Atomic Object

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the chief product officer at a small technology company. We make hydrogen fuel cell-powered electrical generators—small devices that produce electricity from chemical energy.

What challenge were you trying to address with Atomic Object?

We had to do a lot of software development in a short amount of time and needed additional bandwidth to meet a deadline.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a certain amount of software that needed to be cleaned up and transferred from an existing application to a new application. We relied on Atomic Object to help us with the remaining software porting effort for this embedded system.

Specifically, we have a microcontroller that reads a variety of sensor inputs and then executes our control algorithm and sets outputs appropriately to control, maintain, and operate the device. We do basically all of our development in C, and we used Jira and Bitbucket as our primary development tools.

What is the team composition?

At any given time, we worked with a maximum of four people. But some members rotated on and off, so we were exposed to quite a few people from their team.

How did you come to work with Atomic Object?

We reviewed firms across the country that had the best combination of talents, quality, and price, and we ultimately chose Atomic Object. We found them to be very well-qualified and have the necessary technical experience. Their familiarity working with embedded systems distinguished them from other options. We also liked their agile approach and test-driven development methods. It was not a preference or a goal to work with a remote team, but it certainly worked out very well.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from August 2018–March 2019.

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

We found the work to be very high quality. They did everything the way we had hoped for them to do it.

How did Atomic Object perform from a project management standpoint?

They were well-organized and methodical. I found them to be very customer-oriented. I could tell that their approach was intended to give us the best experience. Their methods were quite polished in that regard.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have an influential internal company culture. They groom the developers into certain practices and procedures that make the experience very seamless. Very few other firms will operate in that same way.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They were hyper-focused on the process, which can be a good thing but also sometimes limiting to the overall flexibility of the engagement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You can’t go wrong based on their approach. Their meticulous attention to detail and their onboarding process will more than likely give you a great experience.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a biotechnology company that makes software and apps for circadian rhythm purposes.

What challenge were you trying to address with Atomic Object?

I was working on a circadian rhythm application for a government agency; the iOS solution was for cancer patients. I hired Atomic Object to do the design.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Atomic Object interviewed current patients and other people that fit personas. The team then drew up the flow from a UX perspective and did styling. They designed the app from scratch based on my guidelines and also provided backend consulting services.

What is the team composition?

I worked with one designer. There was another resource for backend consulting.

How did you come to work with Atomic Object?

I had discussed other products with the team, but this was the first opportunity I had to work with them. Their past app designs had impressed me; I wanted a similar look for my solution.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project occurred in January 2019.

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

Everyone is impressed with the designs.

How did Atomic Object perform from a project management standpoint?

The team was transparent and delivered on their promises.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They checked in repeatedly to ensure everything was on track and budget. I felt comfortable providing both positive and negative feedback.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I was pleased with the engagement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Clients should be as responsive as Atomic Object. Efficient lines of communication make the partnership easy.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an assistant superintendent for the Ottawa Area Intermediate School District (OAISD). We’re an educational services agency that runs various services supporting other K-12 school districts. For example, we manage a fiber optic network and have a full enterprise technology services department. We're the tech department for several districts. I’m in charge of innovation, technology, information, and security.

What challenge were you trying to address with Atomic Object?

We’ve worked on several projects with them, the first being an online system for testing and assessments. We did a review of various systems that were available, but we didn’t find anything we liked. Therefore, we decided to go the custom development route.

We’d done development work in the past as a department, but it’d primarily involved report-writing or scripts, along with a bit of SQL; custom work was out of our depth. In addition to developing the project, we wanted a partner who could teach us agile development and grow our team so we could eventually take over maintenance.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Atomic Object worked on a project called inQwizIT that delivers and manages assessments. We gave them some of our specifications, they offered us a quote, and then we designed the app; it still uses the same system today. Though it started as a math-specific assessment tool, it was designed as a universal assessment engine and is now being used in science, social studies, and other subjects.

It’s a web-based software whose front- and backend were originally developed with Ruby on Rails. It’s always been cloud-based, but we moved to AWS after launch. We still use Ruby on the backend (though we’ve made some code upgrades) but we’ve transitioned Ember.js on the frontend. Ember.js allows us to alter code more rapidly, while also maintaining all the backend pieces on Ruby.

We’ve done multiple other projects with Atomic as well. One was a speculative design project to identify a concept we could show to prospective donors. Although the timing wasn’t right, we still plan on using it. Recently, we did a UX/UI project requiring them to build wireframes and other components.

What is the team composition?

We worked with three people for the original project, though we brought the designer’s hours down as we went forward. We’ve worked with other people on various projects since then but there’s been some carryover from team to team. 

How did you come to work with Atomic Object?

I knew I wanted to do something in the agile world and looked at all sorts of app developers. I tapped the network of a friend who works at a large IT firm and he provided a couple of recommendations, including Atomic.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent close to $700,000. That doesn’t include the recent UX/UI project, as that was funded by another source.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from May 2011 until July 2018.

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

People love inQwizIT, largely because it’s the first time many of them have worked with software designed with them in mind, which is part of Atomic’s process. The software is easy for everyone to use (our client and their users), so it’s gotten positive reviews.

How did Atomic Object perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re as good as any software development company I’ve worked with. Everyone struggles with projecting development accurately; that being said, Atomic does it very well. They’re only 30 km away from us, so it’s always easy to connect with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re committed to not just developing software but to building software that’s impactful and unique. They took ownership of the app as if it were their own project and adjusted well to our change requests.

While they’ve expanded their expertise regarding development and design trends, they also respected us as domain, content, usability and customer experts. Other vendors assume we’ll have to go through a bunch of exercises to learn those things. Atomic does that to a certain extent, but they also understand we know what we’re talking about. This is nice for me, as I’m paying the bill.

Atomic has all the services to be a one-stop shop (initial concept, design, programming) but they’ve partnered with us in different ways as needed. Rather than always use a single approach, they’ve been flexible.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s room for improvement in any project, but they always take our feedback and make the appropriate changes. In our first project, there were some things I knew would come up later, regarding how we’d model the data, but I was more than willing to go with the flow. They decided to tackle the problem when they came to it instead of accounting for it in the original design. I think they learned how valuable it is to keep the end-result in mind while working on quick iterations.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work at Soar Technology. We provide artificial intelligence software to the government and military sectors.

What challenge were you trying to address with Atomic Object?

We relied on Excel to keep track of everything internally. However, as a company full of engineers, we wanted to have internal software. We didn't have the design experience in-house, so we were looking for a company to design the software we could use for metric tracking and labor forecasting.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They interviewed three people from our organization and studied all the spreadsheets we sent them. After synthesizing all the data, they designed a web-based software for us. We just finished the design phase, and it ended up being three separate tools. We have multiple stakeholders, all of whom wanted to be able to get different things out of the software. Atomic Object was able to understand and meet our needs. We're now discussing internally what our next steps will be and whether we'll do the development in-house or in collaboration with them.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a project manager, a full-time designer, and two part-time engineers. Their two managing partners were also involved.

How did you come to work with them?

Our CEO was referred to them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $60,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in December 2017 and the project was completed in May 2018.

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

Our internal team was very happy with their work and loved the prototypes of the design. All the meetings we had were very productive. We're still using our Excel spreadsheet, so our team is very excited about getting a better solution in place.

How did they perform from a project management standpoint?

They did an excellent job. They delivered everything on time and stayed within our budget, keeping our internal team on task as well. We had a lot of in-person meetings where they showed us prototypes and explained different steps. In between those meetings, we communicated via phone and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciated that they stayed on budget.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a clear idea of what you're trying to accomplish and keep your mind open to their solutions.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The Van Andel Education Institute is a nonprofit science education institute serving the local community and K-12 teacher space. We provide professional development for teachers to help increase curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking in classroom settings. We also develop hard-copy and digital tools to support that mission. I serve as the product development and support manager.

What challenge were you trying to address with Atomic Object?

We needed web development services.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve been involved with Atomic Object for multiple iterations of two primary projects. We had a general sense of what we wanted but realized it was best to give them the space to create the wireframes and design constructs. We focused our time on providing feedback and modifying things.

The biggest things we brought to the table were a vision and a clear sense of the different student, teacher, and school administrator profiles we wanted to solve problems for. This helped them understand our goals. They did both development and design work.

The initial project consisted of turning an instructional model into an iPad app. It’s a visual presentation of a model with boxes that users click on to get more details of our instructional model, thus helping both teachers and students. We had an elementary, secondary, and Spanish version. The basis of this app and our model was then taken to a broader project that we’ve since completed four different iterations of. The new launches were generally synchronized to release prior to each school year.

The second project focuses on bringing the model to life within the classroom and has three primary components. It has a forum-based teacher community and a content management system-based resource library where all of our downloads, instructional prompts, and teacher resources are stored for quick access and interactivity.

The third, more robust, portion of the platform has two parts. It has an interactive lesson building tool that’s based on our instructional model. After building a lesson, teachers can assign students who can then use the platform as their science journal to document what they’ve learned.

We had a pretty clear vision of what we wanted to do. We dealt with the design parameters quickly. They were awesome at helping us conceptualize possibilities in a web-based environment about how it might come to life. They went in two primary directions with the design construct in hand and the iterative nature of the work.

They did all the custom design for the teacher lesson plan and student journaling tools. They also helped identify the best off-the-shelf software platforms that we could modify to use with our own. They customized those two platforms, the CMS, and the forum-based teacher community piece. They reskinned it to look and feel like it was ours. The CMS they identified for us is Craft. The forum-based teacher community platform is Vanilla Forums.

What is the team composition?

We’ve scaled the team up and down to meet our operational needs. I’ve worked with as few as one person to a team of 10 compiled designers, project managers, and developers. We had a designer, project manager, and four teams of two developers before we launched in the summer of 2015.

How did you come to work with Atomic Object?

Some of my staff and I had worked with Atomic Object in previous venues. I was aware of their work processes, methodologies, and approach to Agile development because I worked with them in a similar capacity on a design and build for a different software tool. They were local and did high-quality work. We were very comfortable with their project management and methodologies.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent more than $2 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2014 and the relationship is ongoing. We have an active maintenance and support contract with them. We’re also stepping into the scope definition of a small enhancement project that we want to deliver for the summer of 2018.

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

Our teachers enjoy the interface and have quickly learned to appreciate its robustness across platforms. They can use it on a phone, Chromebook, Mac, or PC because it’s all web-based. We pride ourselves in making it strong enough to work across all current browsers and different operating systems.

Students often take to the platform more quickly than teachers. I encourage teachers to observe this because kids figure out how to add pictures and move content into their journal much faster.

How did Atomic Object perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management methodologies are very strong. They’re very focused on managing customer expectations. Their communication is accurate, clear, and timely. They’re far better than other software design and development vendors I’ve worked with or heard about. We communicate via phone, text, and in-person meetings. We utilize Basecamp as well as a variety of tools depending on the nature of a given challenge.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciate how focused they are on quality. They sometimes provide feedback that could be construed as negative, but it comes from a perspective that’s more aligned with the customer’s vision. They’re very upfront about the cost benefit of doing one thing versus the other.

Last week, the project manager suggested not moving forward with something because it was going to expose us to too much risk and would be very costly. They don’t suggest something just to keep their developers busy. They’re always trying to balance customer expectations with our workload in order to keep producing quality products.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their scope containment and point structures, while sometimes necessary, can be confusing to non-technical people. They could maybe provide an introduction to their Agile methods and point structures in order to shed light on how they affect risk and cost. This could be an area of growth for them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Whether you have a clear vision of what you want or not, trust the process and be ready to work in a rapid development cycle. Be ready to continue to refine, polish, and clarify exactly what you want. If you expect to turn things over to them and not be a part of the process, then you won’t be utilizing their skills or experience in a cost-effective way.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of Carol Health. We help people get on-demand and in-home care.

What challenge were you trying to address with Atomic Object?

We were looking to develop an MVP (minimum viable product).

What was the scope of their involvement?

We approached them with some research, sketches, and branding of what we wanted for our MVP. All the branding wasn’t complete from a web-application standpoint, so they took the initiative to match it and create some custom icons for the branding and workflows. Afterwards, they incorporated all of the branding. We utilized and relied on their team to build a full MVP.

They also took care of the actual development. It’s a custom Ruby on Rails web application. Our requests presented some unique challenges, but they were able to overcome them.

The app allows people to access, request, and receive care from a nurse in as little as an hour. It allows nurses a unique opportunity to sign up for the platform, utilize their licence, and get an additional income outside of hospital work.

What is the team composition?

We worked with eight people from their team throughout the project. We initially went to the Grand Rapids location and wanted to move the timeline up, which they were able to accommodate. We had the development team out of Ann Arbor, which had four full-time developers and designers.  

We also had a project manager but were able to communicate directly with the team if needed. It allowed everyone to remain on the same page the entire time.

How did you come to work with Atomic Object?

They are well-known in Grand Rapids and other communities. We really liked that they offered multiple references when we approached them. They truly stood behind their work and were very accessible as well.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in June 2017 and completed the project in October 2017.

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

The handoff made for an easy transition for us. The work they did, the effort they put into it, and the communication all made for a very seamless development process.

Our development team is continually making updates as we learn. Our users really like it, so it’s made it easy for us to run through the entire application process. It’s a really good foundation for us to get started on learning how to build out the platform.

How did Atomic Object perform from a project management standpoint?

They were excellent and upfront throughout the process. We had close communication and continual updates. We mostly communicated through in-person meetings, phone, email, and Slack. We met during and at the end of every sprint. They were accommodating when we requested that they have a full-time developer in-office. We had a daily check-in which allowed us to understand progress, adjustments, or expedited work.

They walked us through the process and set clear expectations. They addressed their concerns about the project and its potential outcomes. We reviewed progress, upcoming milestones, and current or future concerns on a weekly basis.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most important things they did were set clear expectations and educate us about them. They followed through on everything and did an excellent job.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you ask what they foresee as risks involved with completing tasks in the scope of work. Clients don’t always have a full understanding of what goes on on their end and what the variable is that could make or break a project (e.g., meeting deadlines).

It was really important for us that they address their concerns so that they could succeed in what we were trying to do. It allowed us to work on those things as they started other work so we could match them up at the end of the process.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO and President of a third-party administrator of drug testing and education services.

What challenge were you trying to address with Atomic Object?

We were switching from an enterprise system to an iOS app-based system. We have a proprietary database and collections system where we collect data points for athletes when we do drug testing collection. We were the pioneer in developing a paperless chain-of-custody system in the drug testing space and continue to remain the leader in such innovation.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They handled the development from beginning to end. They consulted us on what platform to use for a new system, whether it was another custom enterprise system, or moving to a more user-friendly platform such as an iOS app-based system. They then helped in the design, development, and integration into our multiple client databases.

We went through a very long and lengthy discovery and education process around what we do and what our expectations were from the development, and they then began to wireframe a development process. Our IT and operations staff had significant input on design and modification of those wireframes as we developed many iterations of the system.

What is the team dynamic?

I wasn't the project leader initially, but became the project leader midway through. I worked with their high-level developers and 4–5 members of their leadership and management team.

How did you come to work with Atomic Object?

I was involved in the decision-making process of who was selected once a small group of vendors was chosen. Initially, we wanted somebody local as we’re a strong believer in our strong local IT community.  Primarily, we wanted to engage with a vendor that understood our values and challenges.  We didn't want a large shop that was going to outsource everything overseas.

Atomic Object exhibited very similar traits to our company. They were about the same size and had a wealth of experience under them based on past projects. We liked their leadership team and loved their presentation. They didn't take themselves too seriously and they took the time to understand who we were. They are almost a mirror image of our company and that's why we selected them.  Although they were based outside of our city, we made the right choice and couldn't be happier with our selection.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with them since February 2013. We've kept them engaged in development or re-development and support functions. 

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

Confidentiality and data security are significant priorities in our business. We have data that requires high levels of cybersecurity, physical security, and necessity for replication in the event of a disaster.  They understood that and delivered a product that allowed us to collect, store, secure, and replicate data in the best way possible.

There are also many customized options in our system that they understood.  They were adept at listening to our staff and modifying development as needed. The system they delivered can be easily modified by our IT staff, but they've also supported their deliverable for several years. We couldn't be more pleased with it.

It was a huge home run for us to switch to a platform that was user-friendly and widely understood by a young population. Most of our client demographic are in their 20s to early-30s, and they understand technology, app products and the iOS technology.  The user experience has been tremendous and a huge advantage for us.

How did Atomic Object perform from a project management standpoint?

They were amazing. Initially, we got side-tracked in the development process because a strong project leader from our side was not identified, but once they identified that issue, it was an easy process. 

Once we got re-focused, the project management was very smooth. I can't say enough about the professionalism and the product they delivered on a weekly and monthly basis. The project updates, beta testing, and everything that went on in the development was top-notch. I couldn't recommend them more highly. We communicated through email, phone, and in-person. It was also really important for us that they come down to our office and meet our staff.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their leadership team understands the importance of relationship building with their clients. Their development team is educated and very knowledgeable about developing products in an efficient way that includes their client's feedback. I was really impressed with their shop. We rely on them so much and they've been a tremendous resource for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Early on in the process when we weren’t focused, they could have directed us a little quicker that we needed to get a strong project manager in place. That could have shaved off some time and money in the development process, but ultimately they made us aware of the situation and we got on track.

Once we got on the right path, their development team was conscientious about who we were, what we wanted, and delivered a product that was just spot on. I cannot emphasize enough how happy we were with the development, their team, their follow-up, their support, and the friendships that we've developed with Atomic Object.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Covenant Retirement Communities is a senior-living provider in the non-profit sector. I work in the IT department as a product owner and project manager for the software we’ve developed with Atomic Object. I also do occasional web development and SharePoint administration.

What challenge were you trying to address with Atomic Object?

We had a long questionnaire for residents to fill out after they moved in, so we knew what services they needed. It was a paper document with around 100 pages, which was difficult to manage. Once the information was collected, we couldn’t really do anything with it, so we wanted to automate the process. The data is also used for generating care plans for our residents, as well as for determining pricing for particular residents.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a basic prototype, so they were involved in fleshing out all the requirements and creating a storyboard for the product, then developing it. Our solution is a standalone web application built using Ruby on Rails.

We specified that it needed to be accessible on mobile devices, and be accessible without an internet connection, which was taken into consideration by them. They used bleeding-edge technologies in order to achieve this. They also designed the whole solution initially, handling CSS [cascading style sheets] and everything else, but our marketing team contracted another group to design a new logo.

The application features forms, reporting, and a scheduling component. We have an extensive process for determining what the pricing should be, and they’ve developed the whole backend configuration which enables this. On the surface, it’s a questionnaire, but there is a lot which we do with those answers after the fact.

What is the team dynamic? 

We always tried to begin projects with in-person meetings, over a period of between 1 ½ and 3 days. We’ve done a fair amount of screen sharing using Slack and other tools, and also communicated by phone and text. I estimate we’ve worked with 6–8 people from their team, over the years.

How did you come to work with Atomic Object?

I found a website dedicated to reviewing Ruby on Rails developers, on which Atomic Object was listed. I work remotely and at the time was living in the same state a couple hours away.

Instead of giving us a canned statement of work which had been clearly copied and pasted from another client proposal, and had parts that were completely irrelevant to our project, they actually sat down and looked at our prototype. They carefully examined all its sections and menu items and made a detailed analysis on how long each section was expected to take. The contrast in their approach was stark from the beginning, so there was no question that they were the ones we wanted to go with.

I believe that the other companies we looked at were charging around $220 per hour, while Atomic Object had a $110 or $120 fee at the time so their value was also great.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of their work has been above $1,000,000 at this point.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in October 2009. We have a support agreement in place and have continuously developed new features on a yearly basis.

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

People have always been impressed with our report demos. We have also used the application on the sales side, in order to give prospective residents an idea of how much living with us would cost. There is a fair amount of turnover in our sales department, and I have talked to a couple of people there recently, who were impressed by the fact that we had an automated way of predicting someone’s payments.

Our profiles take into consideration not only seniors’ physical needs but also their preferences. We do hear feedback from staff about the great connections they’re able to make with residents using the profile as a starting point. The process takes 2 hours, and they can get into all kinds of conversations about their lives, what they’ve done and where they’ve been, and what they like and don’t like. We hear a lot of positive feedback about this.  

How did Atomic Object perform from a project management standpoint?

Whoever was playing the role of project manager was also a part of the team, actually writing code. I appreciated this, since, in working on small projects with other vendors, I was frustrated by having to explain requirements to a project manager who didn’t know the system or the code. There was always a problem with trying to get the information to the developer in a back-and-forth manner.

We got updates every week on how much time and budget had been spent, and how much had been accomplished. They measured the stories to be implemented using points, so I always had a graph displaying how much had been done, and how much of the budget was spent.

We had continuous communication throughout the week over any unexpected issues. If the team was stuck and needed more information, I would be notified right away. We worked closely in a continuous manner. Responding to them was a full-time job for me, given their proactiveness.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I felt like I was working with actual people: nobody gave me slogans and didn’t try to hide anything or put their best foot forward, at least not to cover up their mistakes. They’ve given their best in how they write code, conduct tests, and communicate with us. They’re transparent and just normal, good, kind people who actually live up to the values they put up on their website.

They care, engage deeply, and never do something just because I wanted it done in a certain way. The team cared enough to challenge me and provide alternatives, many of which I went with. This has made working with them the highlight of my year. I feel like I’m not working alone, and that I have a team behind me. They’re a paid consultant but treat the project like it’s their own.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything. In the past, when something was amiss, I communicated it to them, and they changed some of their processes based on the feedback. I only wish that they weren’t quite so booked and that we didn’t have to schedule months in advance. But they are, and it’s ultimately a good thing since they do really good work. Scheduling regular development ahead is a price I am more than willing to pay, and they are always very responsive when it comes to support.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the Director of Technology for an arts nonprofit. We hold an event that showcases a high number of artists, with an equally high number of artwork pieces, ranging from portrait photography to large, fire-breathing dragons.

What challenge were you trying to address with Atomic Object?

We’ve been involved with them for several years. Initially, we needed to create an application in order to reach our constituents. The business problem was that we were doing something no one else had done. We needed an organization which had ideas and could help lead us in making changes based on the data we were receiving.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have an on-site development team, which includes myself and another member responsible for the backend. Atomic Object's team utilizes our APIs, assists with the design, and helps analyze the data we could use for improving the visitor experience. They were responsible for building and maintaining the iOS and Android apps, UI/UX changes, project management, and testing.

We had an idea for the organization and knew that we wanted it to allow people to find the artwork during the event and vote on it. Throughout the years, we’ve made significant improvements to our identity in terms of branding and needs for the app. In 2009, the iPhone was gaining popularity and Android had just entered the market. It was difficult to know what was possible. The first version of our app was a matter of shooting in the dark.

Our app is the primary engagement tool for our audience and serves around 500,000 people. The app is a path-finding tool which allows visitors to see what the art is and where it’s located. Users can also register to vote because we wanted to give a voice to the public that would result in giving out a lot of money, across a couple of rounds.

We’ve really been able to immerse ourselves in the application’s function to create a more efficient, seamless process. We’ve gone from users having to register in person with a driver’s license, to being able to offer 2-factor authentication. We were able to keep the security aspects of protecting the prize from fraud, as well as being able to utilize today’s technology in order to streamline the entire process.

What is the team dynamic?

We worked with an average of 4–5 people from Atomic Object’s team.

How did you come to work with Atomic Object?

We found them through local channels because they were known for quality. The size and scale of our event doesn’t allow room for mistakes, so we needed quality assurance and the benefit of a strong staff. Atomic Object offered exactly what we were looking for, so we chose them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $1 million since we began working with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with Atomic Object in April 2009, and the relationship is ongoing. They’ve recently committed to a 3-year agreement as partners in the ongoing development of our app.

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

We originally started by registering people in person, but when we moved this service to the first version of the app, we saw a 30% increase in participation during that year alone. This was a huge success, so we continued streamlining the app, which dramatically increases utilization every year. As iOS and Android devices become more popular, app use continues to increase over the website.  

We serve a large audience, and everyone has their own opinion. Overall, the app has done well, stakeholders are happy, and the general experience is positive.

How did Atomic Object perform from a project management standpoint?

We were always asking each other how things we progressing due to working in a collaborative environment. While projects were active, we had daily communication with the developers and project managers. I prefer having an informal approach, so the project managers would call, text, or send me a message on Slack to answer questions or ensure they were delivering the correct features. As they notice things during development, they would make recommendations for areas that needed to be improved. Our offices are closely located, so we had numerous in-person meetings as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their focus on delivering expectations and quality is most impressive. I was constantly aware of the project status, including from both a budget and delivery perspective.

As an arts organization, we are involved in the community, and Atomic Object is as well. They’re constantly involved in the tech community, and are working on diversity with internships while breaking down the barriers of involving women in the field. Atomic Object is an ideal partner for us because we share the same diversity and equity objectives.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Atomic Object has definitely encouraged our own team to be better, and hopefully, we’ve done the same for them. Overall, I have nothing I wish to change.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My official title is Software Architect, but I also act as a project manager for Flow-Rite Controls. We operate in a couple of different spaces, but the bulk of our business is in industrial. We make a watering product harnessed for lead acid batteries. For example, for forklifts that water these batteries, we provide a way for them to be able to do so more efficiently, quicker and safer.

What challenge were you trying to address with Atomic Object?

As I mentioned, these batteries need maintenance, watering, and inspections. They also do a process called equalizing, which basically improves the overall performance of the battery and various other task repairs.

Many of our customers today still relied on white boards and clipboards for documentation, maybe some documents or spreadsheets for asset management. The challenge that we wanted to take on was to help these customers with managing their maintenance activities and providing a central location for reports. So we created a mobile app and web portal for customers to manage their batteries.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Atomic object took over the development after it had been through an initial prototype phase on the asset management side. They developed a cross platform mobile application that allows our users to track their daily maintenance activities while providing scheduling and notes to manage their inventory. They developed the application programming interface for the API and a web portal and managed the server implementation.  They also did design work, so all the styling across all three platforms, iOS, Android and the web and all of our icons.

We live on the app stores and anybody can go to set up an account, mostly because we're in an industry that has a lot of different players. We have OEM's, bigger companies or organizations, and proverbial mom and pop shops that have maybe two or three users. We try to go across multiple sizes of companies, big, medium and small.

The project expanded in scope into an IoT device. With the IoT device, we will be providing monitoring for the batteries and it will include various sensors and Bluetooth communication. They didn't do the hardware development, we had another company do that. They did the integration with the mobile application and web portal piece of it. They worked closely with us and our contractor to do that. Additionally, they helped with developing out the feature set that we were looking for too with the IoT device, going through use cases and user scenarios.

What is the team dynamic?

Currently, we're down to just two developers but we've been as high as four or five. In addition, we will flex in a designer when we need design work.

How did you come to work with Atomic Object?

I personally have worked with Atomic Object for several projects over the last 10 years of my career. I actually came on board with Flow-Rite Controls two years ago when this project was already about a year into its development. So someone else had actually found them, but I provided consulting for Flow-Rite in the initial stages of the project and recommended Atomic Object.

I worked with several of their developers, again over many projects and years, and they are known in the area for providing really good quality software development and design. They have a great reputation and attract some of the top talent and developers in the area. They are kind of a no brainer if you are looking to develop new products, especially innovative products in industries that maybe are used to innovative products, that includes software development and hardware development. They’re really good to go to for that.

How much have you invested with them?

By the time we are all done, around $3,000,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began around December 2014 and the relationship is still ongoing. We will probably complete the bulk of development in November 2017 and then we'll be on maintenance support with Atomic Object after that. Also, as future other projects come up, we will consider them.

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

I think the number one thing, especially when you're looking at the enterprise world, is just ease of use. I think Atomic Object almost obsesses about that and the user experience. Everybody is surprised about how well designed the application is and how easy it is to use and pick up. It's almost as easy as downloading and using a consumer application, which a lot of enterprise users are just not used to. Instead, they are used to technical documentation but you don't have to be a database administrator to use our app or web portal.

How did Atomic Object perform from a project management standpoint?

They're excellent at project management. They follow an agile practice but at the same time, they keep things straight with proper documentation.

I have daily communication with our project team over Slack, we occasionally use Basecamp. They are very good with kick-off meetings, planning, and brainstorming. We have weekly in-person planning meetings and also have design review meetings and feature launch meetings to go over the work that we've done. When we brainstorm our work, we prioritize it and they lead a lot of that. They then show off the work that we completed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're good at taking complex technical understanding and building it into comprehensible business language, which I think a lot of tech firms have difficulty doing. They're friendly, they're fast and they're reliable.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only thing and I understand why they do it, is that they switch our team members and that can be hard for the project, especially long term projects. This is because we get all of that project knowledge built up over months or even a year and sometimes that can make it harder for us bringing new developers up to speed. However, on the flip side, it makes a lot of sense for the developers because it keeps them interested and from being burned out. An additional benefit is that we now have more people at Atomic Object that have developed on our applications or are aware of different parts of the application. So there's pluses and minuses. They favor more the pluses, it can just sometimes cause a little bit of disruption in the project. That’s something that is probably dealt with across the board for many companies and development teams.