Evus Technologies

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The SPIRIT Project is a technology company focused on government agencies and community providers and partners. Through our software-as-a-service solution, we help connect youth, families, and adults to needed services in communities across the country. Besides the technological arm, we also come in with experience for this sector. We've been at it for about 7 years and started in Las Vegas, Nevada.

I am a co-founder and was the Chief Executive Officer of the company at the time. I am now the Chief Operating Officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Evus Technologies?

We were a startup company in Clark County, Las Vegas, and came to Evus Technologies with the concept of connecting services to community members and government agencies.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We've had a long history with Evus Technologies. We started out by sitting down and scripting out our idea in terms of how it would look and work. Evus Technologies gave us incredible feedback and we started a direct partnership with them, working closely on building a system that could scale, was able to accommodate quick growth, and handle the demands of government agencies, which can be robust and ever-changing. We wanted a toolset that could map and plan according to that.

Our solution was built using PHP and MySQL. Evus Technologies involved designers and developers at different times. By the time we hit our growth, Evus Technologies had 2 developers involved, one for Android and the other for the web and other platforms.

It was a large project for both Evus Technologies and our organization, involving many team members over time, at every level required. Evus Technologies even attended meetings alongside our team, helping us promote the product and push it forward. One of the great things about our relationship was the fact that Evus Technologies wasn't simply building technology, but also standing with us and walking through the process, helping our group create something new and different. In the government world, real-time and effective communication, connectivity, and accountability weren't words that we heard often, which is why we wanted to create something different. What started as a small project kept growing, and we've had to rethink the platform, making many changes to it. Evus Technologies understood the business and what we were trying to accomplish, instead of simply having back-and-forth technology talk. Evus Technologies was pivotal in our ability to grow and create a product line which has now scaled across the country.

How did you come to work with Evus Technologies?

We were working with another group in Texas at the time. Any work for the government sector can be both slow-moving and overwhelming. We needed to find a group which had the stamina and could also create a fun environment for getting through the long days and tough hours. We interviewed many groups based on referrals and were most impressed with Evus Technologies' ability to take very complex problems and turn them into simple solutions.

When we sat down and interviewed Evus Technologies, they didn't simply sound excited about having a new customer, but rather about the project and what we were doing. Many other companies didn't give us that feel; Evus Technologies not only understood the concept, but also loved the fact that we were trying to help youth, families, and adults. There's a social component to everything that we do, and we were not simply looking for a group interested in another paycheck and a project for their portfolio. As we were sharing our goals, Evus Technologies not only bought in from a technological standpoint but also in terms of making the solution happen. I knew that the team was going to stand with us as we went through the hard, tough seasons of the startup life.

How much have you invested with Evus Technologies?

The total cost of our project with Evus Technologies was above $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with Evus Technologies since our organization was started, around 2011. Once we grew to a certain point, we brought the work in-house. I keep in regular contact with Evus Technologies' principal, and he continues to be a source of information and wisdom. If the need ever arose, I would not think twice about going back to Evus Technologies.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

As far as the technology itself goes, we're not modest in talking about how user-friendly it is. Our current clients and partners have primarily cited the beauty and friendliness of the system. It transcends the antiquated processes and software that they were used to. On numerous occasions, clients have told us that they didn't want to use their old tools anymore, due to how much our system changed their processes. This is owed in great part to building the platform properly upfront, and not making it into another antiquated toolset.

Government workers regularly are assigned inhuman caseloads, so we could not have created a system that would have weighed them down. The software needed to be streamlined, swift, and well-designed. We get calls all the time from users about the workload that our solution has been able to alleviate.

We're currently working with a group with a custom development background, who are now running an agency in our location. They've talked to us about how beautiful the system is, especially after knowing about the pain it must have taken to build it. We get this feedback all the time, and never take it for granted. It's a difference maker for us. We've started to see a lot of growth at once, and it's exciting to know that the product measures up to our mission.

Evus Technologies participated in meetings alongside our team in San Francisco and Tennessee. Most technological companies would have drawn the line at this point, but Evus Technologies pushed forward and wanted to help further our goal. We're 7 years into the project and have state-wide contracts and local government partnerships throughout the states of Nevada, Florida, and Tennessee. The foundation laid by Evus Technologies was pivotal in pushing us in the right direction. They stood with us and helped map through the journey. Evus Technologies' expertise is not only in technology but also in startups and navigating through tough seasons of financial drought and confusion.

Our joy and excitement is in helping another person. Until everyone gets the help that they need, we won't stop. Everything around our group is structured around this, and Evus Technologies saw this and fit in with us.

How did Evus Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

Evus Technologies provided well-documented weekly reporting. We had meetings up to 2 times per week, talking about our progress, scope of work, and where we needed to get. We measured out new feature sets and rearranged priorities. This was done both in-person and via online meetings. I have no complaints in this department.

What did you find most impressive about Evus Technologies?

I appreciated Evus Technologies' ability to take complex problems and simplify them. This isn't often found, and usually happens the other way around, given that the company can thus get longer hours and charge more. This is a strength of Evus Technologies' principal in particular; I've always been impressed with his ability to see issues and simplify them.

Another distinguishing factor is the energy that Evus Technologies brought to the table. They didn't see ours as another product, another fee, or another hour of development, instead, they saw it as a unique idea which they wanted to get behind. Evus Technologies wanted us to succeed because they believed in our mission.

Are there any areas Evus Technologies could improve?

I wish Evus Technologies' owner wasn't a Dodgers fan.