Sprint Digital

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a consultant for a company called Epicentre. The company’s main service offering is Epicentre.TV; a platform that offers online broadcasting or streaming on a subscription as a service model. 

My role is to coordinate projects that are related to some of the wider business needs. In relation to Epicentre’s work with Sprint Digital, I am responsible for road mapping and prioritizing development tasks as they pertain to the long-term vision of the company.

I am also working with a product called IBM Cloud Video, which is the player technology behind the platform. It has its own features and benefits, and I’m responsible for communicating with the developers to understand how it fits into the Epicentre.TV service.

What challenge were you trying to address with Sprint Digital?

We were operating from an old WordPress site that providing video embedding and a customer log-in feature. It was a crude version of the current model that was most likely very easily hackable. We brought in Sprint Digital to deliver a bespoke build that incorporated the IBM Cloud Video player.

What was the scope of their involvement?

It’s a full, single sign-on platform that utilizes IBM Cloud Video technology. The API is linked to allow for data analysis regarding metrics like total viewership and traffic due to link sharing. There is even a feature that lets us track the activity of individual users.

What is the team composition?

We’ve had a total of 6–7 people from Sprint Digital working on this project. We have 2–3 working on it full-time, and the rest of the team comes in for specific services when required.

How did you come to work with Sprint Digital?

There was another vendor that Epicentre worked with that referred them to Sprint Digital. I started working with Sprint Digital about 12 months ago. Epicentre brought me on because of my experience with IBM Cloud Video.

How much have you invested with them?

Our total financial investment so far has been around $3,000 AUD (approximately $2,070 USD)

What is the status of this engagement?

The partnership between Sprint Digital and Epicentre began in January 2018. Both companies are working together on an ongoing basis. We’ve actually created a 12-month roadmap and intend to keep working with them throughout 2020.

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

We’re very satisfied with their work. It’s not at the point where we want it to be, but everyone is on the same page about what needs to be done. In terms of evidence, we’ve delivered hundreds of live broadcasts for a variety of different clients. The majority of our streams are sports-related, but we also host content in areas like music, entertainment, and education.

How did Sprint Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

From when I first started working with Sprint Digital, they’ve been extremely flexible in their approach, and they’ve delivered what Epicentre has asked of them. We’ve had to use a modified agile method to set appropriate deadlines and KPIs for major milestones, like larger features for the platform.

We have conference calls once a week, and an in-person catchup every two months. Our email correspondence happens on a daily basis, and I ended up speaking to them over the phone at least three times a week.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re always willing to adjust to deliver what is required while also breaking a bit of new ground. What they’re designing and building hasn’t been done before. Even when we have to move forward with only 50% of the why, Sprint Digital is able to keep meeting milestones and objectives. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of any areas for improvement. We have challenges that lie ahead of us in terms of what we want at the next stage, and we expect to face challenges in the future. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

With any project of this nature, being able to articulate, in simple terms, what is required at the beginning is going to make the relationship work. The scoping of the project wasn’t great when I came on, and that was more due to Epicentre than Sprint Digital. Attention to detail at the outset will lead to savings of both time and money over the course of the project.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the owner of a financial consultancy. I contract into a lot of agricultural businesses and my main job is fixing financial processes to reduce the risk in their operation and also increase transparency for their financiers. I act as a contract CFO for a lot of these businesses.

What challenge were you trying to address with Sprint Digital?

For this project, I needed a custom management program for turf for one of our customers.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They created the custom management program for our client using Laravel and AWS. We'll integrate white-label logistics systems down the line, too. The software works its way from the office to the farm, to logistics, then back again, so it provides full traceability of an order all the way through.

We've entered into a three-year engagement with Sprint, complete with three phases. With phase one, they replicated in the system how they run the system today, but also built out a backend system for how they'll run the business in year three. Eventually, the orders will be tracked via tablet at each tractor.

We're very cautious that we need to get engagement from the actual operators by year three, so we can realize a fully digital system. We have two phases to go, with phase two being the automation of the billing process, and phase three being the digitization of the farm.

They go through around 5,000 ticket sales per item, so managing that in a transparent and easy to report manner, has been appreciated.

What is the team composition?

I work directly with their owner and their lead developer.

How did you come to work with Sprint Digital?

I had a client for web development that really liked all of their backend development, and I learned that Sprint Digital had completed it. We sat down and did a small project together, and now I've probably done five projects with them for different clients.

How much have you invested with them?  

 We've invested $200,000 – $300,000 AUD thus far (approximately $140,000 – $210,000 USD)

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in 2017, and our engagement is ongoing.

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

Based on our existing KPIs, they've been able to meet all of their timeline targets on our original scope.

How did Sprint Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

We sit down every 10-12 weeks and do a full review and forward forecast as to what we're trying to achieve in the next 10-12 weeks. We map out our sprints based on that. We create a project board, with all of the relevant tasks we'll need to achieve, with the hours we think it'll take. I can prioritize what needs to get done from an organizational standpoint from there.

The team is very reachable. Every week we catch up on Zoom and we walk through the project for 30-45 minutes, to review what needs to do. There's a large difference between operations and development, and we bridge that gap well. We review where we've been to, how we accomplish it and push through to the next challenge. They're very good at managing timelines. We once had a project with a one week turnaround time, and they delivered it. Their commitment to what they do is great, and they're dedicated to meeting their customers' goals.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their accountability is great. We talk directly to the employees that are building the code and our work never gets pushed to the background. It's been really good for our relationship because they get engrossed in our business.

They take time to understand what the client wants to do in their business, which is unique in a developer setting. Their nimbleness also gives them a good edge on other companies. They're able to actually work with other partners without an ego. They're willing to collaborate without making anyone feel uncomfortable, in order to get the job done.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They're growing, so I think they'd need to hire more people as they get bigger. As long as their communication remains intact, and they can get the projects done on time, they'll be fine.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to plan the project extensively beforehand, it'll save more time down the road. Have a project lead from your team run the project with them, or else your project will be driven by someone else.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're an administrator for light aircraft around Australia. I'm the assistant safety manager, and I also manage our IT infrastructure and online resources.

What challenge were you trying to address with Sprint Digital?

We needed someone to manage our online databases.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sprint Digital created an expansive membership database to manage all of our internal processing for membership data and they continue to host that database for us as well. The database captures our membership details, and all of the attached documents in any constituent records. They provided all of the development work and troubleshooting around the product, using a MySQL database on the backend, which links to all of our online accounts.

They've recently taken over an additional safety system we had built elsewhere, and also created a mobile app for our members. The app allows members to log into their accounts and see all of their membership data. They can also see their endorsements, the expiration dates for their certificates, and renew their accounts.

 They enable us to improve our internal systems and put more online into the cloud, automate our processes and facilitate time-saving for ourselves. All of their work is done remotely.

What is the team composition?

I mainly work with their director and one of their developers.

How did you come to work with Sprint Digital?

They were hired before I came on board.

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested approximately $200,000 AUD (Approximately $139,000 USD) thus far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in 2014, and our engagement is ongoing.

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

We've had no problems with them, overall. They've been really great to deal with, and we enjoy working with them. They keep our database working properly, which is very important for us because if it goes down, many of our staff can't operate.

How did Sprint Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

They've been really good. I've dealt with a lot of IT companies as of late, and they're definitely the most responsive. If we ever have any issues, they work on them straight away. I'm in direct communication with them through their team chat system. We have face-to-face meetings as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their level of support is unparalleled. Many IT companies don't give us priority since we're a smaller business, so we value how responsive they are. They understand our system really well now, so they recognize what we need, which has been helpful.

They're really quite cost-effective as well. Compared to other organizations doing the same thing, they provide a high value.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing that majorly stands out. The only minor thing is that occasionally since we're doing so much development work, there are sometimes bugs in other parts of the system as a result.  We've discussed this already, and we've decided to just manage these small issues as they arise, rather than invest more time and resources on a more comprehensive testing model.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to contact them and see if they can discuss your requirements with their team. They're really good at sitting down and being able to understand what you're trying to achieve. I'm sure they'll be able to provide some models of what you're looking for and scope it out for you.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of a business called Rochelle Decorating. We manage the painting of residential and commercial buildings and unit complexes.

What challenge were you trying to address with Sprint Digital?

We had a database housed on a local server that required manual data entry, and we wanted to upgrade to a cloud-based system that allowed the use of iPads and automation.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project started off with a pretty lengthy scoping and discovery segment, at the end of which they presented to us what we would be able to automate in the process. Then they went to work building the features. Before, we had to use pen and paper and manually measure everything, and then have someone on the backend writing up quotes all day every day.

Now, anytime a supervisor checks on a job he can basically just update the progress of a job and automatically send an invoice and an update to the client. You enter the dimensions of each service, and the software pulls the scope and specifications, adds it all up, and sends them a quote right then and there.

The whole thing is connected through APIs to Mailchimp which we use to connect to our customers, as well as Miles, which is an accounting software that we use for invoicing. That API communicates with both the client and the contractor who’s actually doing the work, so it accepts the payment and then splits it between our company and the contractors as well.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with about 3–4 members of their team.

How did you come to work with Sprint Digital?

We had been left in limbo by another company whose head developer left, and we had to end that project with a loss of about $30,000. We got quotes from about six other companies and Sprint digital felt the most comfortable for us, so we decided to go with them.

They showed us some examples of projects they had done and had a resource who specialized in iOS, so I was pretty confident that they had the skills we needed.

How much have you invested with them?

I think we spent $200,000 with them in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked on the development project from August–October 2018.

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

Our conversion rate used to be around 35–40% and now it’s consistently around 50% just because of the new technology. The fact that we are able to give clients a price right there, and one that they trust to be accurate because of the technology involved, is a big selling point on our services.

That, plus the competitive advantage of offering a virtual timeline for every project — these are all services that we couldn’t have offered without the system Sprint Digital delivered for us. We’ve also saved a ton of time for our employees who previously had to sit at a desk writing invoices or quotes all day who can now perform other, way more meaningful tasks.

How did Sprint Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed well on project management, but they definitely improved over the course of our engagement with them. We used a combination of Slack and Google Sheets to communicate, which worked effectively, but we communicated to them that they really needed a branded communication tool that would allow them to go back and forth with their customers as well as they could actually develop things.

A few months after that, they came back to us and showed us an app they had developed that they are now using for communication. It takes care of a lot of file sharing and viewing difficulties and includes some cool prioritization features as well. The fact that they took our opinion so seriously on that was pretty amazing.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I think something they really get right is the face-to-face side of the engagement. In development, you’ve got to have a face-to-face component to really get things right. They would actually come out to the site to watch our workers using the software so that they could better understand how they needed to be able to use it. You can’t get that same effect over video conferencing.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any suggestions for how they could improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Go to their office. Meet them in person, view some of the projects that they’ve done, and ask for referrals. It can be a scary thing to start a software development project, but if you put in the work you can really make sure that they’ll deliver everything you need them to, and Sprint Digital is one of those agencies.