Six Feet Up, Inc.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Sr. Director, Software Engineering of a chemicals & biotechnology company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Biotechnology company enabling the acceleration of life science research and development in the pursuit of improved human health.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Six Feet Up, Inc. to accomplish?

• Improve efficiency by migrating workflows to Apache Airflow
• Make a business unit more profitable by reducing software touch time and operator time

SOLUTION

How did you find Six Feet Up, Inc.?

Online Search

Why did you select Six Feet Up, Inc. over others?

Other: Six Feet Up’s expertise in Airflow played a significant role in our decision.

How many teammates from Six Feet Up, Inc. were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We were using a custom solution that was developed in-house using Python and SQLAlchemy to manage workflows in our labs. We had a few developers leave the company, and when it came time to fill those positions, the technical debt in our software design made it difficult for new developers to come on board, learn, and be productive. Airflow provided the capabilities we were looking for. 

Six Feet Up helped us simplify and optimize our existing system by migrating it to Airflow. Once we decided that Airflow was the way forward, Six Feet Up helped us create an actionable roadmap for the conversion of future workflows. It was imperative that we could continue to convert other areas of the application on our own or with a little assistance. Six Feet Up created a local test environment so that the existing application could be analyzed. 

They linked Airflow to our Django-based backend services; modified the integration tests to trigger DAGs in Airflow; and when the workflow migrations to Airflow were completed, modifications were made to those tests to confirm the data was accurate on completion of the DAG runs. The goal was for the new app to match the old one. Six Feet Up went above and beyond to condense the workflows and make them run more quickly.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

While it's difficult to pin down an exact ROI, the work contributed to a direct improvement in our efficiency. It also brought emotional value, especially as we wanted to improve the performance of a specific software.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Six Feet Up met our needs effectively. Carol is a pleasure to work with. Her straightforward approach, especially when it comes to tricky situations regarding finances, is commendable. She’s upfront and direct, which is something I truly value compared to other vendors I've engaged with. The initial purchase order was quite a hurdle on our side, but with Carol's support, we navigated through it. 

They had frequent standups (pulse calls) and integrated well with our team. Despite my initial skepticism about the pulse calls, they proved beneficial. The most significant testament to our experience is that we would undoubtedly collaborate with Six Feet Up again.

What was your primary form of communication with Six Feet Up, Inc.?

Virtual Meeting

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Six Feet Up is a collaborative, responsive, talented, and right-sized agency. Six Feet Up’s overall competence and credibility stood out. Calvin has a notable online presence, and his speaking engagements on topics such as Airflow appealed to us. It's crucial for vendors to be straightforward about their skills and not overstate their capabilities. 

Six Feet Up was genuine, and that was evident. Six Feet Up’s human-friendly approach also stood out. The team seamlessly integrated with our culture, effectively communicated, and understood our needs. It's not just their technical skills, but their compassion and understanding of client culture that impressed me.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Six Feet Up, Inc. could have done differently?

There were challenges with timelines, mostly stemming from our side, due to competing priorities and projects.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of Innovation of Becks Hybrids

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Founded in 1937, Beck's appreciates the farmers who have helped them become the largest family-owned retail seed company and the third-largest seed brand in the United States. The Beck family is now in its fifth generation of family members who work in the business to honor God and help farmers succeed. 

The Beck family and team of employees help farmers achieve success from generation to generation through authentic customer experiences, product diversity, seed quality, and performance. With a home office located in Atlanta, Ind., Beck's serves farmers throughout the Midwest and Mid-South

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Six Feet Up, Inc. to accomplish?

• Develop an AI-Powered, Large Language Model-driven chat interface using 50 years of proprietary agricultural data from our Practical Farm Research (PFR).
• Test the model to ensure it delivered accurate, relevant answers.

SOLUTION

How did you find Six Feet Up, Inc.?

Networking

Why did you select Six Feet Up, Inc. over others?

• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Six Feet Up, Inc. were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

The scope of the project was about implementing a proof-of-concept (POC) to see if we could tailor a Large Language Model (LLM) to provide correct answers from our existing Practical Farm Research (PFR) data and generate unique intellectual property. Our PFR data includes hudreds of PDF reports from the past 50 years with invaluable data about soil, weather conditions and how to prevent disease that can help farmers optimize their practices. 

We hired Six Feet Up to verify the technology and the model, ensure the model functioned correctly, and focus on the engineering side of things. A key deliverable was the launching of a simple, no-frills website to demonstrate some of our internal workings at our dealer kickoff. The system, despite its seemingly simple user interface, comprised three main subsystems: 

1. Data Gathering Framework: This subsystem was engineered to locate and break down documents into a more usable format. The framework extracted data from numerous PDFs residing on our intranet, overcoming the challenge of decoding research papers laid out like brochures. 
2. AI Framework: The core of the solution, this framework incorporated AI models from OpenAI, LangChain, and Llama Index. Each model was fine-tuned and tested rigorously to ensure it delivered accurate, relevant answers. 
3. Layering Framework: This layer effectively integrated Beck's research into the AI models, transforming the data into a format that the "bots" could understand and learn from. 

The project was managed using Python. Django was used for the backend, and HTMX was used for the UI. For deployment, the Six Feet Up team used Kubernetes, simulating a cloud environment on their machine. This approach made it easy to replicate the setup in different environments.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The measurable outcomes included the creation of a proof-of-concept product that met our rigorous testing phases and demonstrated the potential for scalability. The model not only met our present needs but showed the ability to handle future demands, which exceeded our expectations. 

Additionally, we were able to file several patent applications, providing our organization a competitive edge in the market. In terms of our long-term strategy, this project has not only positioned us better in the market but has also set a precedent for how we approach technology-driven initiatives moving forward.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Six Feet Up managed the project efficiently, even when we encountered technical difficulties. They made use of Slack for real-time interactions and immediate responses, which facilitated the troubleshooting process. Even when someone was on vacation, there was always someone available to provide assistance.

What was your primary form of communication with Six Feet Up, Inc.?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

What stood out most about Six Feet Up was the personal relationships we built with their team. We appreciated the customer-oriented approach, the ease of doing business with them, and their flexibility in the face of uncertainties. We also appreciated their candidness about their skills and limitations, which prevented any surprises down the line.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Six Feet Up, Inc. could have done differently?

None

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am an executive at Antimicrobial Therapy Inc. (aka Sanford Guide)

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Sanford Guide develops guidelines and technologies to aid in the appropriate use of anti-infective agents.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Six Feet Up, Inc. to accomplish?

• Conduct a comprehensive review of Sanford Guide’s Plone-based application — a complex application which showcases how Plone can be utilized for both content editing/workflow and as a content feed for other systems and applications.
• Complete system performance enhancements to simply workflows, improve the website, and support increased traffic volume.
• Train new members of the Sanford Guide team on the platform’s features, functionality and maintenance plan.

SOLUTION

How did you find Six Feet Up, Inc.?

• Online Search
• Referral

Why did you select Six Feet Up, Inc. over others?

Niche expertise

How many teammates from Six Feet Up, Inc. were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Our engagement with Six Feet Up began when our in-house developer — who built a highly customized Plone implementation — decided to pursue another career opportunity with very little notice. We needed a specialized team who could pick up where the former developer left off to keep Sanford Guide’s Plone-based application running, update and optimize the application, squash any bugs, and train our new team. 

Six Feet Up was able to just jump in and assume responsibility for our site with very little handholding. Specifically, the Six Feet Up team simplified workflows by implementing version control and deploying a more efficient release process for new updates and bug fixes. 

They added performance and error monitoring systems via Sentry and Amazon Web Services (AWS) to ensure site errors are addressed quickly and efficiently. They also trained in-house developers to address performance issues and maintain the application going forward.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The Six Feet Up team dove into and understood our application, which features complex customizations. The team kept our application operational during the optimization, and they were able to squash bugs that had been there for years. Six Feet Up also used their network to help us search for, hire, and train a new Plone developer who can now address issues in-house.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

We were impressed with the project management team at Six Feet Up. We also appreciated the flexibility and willingness of the Six Feet Up team to work around our needs, instead of the preconceived model of how a business arrangement works. We had to make a lot of changes to the project scope, and the team was very flexible in adapting to those needs.

What was your primary form of communication with Six Feet Up, Inc.?

Virtual Meeting

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Six Feet Up has a lot of smart people who are also positive, energetic, enthusiastic, and just fun to work with. Six Feet Up has great leadership with values that align with ours, an excellent reputation, extensive Python and Plone experience, and they were flexible around the scope and requirements for our collaboration, which was a huge help.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Six Feet Up, Inc. could have done differently?

One of their more junior developers made a few minor missteps with our platform which we had to patch after the fact, but the mid-level to senior team was fantastic. The only (and I mean -only-) critique I would have for the company is to continue to monitor projects handled by more junior members of the team. 

Despite these few missteps, we would definitely recommend Six Feet Up for Python and Plone development work. They had our back every step of the way and were a pleasure to work with.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the SVP Engineering of JOOR, Inc.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Joor is a B2B wholesale platform that connects brands and retailers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Six Feet Up, Inc. to accomplish?

• Scale and optimize proprietary software for retailer clients that is growing exponentially.
• Build and launch a new payment application.
• Improve the UI and design of existing features.

SOLUTION

How did you find Six Feet Up, Inc.?

Referral

Why did you select Six Feet Up, Inc. over others?

Referred to me

How many teammates from Six Feet Up, Inc. were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Our proprietary software for retailer clients — built on Python and Django — is growing extremely fast. We needed to make sure the software would scale with the growth. Six Feet Up engineers dove into our complex tech stack and took time to fully understand the endpoints and integrations. They identified areas of the platform that were underperforming, dug deeper to determine what was causing performance problems, and helped create solutions.

Six Feet Up helped us simplify the development process, optimize our code to effectively scale our applications and meet demand, create a payment application, and improve the UI and design of existing features.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Our biggest ROI has been productivity. Our new payment app is a great story because it started from nothing, and now we have a new product that's gaining traction. It's really great to see that we can deliver something to production, do it relatively quickly and see the benefits.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Carol, our account manager, and I have monthly check-ins where we discuss my needs. She's perceptive in understanding how the company got to where it is now, and she understands what it needs.

What was your primary form of communication with Six Feet Up, Inc.?

Virtual Meeting

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Six Feet Up engineers are extremely skilled, very smart, helpful, and personable. I've worked with a lot of consulting companies, and I think Six Feet Up is one of the best. The level of seniority of the engineers that we work with from Six Feet Up gives us that ability to look critically at our own tech stack and better understand how to optimize it. Software development is a constant challenge, but I think the Six Feet Up team has helped us mature in that area. 

Plus, with developers around the world, Six Feet Up is globally available. Roché is in South Africa, so he's able to work hours not only on East coast of the United States, but he can also collaborate with our team in Spain. This gives us better coverage of our software and allows us to address software issues more quickly. 

In my experience, I find that we're most successful and more productive when contractors want to be part of the team — everything from socialization to pairing on issues and sharing expertise.  Six Feet Up, Inc. embraced the team mentality.

Are there any areas for improvement or something  Six Feet Up, Inc. could have done differently?

None.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work for an international news & media company as a senior python developer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Six Feet Up, Inc., and what were your goals?

We needed a quick turnaround for a flexible solution to integrate our Plone CMS into other image databases, image api's or custom Digital Asset Management (DAM) solutions, allowing CMS users to pull images from many locations in addition to uploading them from their own desktop. We needed to connect Plone to our existing DAM, the Associated Press API, and position ourselves to integrate additional points in the future.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

we had previous experience working with developers at Six Feet Up, and seeing their presentations at Plone and Python conferences gave us confidence in their skills and knowledge.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Six feet up, under out direction, created the Plone Add-on "collective.resourcemanager" https://github.com/collective/collective.resourcemanager which is the base package providing configuration, search, and injest of images into Plone. Additionally, the packages resourcemanager.resourcespace and resourcemanager.ap were created to connect plone instances to ResourceSpace DAM and Assoicated Press, respectively.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Three. Project Manager, and two developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The add-ons are still used today, and the base addon is being used for additional connections to additional image libraries.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Agile / Scrum

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The balance between deliverable and quality of software. While there were many ways to develop this. The team focused on the deliverables and provided a working project with minimal technical debt.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

No criticism

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the founder of FLASH Scientific Technologies. At FLASH, we develop cutting edge algorithms and technology to pair with emerging datasets and elastic computing to solve complex problems and give weather insights never thought possible, including accurate lightning strike predictions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Six Feet Up, Inc., and what were your goals?

When we came to Six Feet Up, we had a proprietary algorithm and an idea that would allow us to predict lightning strikes. We needed an application that could pull, read and process the data — from sources including weather radars and location-specific information like altitude, moisture, wind direction and temperature — both quickly and accurately.

In just a few months, Six Feet Up was able to take our idea from a Jupyter Notebook to production ready and cloud native. They helped us optimize the Python code structure, build an API with Django, and deploy the serverless and scalable application using AWS Lambda and AWS Fargate.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

One of Six Feet Up’s former clients recommended I reach out to them. After talking with them a bit, I was very impressed by their approach. It was much more personal than business-to-business. Calvin and Gabrielle knew what they had to offer — and they knew which developers would be best to solve our problem. With Six Feet Up, we were able to hit the ground running compared to the other software firms we were looking at at the time.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Working with our lead engineer, Will Howard, Six Feet Up developers optimized the existing Python code for the application. They then created an API that could communicate data from the algorithm to a Django application deployed using AWS Lambda and AWS Fargate. Two keys to the success of this project were validating and measuring the accuracy of the lightning strike predictions, and keeping the algorithm separate so that it could still be optimized by meteorologists without disrupting data collection. Six Feet Up managed all of this beautifully.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked closely with Calvin and Gabrielle, Six Feet Up’s founders, and Carol helped manage the project. Two of their developers, Peter and Glenn, were also very involved in making this project a success.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Six Feet Up’s expertise in intelligently accessing data in different ways (AWS Lamba vs. AWS Fargate) led to a reduction in cost for the project. It’s not just about creating programs; it’s about creating new efficient programs that cut your long-term costs. And on top of that, we have a working product that generates accurate lightning strike predictions with 99.6% accuracy.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Six Feet Up has a very good management style, and I really like that it’s all inclusive. They ask you what you want, and they are very clear about deliverables. They tell you what they can do, how many people they have to do it, and what they can provide. We are very appreciative of is the upfront pricing. There are no surprises, and we very much welcome that style of management.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The vast knowledge base that each employee has is very impressive. Everyone has different specialties, but when you work with Six Feet Up, you know you’re going to get what you need — and they’re going to bring ideas and solutions you hadn’t thought of. They’re going to challenge you a bit, but in good ways that will help improve the product.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Like everyone, we always want more. If there was anything to improve, it would be having constant access to their software engineers.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CIO at a transportation and logistics company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Six Feet Up, Inc., and what were your goals?

I’ve worked with Six Feet Up on a variety of projects both at my current job and with my former employer. Most notably, Six Feet Up helped my team complete a significant Django upgrade (1.x to 2.0) and helped navigate the upgrade to Python 3.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

I was very intentional in hiring Six Feet Up. I wanted to work with the best consulting group that I could find, and I narrowed my search down to two companies. I decided to go with Six Feet Up for several reasons including:

Six Feet Up is not only a great Django shop, but the company also specializes in Plone; Six Feet Up has established a leadership role in the tech world; and Six Feet Up is innovative and the company is constantly expanding its capabilities.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

One of the most notable projects Six Feet Up and I worked together on was helping my company modernize its Django environment. Calvin Hendryx-Parker, Six Feet Up’s CTO, came to our office to host a workshop and developed a white paper that actuated two generations of work.

The white paper gave my team the action items required to complete the upgrade independently. My development team made mistakes while completing the upgrade, but Six Feet Up shared regular, strategic advice which helped us carefully plan and sucessfully execute the upgrade.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Over the years, I’ve worked with several people at Six Feet Up. Everyone I’ve worked with is different, but each person is professional, committed and passionate. Specifically, I’ve worked with Calvin (CTO), Gabrielle (CEO), Carol (VP of Sales), Chrissy (Senior Developer), Rob (Senior Developer) and Caleb (Developer).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Six Feet Up delivers expert work with virtually no errors, and they don’t cut corners. I’ve worked with Six Feet Up on a variety of projects for more than 8 years, and I’ve never had them deliver a project that failed. Six Feet Up is the best in the business.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

The team at Six Feet Up is great about sharing regular project updates and keeping the client in the loop regarding timelines and deliverables. I also really appreciate how Six Feet Up estimates project costs. For one project, it was going to be too costly for me to hire Six Feet Up.

We mutually agreed that I would be better off using a different vendor with a more junior staff, and Six Feet Up shared lower-cost alternatives that wouldn’t benefit them financially. The team’s honesty and professionalism are the reasons I keep going back to Six Feet Up, Inc.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

I really like the people at Six Feet Up. Their expertise and quality of work is exceptional. While many organizations have committed and passionate employees, at Six Feet Up, it’s by design. Calvin and Gabrielle are intentional about building their company in a certain way. In fact, they use personality/skill matching, and they are committed to that.

Additionally, Calvin is very involved in the tech and open source communities, and he regularly shares his insight. In fact, Calvin established a group of CTOs and CIOs — called TechX — that meets regularly to discuss the latest trends and best practices. Being a part of that group is a great perk!

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

I really have not real complaints about SFU.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the engineering manager at a data analytics company. We built and manage a proprietary wholesale management platform.  

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Six Feet Up, Inc., and what were your goals?

My company built a leading wholesale management platform that needs to be continuously optimized for speed and ease of use. Some of our projects have ambiguity, and we don't have a lot of like-defined tickets for people to work through. The Six Feet Up team was able to think outside of the box, embed themselves with our team, and help figure out the best solution. 

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

The reasons we went with Six Feet Up are three-fold.

• First — the immediacy of the project. Six Feet Up was able to put three engineers in front of us very quickly. We met the developers and onboarded them quickly, which was a priority for this project.
• Second — the price. Six Feet Up’s hourly rate was reasonable, and the expense was within our budget.
• Third — the experience and seniority of the developers. Six Feet Up’s developers have unique skill sets, are self-starters and are very experienced, both with our tech stack but across the tech industry. 

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We needed expert developers who could be onboarded and start working with a complicated tech stack quickly. Specifically, the backend of the platform is developed in Python using Django as the framework, and it uses a PostgreSQL database. In front of Django, the platform has a GraphQL server which communicates with Python using gRPC. The GraphQL server uses Apollo. A Kubernetes pipeline, combined with Jenkins, allows developers to merge and release new features into production the same day they are created.

On the frontend, the company uses React and TypeScript. The speed at which Six Feet Up’s team onboarded was an immediate testament to their experience and skill. Once onboarded, the team helped identify performance problems and implement solutions; optimize the platform’s backend and frontend; and develop new and update existing features. 

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

I have regular feedback loops with:

• Carol (VP of Sales)

The developer team:

• Roché (Senior Developer)
• Anthony (Senior Developer)
• Shane (Senior Developer)
• Peter (Senior Developer)
• Robert (Senior Developer)
• Rob (Senior Developer)

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

From identifying the root of performance problems, to refactoring the existing codebase, adding indexes, implementing caching, testing the user experience and sharing insights that will make the frontend more user-friendly, Six Feet Up developers have provided value that will continue to advance our platform to the next level of scalability. For example, one Six Feet Up-built feature was estimated to take two months to complete.

Roché was leading the charge on the implementation, and, using an out-of-the-box approach, he finished the project in just a couple of weeks. In short, he blew expectations out of the water. Additionally, the Six Feet Up team has improved the response time for some actions on the platform from four seconds to less than one second.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

The Six Feet Up team shares daily progress reports, and Carol is regularly checking in to make sure we have everything we need. 

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Six Feet Up developers are rock solid — they’re solid contributors.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Nope!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Global Protocol Specialist working for a large National Laboratory. Our programs conduct security training course globally.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Six Feet Up, Inc., and what were your goals?

Our department conducts approximately 800 training events both domestically and internationally. We needed a comprehensive system to handle registration and course material distribution globally.

We had been using Plone sites for function but would have to create a new site from scratch every time which was time consuming for our staff. We needed to update our platform and create a simple, user-friendly system for our staff.

SOLUTION

How did you select Six Feet Up, Inc. and what were the deciding factors?

Six Feet Up is one of the few companies that has extensive experience using and developing Plone Sites. We have a very unique set of requirements that are constantly changing and Six Feet Up has been able to handle our urgent changes and additions in a timely fashion, at reasonable cost, while meeting our customers deadlines.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We starting with a training course for 20 staff members and then moved into system development. We started with a joint three department project consisting of our main Multi-conference System and then added additional work for each department's individual customer's needs.

We then added additional projects for other departments as well. We have weekly meetings on our projects. Six Feet Up also provides us with monthly server maintenance which includes all updates to the Plone software on the updates and additions we request to the system.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Our Six Feet Up team consists of six personnel. We have two project managers and four systems architects/development programmers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

With the upgrades and additions to our system we have been to streamline our processes, improve our services and product for our customers and bring in new work based on the improvements to our expanded system.

We are now providing our customers collaboration sites that make it easier for them to work together from anywhere on the global which is a direct result of the system improvements work we have done together.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

We have weekly Zoom calls and use a shared drop-box to keep track of the many projects we have going. We have developed a good working relationship.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

What is find most impressive is their ability to work with our constantly changing requirements and needs with ease. They are always available to help with any issue or problem quickly no matter what time of day it is.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

We honestly can say that we have had no issues, concerns or problems with any of work that Six Feet Up has provided to us. They are a complete pleasure to work with.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m with the communications office of the Purdue University College of Engineering. Our responsibility is to maintain prints, designs, websites, emails, and anything that the college uses to market or communicate with its audiences.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Six Feet Up, Inc.?

We were looking to migrate our entire web space into a new CMS on the web. Our previous Python-based CMS, Zope, was getting extremely old, having been introduced in 2001. We could design and maintain websites, but we were running into some security concerns and modernization issues. We were no longer able to keep up with the latest trends due to Zope’s limitations. 

We contacted Six Feet Up to help us with the migration process because they had expertise in working with a more modern CMS and because our college has roughly 30,000 web pages, which was a lot for our small team of four to handle. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

By and large, most of the work and the initial discussions were done over virtual meetings but the discovery work was done in person. There were a few instances where their team traveled to meet with us and go over the parameters and specifications details of the migration project. 

Six Feet Up then helped us move into a new CMS called Plone, which is a much more modernized version of Zope. It was the most advantageous choice for us because Plone was also built on a Python-based language, like our old platform. It made more sense, from a cost standpoint, to keep the same language instead of completely switching to something like Drupal or WordPress. They set up the server so that the migration of the 30,000 webpages could begin.

What is the team composition?

I worked with around 5–6 people. Gabrielle (CEO & Co-Founder) was the lead point of contact. There was also her spouse, Calvin (CTO & Co-Founder). Carol (VP of Sales) was in charge of all project management, collecting information, and keeping things organized.

Chrissy (Senior Python Developer) was the lead developer in charge of our project and helped with a lot of the technical aspects. Kim (VP Engineering) worked on a lot of the server setup and cloud aspects of modernizing the college’s backend.

How did you come to work with Six Feet Up, Inc.?

At the time, we were looking around to see what options were available for us to update and modernize our CMS. One of my colleagues attended a conference for the Python programming language, where Six Feet Up was in attendance as a presenter. My colleague saw that they were experts and knew how Python is used in some of the different applications within the CMS we’re looking to move into. 

We began discussing the project with them, laying out the scope and the timelines. From there, they were able to come up with an estimate for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested under $350,000, with a $10,000 tolerance.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project officially ran between April 2018–June 2020. We had our final wrap-up just after COVID-19 really started to take hold.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We cannot yet determine how efficiently we’re able to move some of our sites from the old framework to the new one as we’ve just started that process and are still getting our feet under us. It’s taken us a long time to move our sites over, and this is still ongoing so it’s hard to give anything specific at the moment. However, we’re very happy and couldn’t have been more pleased with their work.

Our team was very complimentary of everything we've done with Six Feet Up. We've started with additional projects unrelated to this one just because we enjoy working with them so much. It was a very positive experience.

How did Six Feet Up, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

We had weekly meetings where we went over the state of the work and any difficulties we were running into. They had very detailed checklists and were always prepared; we never caught them off guard on anything. Anytime we had a question, they were ready with an answer, even during the early discovery and estimation process. They just blew me away with how well they conveyed their process and expectations.

Anytime we had a request for support or needed more detail, they were right on top of it, every step of the way. They were extremely responsive and when we had a question or ran into an issue, Six Feet Up made themselves extremely available to support us. They responded to emails within a day — within minutes, in most cases, and at all hours.

They didn’t bill us for anything that they didn’t consider to be part of the original scope. They simply fixed issues to ensure that it worked the way we expected it to. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were a very progressive, entrepreneurial-minded startup and were on the leading edge of efficiency, making sure that the time they spent with us was maximized in every way.

Their expertise was impressive. They didn’t just peddle knowledge; they showed that they were passionate about it from the get-go. They always approached any task with enthusiasm and optimism, which we found contagious and made us extremely excited to work with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

This is more on our team than theirs but they could have dug a little deeper during the discovery process and when figuring out the scope. We were asking them to put a quote together as fast as possible which perhaps led to some steps being missed. 

They would’ve come up with an estimate that was a little more on the nose had they asked more questions about some aspects of the project. Then again, that could probably be on us as we should have been ready to give them more information. They delivered above and beyond what we expected and everything was a pleasure. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re going to start a project with Six Feet Up, make sure all your ducks are in a row. They’re going to try their best to draw that out of you as they go but it’s always extremely helpful to have a clear idea of what it is you need upfront. You can always rely on them to provide advice on what they think is the best way to move forward, but you ought to know ahead of time what you're looking to do down to the most specific detail. It also helps them quote something closer to your budget.