularly when it came to handling complex features such as payment processing and real-time parking management.
But technology was only half the equation. AMP needed a partner who could not only handle the technical complexities but also bring fresh methodological approaches to keep the development as effective as possible. This search led them to ACSEO in November 2022, marking the beginning of a partnership that would transform their airport’s platform.
Public sector projects typically follow a rigid, pre-defined path – after all, when you’re working with a fixed budget, every step is usually mapped out in advance. However, AMP’s team saw an opportunity to try something different. They restructured their internal processes to accommodate a more flexible approach, proving that even within the constraints of public sector operations, there’s room for innovation. This bold move paid off, giving them the freedom to shift priorities and fine-tune functionalities as the project evolved.
The six-week-long sessions went far beyond simple planning meetings. The team tackled everything from basic workflow organization – setting up Slack channels and Kanban boards – to mapping out the three-week sprint cycles that would become their rhythm for the next several months. Looking back, this careful foundation-setting, often rushed in many projects, proved invaluable to their success.
Then, the workshops also dove deep into the user experience, crafting detailed site maps and creating designs that would work seamlessly across both mobile devices and desktop computers. On the technical side, the team built their solution around the Sylius framework, powered by Symfony, while choosing AWS for its robust hosting capabilities. They brought in Keenobi, experts certified in both AWS and Sylius, to ensure everything ran smoothly behind the scenes.
When January 2023 arrived, the real work began. The team settled into a steady rhythm of three-week sprints, each following a carefully structured pattern. This pattern repeated about fifteen times, with each cycle bringing the project closer to completion. By October 2023, what had started as ambitious plans in those early workshops had become a reality – a modern, efficient eCommerce platform ready to serve millions of passengers.
AMP took an innovative approach by appointing two product owners with complementary skills: one bringing deep technical knowledge, the other adding crucial product and marketing expertise. This dual perspective ensured that every decision balanced technical feasibility with user needs.
Supporting these product owners, AMP brought together a core team that included their marketing manager for strategic guidance and a technical lead who handled the complex world of infrastructure, hosting, and security. But what really set this project apart was the involvement of decision-makers in every strategic meeting. Gone were the usual delays waiting for approvals – when decisions needed to be made, the right people were already in the room.
On ACSEO’s side, their Scrum-certified team maintained the project’s momentum. A Scrum Master kept everything running smoothly, while a flexible production team of two to four developers, along with UX/UI designers and integrators, scaled up or down based on each sprint’s needs.
Throughout the project, we benefited from excellent synergy between the teams. Working in a collaborative, transparent work environment focused on user expectations allowed us to be responsive and to obtain an e-commerce site that met our expectations on time.
AMP’s digital transformation journey proved that the right combination of constant communication, certified expertise, guidance, and agile methodology can deliver remarkable results. The ability to adjust the course daily, backed by Sylius’s flexible architecture, ensured the project stayed perfectly aligned with real-world needs. It wasn’t just about building a new eCommerce platform – it was about creating a template for how modern airports can approach digital transformation.
