Valtech

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the co-founder and CEO of Cashbet. We are a mobile first, crypto ready online gaming platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Melon?

We needed skilled software engineers at a competitive rate.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They do software development on a number of different components of our platform typically using Python, or HTML.

What is the team composition?

Right now we have five developers at Melon and work with iOS and Android engineers.

How did you come to work with Melon?

They reached out to me in 2009, and I had done some previous work with them at another company.

What is the status of this engagement?

We starting working with Melon in 2013, and continue to do so.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

They have developed a countless number of features on the platform, and I have been mostly satisfied with their work.

How did Melon perform from a project management standpoint?

They have been very good at project management. We have daily stand-ups over Skype and on the phone, and I am able to talk with them on the weekend as necessary.

What did you find most impressive about them?

When you outsource to a company like Melon there can be a lot of turnover, be we haven’t had that. Their employees have strong English skills, and we have been working with good people there for a long time. I am very pleased with their developers.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I would like to see them make their hiring process faster. I know it is a competitive market there, but they are sometimes slow at getting me developers when I need more.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You need a good project management infrastructure and communication policy in place in order to manage remote resources effectively. We have a decent process of documenting features or bugs and assign our workflow well. This helps us take advantage of the time difference, because what I mark as needing work at the end of the day is taken care of by the next morning.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the Co-founder and CTO of an IoT and data company. We focus on reducing waste through hardware/software solutions. Companies use our products to track data on their products as they move through the supply chain.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Spire Digital?

We didn’t have a full-time Android developer on our team and wanted a resource that could accelerate our mobile development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They handled some of our UI work, including new screens and user interfaces we wanted to implement. Now, our users can track data, see what’s happening in our system, and communicate with our backend API. They also worked on our data offload from our device into the backend.

What is the team composition?

We worked with one developer on the project. We set all of our priorities directly with him and didn’t have to deal much with the rest of the company.

How did you come to work with Spire Digital?

A colleague referred them to us.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November or December 2017. They still provide part-time help for us.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We’ve had very few issues. Their developer got a lot done for us and helped us through a spike in work. They help us finish projects and meet deadlines. They’re flexible and the quality of their work is high.

How did Spire Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Spire didn’t provide much project management, but we weren’t really looking for any. The resource they provided was great. He integrated into our team and we worked together on a day-to-day basis. We follow agile scrum methodology in our internal development system, with weekly progress evaluations. We assign new work, track what people are getting done, and review code.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They acted quickly to assign a resource to us. We were in a crunch and they were responsive. The developer fit into our dynamic. They snapped into our process and started delivering immediately.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Honestly, no. If not for the cost, we’d keep them on all the time. This has been a really good experience for us.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We were moving so fast at the beginning, we really went on blind faith that they’d assign us the right person. We lucked out with someone we get along with, but it might be wise to talk to the resource first to make sure you’re getting a good fit.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO and founder of Community Funded. We create digital engagement and online tools for professional fundraising organizations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Spire Digital?

We needed a vendor to develop new processes and technology and provide leadership expertise.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Spire Digital managed our entire in-house development team. Their involvement focused heavily on process and workflow. They designed the UX/UI and customized our platform for a client implementation.

The team facilitated the entire build process and helped us mature as a growing technology company. Engineers coded our current application exclusively using PHP.

What is the team composition?

Spire Digital provided an expansive team of developers, engineers, designers, and scrum masters. Their collective proficiencies accounted for our whole spectrum of needs.

How did you come to work with Spire Digital?

One of our friends referred us to Spire Digital.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on their work.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement began in December 2016. We paused the project to regroup internally, but plan to work with them again soon.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Most of Spire Digital's contributions were process-oriented. This partnership has helped our team hit timelines and deliveries more efficiently. They improved our workflow, most notably for sales, support, and technology processes. Consulting services specifically targeted our business objectives. The team helped us forge a clear path towards improvement. Notably, the website deliverable included a notable "Giving Tuesday" donation function.

How did Spire Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

For the task at hand, they seamlessly took over the management of our entire department. This was a challenging transition, and they conducted it quite well. Their method was very well suited to our specific requirements.

Adam was my main point of contact. I occasionally interfaced with the CEO. We mostly communicated using email, phone, and project management tools. Since our offices are both located near Denver, CO, we held a few onsite meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Spire Digital is deeply committed to solving our organization's challenges.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything specific.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear about the outcomes and objectives you want to achieve. Our concept was initially underdeveloped, and it took an entire month to clarify the scope.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the SVP of product operations at an internationally renowned travel and hospitality club. We serve high-end clientele at destinations throughout the world. Technology drives our business. Along with our website, we use an array of efficiency and scaling tools internally. I lead the product management team, which is the portion of our business that interfaced with Spire Digital.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Spire Digital?

We needed a developer to create digital tools that help our clients and internal team select a vacation that suits their preferences.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Spire Digital helps us concretize and flesh out new concepts. They partnered with our CEO to calibrate on an ideal method of achieving our goals. The team has supported multiple ideation stages. On two occasions, they conducted delivery and implementation. They built one tool that suggests vacation ideas, and another for internal property knowledge.

What is the team composition?

Spire Digital assigned us a full team that included an account manager, project manager, designer, UX expert, and multiple developers with varied expertise. They specialized in .NET skills, as well as frontend and backend development. We used them for virtually every facet of our business.

How did you come to work with Spire Digital?

Our partnership was mostly based on referrals. Several internal team members had existing connections with Spire Digital. Our respective CEOs and project managers had worked together via multiple channels.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $2-3 million on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Spire Digital from 2012 to 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Spire Digital’s most unexpectedly valuable contribution was encouraging us to discard certain misinformed ideas. They partnered with our CEO to conduct substantial research. Extending the spec helped us determine which tasks made sense to pursue to yield long-term ROI. They gracefully delivered this candid advice.

I found it admirable that they prioritized our success over their income. Consultants usually try to sell the maximum amount of work regardless of its potential benefit. Their useful opinions guided us to the ideal strategy for our business. Our group uses their two deliverables to this day, two years later. The extended use of these tools, even two years later, speaks volumes about their skill level.

How did Spire Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

We had a great experience in this domain. They're virtually always on time and on budget. Those are the simplest metrics for a project manager's success. In the rare instances when they exceeded the cost or deadline, they maintained an open dialogue. Spire Digital excelled at communicating both early and often. I was never unpleasantly surprised in that respect.

Their resources usually worked in our office. We probably brought them onsite more than most clients. We generally used a combination of phone calls, email, and online tools. There were slight variations over the course of our three years working together.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Spire Digital took the challenge of understanding our brand and goals to heart. The team thinks outside the box to find innovative solutions. They're not just working for a paycheck. They seem truly invested in meeting our needs. That's not always easy to find.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Knowledge transfer is a major area they could improve. Our company might be partially responsible for this problem. It was hard to transfer some tools they built to our internal tech teams. Further instruction would have made it easier to sustain those solutions. We lacked the requisite information to maximize these products' utility.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Leverage their full end-to-end capabilities. Requesting a simple build for a large solution is just one part of their skill set. They're especially good at ideating designs through the execution. Let them guide you to the optimal solution. Most vendors can execute a build. The design side of the shop is where they really shine.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of marketing for the Breckenridge Tourism Office. We are a destination marketing organization (DMO), focused on driving destination businesses to the town of Breckenridge, Colorado.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Spire Digital?

Before joining the Breckenridge Tourism Office, I was the marketing director for the Breckenridge Ski Resort. In 2008, I worked with Spire to develop a cutting-edge interactive website, and in my current position, I am working with Spire to move our website to their platform. Once everything is transferred, they will take over URL management and do some site testing.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

For the 2008 project, they fully developed a state of the art website for the resort’s terrain park, which included music and 360-degree views. At the time, this project was really challenging and out of the box for them to take on, but they did a really great job.

For the current project, Spire is managing all of our URLs, our website, and our blog. They have been super helpful getting everything off our current platform—which was a bit challenging to work on. Everything has run really smoothly since Spire took over.

What is the team composition?

I work directly with a project manager and a developer. We also have direct access to the other developers as well if we need it.

How did you come to work with Spire Digital?

We hired them based off of my previous work with them in 2008.

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent $80,000­–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Work is ongoing, but we began the project in July 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The website they developed in 2008 won accolades in the industry, and they continue to be a great partner. Just recently, we had some issues on the site and Spire got developers working on the problem in under an hour. I have really come to trust them over the 10 years of our relationship, and have given them total control over our current project.

How did Spire Digital preform from a project management standpoint?

They have been excellent. We communicate over email, and I don’t think it ever goes more than 24 hours without getting a response from somebody when we reach out.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to stay at the forefront of trends and share that information with me has been really impressive. Even for a simple hosting project like this one, they are constantly checking-in and sending us articles and white papers. That is always appreciated for a smaller business like ours.

In general, they have really been a great group to work with. We are both based in Colorado, and I always see those guys being mentioned in the papers as “one of the best places to work,” etc.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Honestly, they have been a great partner for us. I don’t see any areas for improvement at this time.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They will definitely be different than other companies you work with. They seem to really care about your business, and they have that small shop mentality even though they’ve got a big digital background. That makes the project feel very personalized.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I run a program management office at an Aviation Services Company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Spire Digital?

We were building a new application and needed help with UX design. We already had a consultant who was working on the user interface with us, but he determined that we needed additional resources.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us understand the behavior of the screens and designed mock-ups using existing wireframes. Then, they implemented the designs. Becoming part of our team, they were heavily involved in the UX design process, including the research and interviews we had to do.

What is the team composition?

We worked with one project manager, one designer, and 2–3 developers.

How did you come to work with them?

We found them through an online search. We talked to their references, who said very positive things about them, so we decided to give them a chance.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them between January–May 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We haven't released our product yet, but our internal team and alpha customers are very excited about the design Spire Digital produced.

How did they perform from a project management standpoint?

Our project manager kept things on track and updated us on the progress. We used Jira, email, and phone to communicate and they often came on site. Also, we use agile methodology internally, so they worked with that.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have exceptional design skills. It took us a little while to start speaking the same language, but after that, the process went very smoothly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We're developing an iOS application, so we'd have loved to use more of high caliber developers.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear about your expectations and communicate with them as often as you can.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO of an online evaluation and survey company. We serve the college and university market.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Spire Digital?

We wanted to make our corporate website more current and engaging, improve navigation, and increase our lead generation. We were looking for a company to help us with that.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We're a software company and have our own development team. The website our team built has been around for a number of years, so I was looking to go outside of the box and work with a third party who would bring creative ideas and give our corporate website more modern look and feel. Spire Digital built a new website for us from scratch, using WordPress for the backend. They're a full-service agency, so they managed the design, development, and the creative side for us.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a project manager, developers, designers, a QA expert, and their creative team.

How did you come to work with them?

They have a good reputation here, in Denver market, so I've been aware of them for years. When I made the decision to outsource this project, I identified three firms we were going to review and added Spire Digital to the list. We were confident they would deliver on time and stay within the budget they quoted, so we chose them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $10,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them between May–July 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We've received very positive feedback from our customers who reported liking the easy navigation and the look and feel of the website. Ultimately, those are the people who go through the funnel to contact our sales team.

How did they perform from a project management standpoint?

They provided clear milestones to frame up the project and updated us weekly on the progress. And they delivered everything they had promised on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We loved their creativity and their ability to bring that creativity to life.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Our approach going into this project was to have a vision of what we wanted but also be open-minded and allow their creative team to take it in new directions based on their own expertise. We started from the ground up and we were not too rigid about what we wanted the end product to look like.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm CEO at PlanOmatic. We provide photos and floor plans for real estate marketing nationwide. Our photographers take photos and create floor plans for properties that are for sale or for rent in order to provide the client with an online, interactive presentation with which to market the property.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Spire Digital?

We needed to create an online ordering platform for our clients to be able to place orders, schedule, and pay online with little effort.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re building the platform from start to finish. We started with a lot of research. There was a Ph.D. student on the project who interviewed our clients, small to large, as well as our staff. They put together a summary of the findings and we took that into the UI/UX and design simultaneously. They created mockups for us using InVision. We’ve now completed the UI/UX design and moved on to the frontend development.

What is the team composition?

There’s a team working with us including UI/UX experts, graphic designers, and web designers. Frontend developers are involved to oversee and make sure they understand what the product entails. There are always one or two project managers present in an administrative role.

How did you come to work with Spire Digital?

Maybe two or three years ago, we had a cold email from one of their entry-level sales reps and we scheduled a meeting. 

They were top of mind when this project came up. It was something I’d been discussing with them for two years. It was a very long sales pipeline for them but we eventually pulled the trigger.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $75,000–$100,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in Q4 of 2017. The UI/UX portion of the project is complete. The frontend development is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We have the final design and UX for what the application will look like but we haven’t used it with our clients yet. We’re very happy with the quality of their work so far.

How did Spire Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Very well. We have weekly standup meetings. We have the luxury of them being close to us so oftentimes we’ll do the meetings face-to-face. They’ll come here or we’ll go there. There is a lot of email communication back and forth in between the meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Overall, I would say clarity. Everything is very clear as far as what's possible, where we are along the project and the risks. They develop using an agile method so every week we know exactly where we are.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't really name anything now. Only that it’d be nice to get billed monthly instead every two weeks.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They're not the least expensive solution but they're definitely the highest quality and the most honest when it comes to providing estimates.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO of Epiphany Ai. We provide digital advertising and marketing technologies to our clients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Spire Digital?

We needed to build a piece of software that would help us normalize, visualize, and optimize multiple terabytes of data on a day-to-day basis in order to increase revenue.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We utilized Spire's whole suite of services. We started off working with their branding team, who helped us really break down who we are and what we value so that we could relate it to our business and focus the brand. After that, they designed logos, brand assets, and an identity package for us.

Once we had those details ironed out, we spent a lot of time discussing our workflows and planning the software we needed. Based on those conversations, they built us a user interface that provided frontend access to all the functions we needed, and then on the backend, they developed a solid architecture and wrote proprietary code for us.

What is the team composition?

We worked with everyone on their team. We had a project manager, branding consultants, and creative designers. We also had a frontend team who helped us design and implement the GUI, as well as a backend team who handled the coding.

How did you come to work with Spire Digital?

A colleague recommended them to me.

How much have you invested with them?

We've probably spent around $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the project late in 2015 and finished it in 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Our goal with this project was to improve revenue through obtaining a better understanding of the data we collect, as well as better visualizations of trends and outliers. Based on the results so far, Spire’s software has helped us increase revenue by 30 percent.

How did Spire Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Our project manager did an astounding job and taught us a lot throughout the project. I was really impressed by him. We had scheduled weekly meetings and were also able to meet in person a number of times since they're local, which helped communication a lot. Beyond that, we used a project management tool called Sprintly and also kept in touch via phone and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed by their expertise and the level of quality they delivered. It never felt like we were providing all the answers to them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Do your research. Some folks might shy away from Spire since they're not cheap, but they will deliver quality products that are worth the investment. If you're simply looking for a quick website redesign or your project is limited by budgetary concerns, they may not be the best choice.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Soniphi is a technology business focused on identifying ventures and technology contributors, helping them bring various leading-edge solutions to the marketplace. We’re looking to improve the health and wellness of people through the use of frequency-based applications. There are vocal markers that indicate certain states of health and well-being. We take 30-second recordings of a person’s voice and focus on six different areas of vitality: stress, sleep, hydration, digestion, muscles, and energy. Based on the audio recording, we give people vitality scores for each area and make recommendations on what they could do to improve.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Spire Digital?

We needed help with the development of our Vitality app. We had a bad experience with an overseas provider that was not a good match for the app’s complex backend database. We have a lot of experience developing software but hadn’t been able to tackle the intricacies of vocal analysis and translating them across different time zones. The app was functional, but we had a number of bugs and unfinished designs. We needed to rewrite and strengthen certain APIs, add security, and upgrade our database.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Spire Digital put a project team together to identify our roadmap. They revised our existing architecture, breaking out some monolithic APIs into smaller, higher-performing functionalities. They also worked on improving security and UI design. The app is available for Android and iOS. They used Unity to build a 3D component for visualizing avatars and various indicators of weak and overstressed muscles. Spire evaluated HTML5 and other technologies but decided on native development because we wanted 3D functionalities.

What is the team composition?

We had a dedicated project and program manager, along with the CTO of the organization. We were also assigned AWS security experts, a frontend lead for UI/UX design, and a backend lead for our complicated algorithms.

How did you come to work with Spire Digital?

Given our previous experience with the overseas firm, we wanted to work with a local company. We looked at firms in San Jose, Silicon Valley, Denver, and Boulder. Spire Digital came to us as a referral from a trusted friend. One thing that stood out about them was the responsiveness of their senior management. I was pleasantly surprised to receive a call from their president within fifteen minutes of our first contact. Spire Digital also stood out in terms of the resources they made immediately available. They put us in touch with their VPs of strategy and delivery, the CTO, and one of their primary project delivery leaders within a couple of days. Lack of internal discipline was a major problem with the previous partner. Spire Digital was able to look at the big picture and put together working documents that actually fit into our timeline.

How much have you invested with them?

The original estimate was $80,000 per month for three months. We’ve spent $185,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

The initial conversation with Spire Digital was in June 2017. The contract was signed in early July, and we had a three-week assessment to make sure they understood our requirements. The collaboration officially started at the end of July. The development has been held up due to funding issues from our parent company. We’re currently 10 weeks away from launch.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Once Spire Digital understood what we were trying to do—representing the six categories of wellness—they were able to help us simplify a very complex frontend and bring the right balance of colors, icons, and graphics. The design is intuitive, but it also contains deep representations relative to trends over time. Users can visualize trends with the swipe of a finger. They were able to increase security and performance by going from a NoSQL to a structured version using Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) for our backend database.

We shared our UI at the Transformative Technologies Conference at the Sofia University (Palo Alto, CA) in October 2017. It was a big hit with everyone who had a chance to view it. The UI is highly intuitive in explaining a complex series of events. The backend performance was a non-issue in our conversations. Processing speed was good enough to make us confident in showcasing the app in its demo state.

How did Spire Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

As a lean startup with limited time and resources, Spire Digital brings a level of discipline to our project management. It’s a weak area for us, but they make sure we stay on time and budget. We have weekly sprints running Thursday–Wednesday. Onboarding is done with Jira, and we also use email. We have regular status calls for both the current sprint and the overall project. They’re flexible in terms of unscheduled calls, but the process became streamlined once we established a reporting cadence. Sprints are completed and demoed on time, and our backlog was regularly updated.

They make us feel confident by providing so many resource types and specialization, especially compared to some of the other companies we contacted. Besides the good chemistry with their leadership, we appreciated the team’s ability to organize and get their people focused. Spire Digital serves our needs from a process, discipline, and perspective standpoint.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Our app has certain complexities because of native development on two major platforms. Spire Digital’s ability to remain accountable and get things done was extremely helpful. They always let us know of any possible delays, and there were no surprises along the way.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s always room for improvement, but I don’t have any suggestions at the moment. Spire Digital knows what they’re doing and they’re good at it.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Engage with Spire Digital in order to determine how to start the collaboration. Their team has a great deal of flexibility to work in different modes, which is one of the things we like about them. They’re always responsive to our requests and gave us explanations when they didn’t agree with something.