Arrk Group

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Operations Director of Barbour ABI

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Built Environment Market Intelligence

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Arrk Group to accomplish?
Web and mobile front end platform architecture, design, build and support for Barbour ABI’s solution for customers to provide construction project lead data and market intelligence across every UK sector and region. Complete with project timescales, development stage, confirmed project values and building materials used, we provide you with the contact details of decision makers to enable you to build relationships, generate leads and win more work.

SOLUTION

How did you find Arrk Group?

Referral

Why did you select Arrk Group over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Arrk Group were assigned to this project?

40

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Arrk has implemented many projects for us over the years, ranging from web apps to data processing systems and system integrations. The most recent example is a project to minimize manual data entry to release resources to work on more complex data research activities. To date, 30% of the manual effort has been redeployed and we expect this to be more than 50% by year end. 
The project began by analyzing every field manually entered to understand the input rules. As part of this, the target accuracy was defined. For the implementation Arrk used different rule-based NLP and ML techniques were used for different aspects of the data processing. The quality assurance was achieved by getting the system and people to process the same records and compare results. We were pleased to observe some aspects were more accurate than the human counterparts! Plus of course the software was faster.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Arrk has implemented many projects for us over the years, ranging from web apps to data processing systems and system integrations. The most recent example is a project to minimize manual data entry to release resources to work on more complex data research activities. To date, 30% of the manual effort has been redeployed and we expect this to be more than 50% by year end. The project began by analyzing every field manually entered to understand the input rules. 
As part of this, the target accuracy was defined. For the implementation Arrk used different rule-based NLP and ML techniques were used for different aspects of the data processing. The quality assurance was achieved by getting the system and people to process the same records and compare results. 
We were pleased to observe some aspects were more accurate than the human counterparts! Plus of course the software was faster. 

• Build link: https://app.barbour-abi.com/ 
• Design: https://app.barbour-abi.com/ 
• Admin: https://app.barbour-abi.com/ 
• User: https://app.barbour-abi.com/

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

The workflow has been smooth and very well taken care of, as we don’t have to look for the right person to interact with or enquire about the work progress. Arrk, introduced me to a dedicated Project Manager, who helps me in monitoring the correct Implementation of the requirements involved in all stages of development, along with required suggestions on the technical aspects. 
Apart from the Project Manager, there is a dedicated Service Desk Manager who takes care of the Support and co-ordination between our team and Arrk team for any production related queries/issues. We have a daily catch-up to discuss the support queries and prioritization. Arrk has focus groups for each of the applications they have developed for us. We have regular meetings with these focus groups (we call them squads) for new requirements, estimation, design discussions etc. 
The interaction between our team and Arrk team is so smooth that we treat them as our extended team, rather than vendor team. Arrk uses our Jira and Confluence to support the work we do together, this and the regular communication and clear process’ provides complete visibility / transparency of the work being undertaken and enables effective collaboration between the two orgnisations.

What was your primary form of communication with Arrk Group?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

We have worked with Arrk now for over 20 years, this in itself is unique in today’s landscape. This relationship has taken effort on both sides to develop and maintain however we find Arrk make this as painless as possible and provide us process, people and expertise to provide what we need today and consider tomorrow. Our relationship has stood the test of time through many changes in platform, technologies, and owners of our business and we're proud of the achievements we have delivered together with Arrk Group.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Arrk Group could have done differently?

No, there's nothing they need to improve on.