SpinDance

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CIO of the Great Lakes Observing System, a nonprofit with a charter to collect, aggregate, and publish data and information in the Great Lakes. We work with a range of contributing agencies and federal and provincial and state organizations. We assist and partner with them in publishing data and information. I’m responsible for software development and information dissemination for the public, partners, and other agencies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SpinDance?

Our organization had a series of tools and products that were available for users. However, those tools were older and not integrated well. As a result, it was a challenge to scale and support a growing community. Their main goal was to create a platform that could improve the experience of users.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re developing an entirely new information technology platform that can service all of our users. The team is helping us have a robust front- and backend.

What is the team composition?

The project is scaled based on budget, but the team size ranges from 4–5 people and can go as big as 12 people. Some of the people we work with include their project manager and their Scrum master.

How did you come to work with SpinDance?

We went through a competitive bid process to identify a number of organizations that would be able to support this project prior to it being awarded. SpinDance responded to our RFI and ultimately, to our RFP.

We only selected a number of companies to participate in the RFP process, and we selected SpinDance based on their score on the RFP process. They had the highest score in terms of cost and quality of work, and they met our business requirements as well as our technical objectives. We also chose them because they were an IoT company, and we wanted an IoT-based solution rather than a standard marine observation technology solution which many other organizations use.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve probably spent $1.2 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing collaboration started in June 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In terms of scope and budget, SpinDance has been able to predict the level of effort required for specific functions and development tasks and then deliver on those. However, we don’t use any quantitative metrics to measure the project.

How did SpinDance perform from a project management standpoint?

From a project management standpoint, they’ve been excellent. They follow an agile software development methodology, which we’re familiar with. We have regular briefings, weekly calls, and monthly reports on the status of our projects and budget. We communicate with them on Slack. Overall, all our communications are well established and followed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have strong architectural development skills, which allows them to create a scalable platform. Their general software development knowledge also positively contributes to the project. Above all, they invest in QC strategies to make sure they’re creating solid code and tools for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

A little more emphasis and earlier adoption of geospatial technologies and awareness could’ve positively benefitted the project, particularly in the areas of UX and performance. Other than that, they’ve exceeded our expectations in other aspects.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d recommend others to work with SpinDance. In our case, the success of our project is rooted in our close development relationship. We also place importance on giving rapid feedback to each other.