Engine Room

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CIO and CMO of Parkway Corporation, a real estate development, parking operations, and airport services company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Engine Room?

Our web and mobile presence were 15 years outdated, and it was nearly impossible for our customers to do business with us in two of our three key business units. We needed an update to our website’s look and feel and functionality. It also needed to enter the mobile era and provide self-service from an admin and customer perspective. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

In the beginning, Engine Room performed a needs analysis and led the entire platform selection process. We knew we needed a major market cloud platform instead of building something customized, but we didn’t know where to start. Engine Room took us through the process of evaluating and selecting a platform. We chose Drupal running on Pantheon. 

After that came the user design, functional design, development, testing, and deployment stages. Engine Room continues to provide support for the production, sites, and mobile capabilities as we continue to make adjustments and tweaks.

What is the team composition?

We work with 2–5 people depending on the nature of the scope and the skill sets needed. 

How did you come to work with Engine Room?

We were familiar with them through business relations in our hometown — Philadelphia — where they’re also headquartered. Engine Room had a good reputation and a good set of references from other clients. We brought them in for proof of concept around the selection process, and they did extremely well.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in Q2 2016, and the project is ongoing

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We went from having the worst web and mobile experience in the parking and real estate industry to having one of the best. We now get calls from competitors and colleagues asking how we got to the point where we are. We’re pretty happy about that!

Engine Room delivered the work on time and on budget. They did an excellent job getting us the platform we needed. We got everything we wanted in terms of functionality, and Engine Room has been a good support partner since: they’ve helped us through functional steps and provided full-service on what we needed.

How did Engine Room perform from a project management standpoint?

Not only do they deliver work on time and on budget, as I mentioned, but they also suggest other ideas to improve or fix functional and technical issues. We use Jira as our project management tool: it works well for reporting issues and requesting changes. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We came into the project with some sense of what we wanted. However, Engine Room would regularly come back with a better idea of how to implement an idea or simplify it. 

In addition, we had an e-commerce site that was seriously limited by its underlying platform (and we were limited in our platform options because of our industry). Engine Room came in and made it look even better than what the underlying platform permits.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We brought in visual designers, which is the one service they don’t offer. That’s not a knock on them; they didn’t attempt to price something they weren’t skilled at. 

Any advice for potential customers?

Take an active role in management. Dennis (President) and the team respond to an active, involved approach. Don’t just throw some requirements over the wall and walk away. You get a much better product via ongoing dialog and feedback with their team. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a program director at the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. I run a contest called M3 which is for high school students who can compete virtually. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Engine Room?

The M3 Challenge depends on several sites. There’s a registration site, an interactive site for contestants, a site for judges exclusively, and a unified database. 

I was looking for reliable online support to help our in-house IT staff prepare for the contest. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped with web development and making updates to the current system. We’ve been using the same sites for several years, but the competition changes annually, so we need to make updates. 

They also unified the API database. We had approximately 15 years' worth of data that they had to migrate and merge. 

What is the team composition?

We have a project manager and a programmer. We also occasionally work with Dennis (CEO) and Ian (senior developer). We switched project managers part way through our engagement, but it went smoothly. 

How did you come to work with Engine Room?

The ad agency that we work with recommended them to us. During our initial calls, they demonstrated that they understood what we were looking for and would be able to help us. 

How much have you invested with them?

I would estimate that we spent around $50,000-$90,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started our ongoing partnership with them in June 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Every year, they help us improve and scale our business. Next year, we are going to make the competition available internationally. They’re helping us with updates to make that happen. 

They’re very responsive, especially when there are time-sensitive issues. Their team has provided assistance on weekends and after hours because they understand the sense of urgency that comes with running this contest. I’ve worked with other IT support teams, but I’ve never had this level of service. 

How did Engine Room perform from a project management standpoint?

The project manager keeps us on task and provides reminders to our internal team if they’re waiting on us for something. They’re in the same area as us, but we often communicate via email. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The knowledge and passion they have for their work is impressive. When they’ve brought someone new onto the team, they’ve onboarded them to ensure continuity. For example, when we changed project managers, I didn’t have to worry about explaining my company or the project goals because the new project manager already knew. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. Although unifying the database took longer than expected, that was on us, not them. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers? 

I think it's important for any solutions company that you’re working with to understand your desired outcome. That’s what we’ve done with them, and its been very successful because it allows them the opportunity to make suggestions based on their expertise.