Pragmatic Works

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m one of the IT directors at a natural gas company. I am responsible for several groups supporting enterprise applications and one group supporting our databases and data warehouse.

What challenge were you trying to address with Pragmatic Works?

We wanted to modernize our data warehousing environment because we didn’t have all of our data integrated.  The architecture, which was built by a previous contractor, wasn’t flexible enough, in my opinion. Our company needed something that was more flexible and powerful to be able to meet multiple needs. Instead of just reporting, we want to make the data more readily available to all kinds of uses and users. In addition, we wanted to prepare the data more for machine learning or utilizing algorithms, etc. We wanted to be able to commoditize our data. The company needed more bandwidth to be able to do the build.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We didn’t give them specifics which is probably the most challenging request a technical company can receive. We told Pragmatic what we wanted and that we were looking to them for their experience to help us reach our goals. Through several discussions and looking at data, we arrived at a very good platform to meet reporting and general data needs along with more analytical needs. Those two needs really drive different architecture, but we landed on a very good balance and set of approaches that would be more flexible to meet our needs in the future.

In addition to Microsoft Power BI, we also talked with them about TIBCO SpotFire. In general, our company is looking to preparing a strong foundation with the ability to link to our visualization tools. We requested an end-to-end solution with a portal for people to be able to access data. It wasn’t just the architecture but also end delivery. 

What is the team dynamic?

They have a lead who’s serving as a project manager but is also a technical person. We have a project manager and technical people on our side as well. We’re a small IT department and didn’t have a big enough team to take this on by ourselves. The Pragmatic Works team has been meeting with our team for design discussions, and then they go off to do their work.

How did you come to work with Pragmatic Works?

We had a relationship with them before because we were using some of their software. We talked to multiple companies. The difference between Pragmatic and some of the other groups is that Pragmatic had a better vision of future business and technological needs and how best to prepare for that. I didn’t want to redo anything in five years. I wanted to be as flexible on our architecture as possible right now to meet our needs five years from now. Pragmatic was more visionary than anyone else we talked to.

How much have you invested with them?

The project is a $400,000 project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in July 2017, and the work is ongoing.

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

The impact of this project is that it’s building the foundation for a wonderful house later. That’s when we’ll see the impact.

How did Pragmatic Works perform from a project management standpoint?

They come onsite about every other week. We have email communication and phone calls as needed. I’ve been happy with the level of communication. You can tell they have a desire to make sure the project is done correctly and meets our expectations.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I like their level of engagement. They have a team of people that seem to be experts in their realm. They seem to work well together and leverage each other’s strengths well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

So far I’ve been happy.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CIO of East Coast Seafood. We are the world’s largest supplier of North American live lobster and in the top 12 largest seafood companies in North America. I oversee all of the corporate IT strategy and technical infrastructure including hardware, software, user support, plant automation, as well as other things.

What challenge were you trying to address with Pragmatic Works?

I had started a data warehouse and needed Pragmatic Works to come in and standardize it, document it, and essentially clean it up.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Me not being a fulltime data person, I knew that I could rely on Pragmatic Works to be the first point of contact for setting everything up so that my sales data warehouse was giving us reliable data with repeatable information, and scalability. The sales information was from nine affiliates. 

What is the team dynamic?

I worked with the sales rep, who acted as the project manager as well, a principal consultant to scope the project, and the engineer on their end worked on the rest.

How did you come to work with Pragmatic Works?

Pragmatic Works is a leader when it comes to business intelligence and Microsoft SQL server, up and down the stack.

How much have you invested in them?

$15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together in July 2017

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

As a result of the work that was done, I was able to add three additional affiliates into the scope of the data warehouse with very minimal effort; in a matter of minutes, as opposed to what would have taken three to four hours worth of development. There has been a lot of value in it for us.

How did Pragmatic Works perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very good. We mostly communicated through phone, Skype, and emails just to check in. We had an initial discovery call with their director of consulting services, and then the salesperson who was also the project lead. They then brought in the technical resource. After a kick-off meeting, we had a weekly check-in. The tech sent a daily summary of the work that he completed and updated me on the progress of the project, as well as any issues, questions, or concerns that came up.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication was outstanding. We had daily follow-ups letting me know exactly what was going on, and check-ins from the sales rep/project manager. Beyond the communication aspects, just the fact that they had their director of professional services make sure that the project was handled in the right way showed that they really cared that they got the job right the first time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not that I saw. The project scope was tight and well written, and they gave me very good expectations in terms of timelines and what needed to be handled.

Do you have any advice for potential clients of Pragmatic Works?

Pragmatic has free training sessions where they display their capabilities as a company overall. It is an hour-long session every Tuesday and Thursday where they cover various topics. You are also able to go back into the archives from years ago. It really helps to give an intro to what their skill sets are, as well as some of the topics they cover from both a consulting basis and a training basis.