SPR

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Manager, Solution Architecture of FedEx Dataworks

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

By applying powerful insights generated from the rich data produced by the FedEx network, we’re building solutions to make supply chains smarter for everyone, and removing barriers for our customers, their customers, and for the FedEx of tomorrow.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire SPR to accomplish?
Build best in class consumer facing e-commerce applications and solutions

SOLUTION

How did you find SPR?

Referral

Why did you select SPR over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from SPR were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

Building out of our consumer channels which consists of a web application and various systems and micro-services to support those consumer channels. Deliverables include Web Application to engage with consumers with to help in them buy products easily across 100's of brands. Backend application to support the consumer channels capabilities and integrations. Various micro-services that allow for various capabilities such as, Order Management Service, Product Catalog Service, Marketing and customer engagement systems and many more.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Increased traffic revenue and overall traffic through our consumer channels. Increased velocity and throughput to achieve delivery and target dates. Continuous iterative improvements that aligned with the evolution of the product roadmap.

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

Items were delivered on time and the quality was always top notch. Worked well and fit right in with the other members of the team(s). They were always responsive and cared about what they were building

What was your primary form of communication with SPR?

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

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

The people from SPR are absolute rockstars. Fun to have on the team and really felt like part of the family. They not only produced good code but they helped to teach and strengthen our own developers on the project internally.

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

Would love to see more focus from the business on what we should be thinking about from a tech perspective as it relates to our stack and projects. For example we have a React App, but are there any other Frameworks we should be looking into as an ecommerce project. Are there new libraries or updates we should be thinking about as it pertains to the foundational pieces of the application(s)

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of Enrollment Analytics and Forecasting of School of the Art Institute Chicago

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

SAIC provides world class education in art and design for Undergraduate and Graduate students.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire SPR to accomplish?

• Build a machine learning model to improve admit to enrolled yield rate.
• The model must be reusable.
• The model must be adaptable to other scenarios without additional external assistance.

SOLUTION

How did you find SPR?

Referral

Why did you select SPR over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from SPR were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Build a binary classification model to predict which students will enroll after being offered admission. To Support this effort, SPR did the following: 

• Cleaned & enhanced the data 
• Built multiple machine learning models 
• Selected the best performing models based on the accuracy metrics selected in this engagement 
• Transitioned the best performing models back to SAIC for their use including the code base for the best performing model, basic documentation on how to run the code, and a brief write-up on the machine learning model.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

SPR delivered a model that provided immediately actionable insights. They also met all other expectations related to deliverables.

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

SPR consistently delivered results on time or ahead of schedule. They were incredibly responsive and flexible throughout the project.

What was your primary form of communication with SPR?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Within days of starting work on the project I felt as though my counterparts at SPR were veteran colleagues invested in the mission of SAIC. They understood the problem quickly and started producing results almost immediately.

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

No. They went above and beyond.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP and CTO of 160 Driving Academy.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SPR?

I reach out to them when I need someone good and effective immediately.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SPR has helped me in multiple organizations in the past. They’ve done a myriad of things, including identifying contractors for technical development, advising us on industry trends, and keeping us up to date with other organizations through meetings and introductions.

What is the team composition?

I primarily work with John (Business Development Manager); he’s been my main point of contact for the last ten years across three different organizations. He’s an amazing contact — he jumps on things as nobody else does, and he has a sense of urgency that we don’t get with other organizations.

How did you come to work with SPR?

I was brought in at an organization, and we had a very troubled team. People were leaving the company, we didn’t have any documentation in the system, we had commitments with various airlines, and our architect decided to take advantage of the situation. He quit and offered to do contracting work at an exorbitantly high hourly rate, so the negotiations fell apart quickly.

We were in a position where we didn’t have the resources to deliver. The company’s president gave me John’s contact number and told me to call him. I asked for a couple of resumes, and he sent me some good ones. I called him the next day about the resumes; he asked me when we wanted to interview, but I told him they’d start the next day.

Those resources lived up to their resumes, and we ended up hiring all of them. Since then, they’ve gone to be very successful, and one of them is now a director of that division.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent several million dollars.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2014, and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’re an excellent resource for identifying resources. They listen, and their response times are extremely short. Moreover, John is amazing; it’s almost like having a personal assistant. I don’t know how he services his other clients, but I’m just surprised by what he can keep up with.

On the other hand, we’ve never had a problem with any of their resources. There was a period where we would have a contract, and after a certain amount of time, we’d convert if we liked the employees. In the end, we converted them all because they were fantastic.

How did SPR perform from a project management standpoint?

We haven’t leveraged them in that aspect; they’re a point of contact to leverage resources. However, they’ve been instrumental in helping us with the research for candidates. Our relationship goes way beyond an average client relationship. SPR is definitely interested in our future.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their sense of customer service is second to none — you don’t get that kind of service anymore. SPR genuinely cares about providing a good service. If they say they’ll do something, they do it. We can depend on them. I’m usually busy and have many things going on, but I can tell them what I need, and they run out and get it done. Sometimes it doesn’t work out, but they’re resilient and look for the next opportunity to help.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not at all. They’re my go-to resource when I need something done immediately and it can’t fail. You can’t find that type of guaranteed satisfaction anywhere.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Call them. If you have a project and can’t afford another failure, this is the company that will work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the senior financial analyst for a general contracting company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SPR?

We wanted to grow our knowledge of Power BI. We were looking to get trained on the best way to implement BI. Additionally, we were looking to get our data out faster to all of our offices and to business leaders throughout the country.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SPR helped us increase our competency with the Power BI platform. They provided classroom-style learning alongside hands-on training to members of our team for two days. They trained 15-20 members of our team using Microsoft dashboards, a training deck, and a student workbook, including trained individuals from across a variety of departments so that the whole company had the same understanding of the platform. We covered modeling, visualization, best practices, using Power Query to clean and format data, and more. 

They also helped us learn how to implement row-level security. We want everyone at our company to have the same user desktop but only see the jobs they work on according to their place in the team hierarchy. Everyone’s security is based on their email address. Working that up was a big undertaking that required a lot of work upfront but it was something we wanted to learn more about.

What is the team composition?

We had one main point of contact with SPR.

How did you come to work with SPR?

He reached out to our company. The finance department was the ones initially interested in learning more about Power BI so I interfaced with him.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested less than $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The two-day training took place in October 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After the training, the team had an improved understanding of Power BI. The training was a great day to jumpstart our employees’ interests and personal development. Now that we have a good foundation with the Program, we can continue to power through.

How did SPR perform from a project management standpoint?

They did an amazing job with project management. Our team communicated in person or via email or phone.

What did you find most impressive about them?

SPR takes the time to make a personal connection with their clients. They do everything they can to make the client happy. If there was ever an issue, I knew they would get back to me right away. We had a close working relationship.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, everything was great.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

SPR is a smart, professional, and personable team. It’s easy and enjoyable to work with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a financial services company out of Illinois. We're a growing company with about 400 employees. 

I manage an IT group which has approximately 15 people including full time employees and consultants from SPR. Some of the key systems I manage include Microsoft technologies with Vista and Web Services API.

We also have new technology platforms in the department like Nelthorpe from Salesforce, as well as a CMS like Laserfishe. Those are the applications within our toolset.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SPR?

SPR primarily helps in the management of this Microsoft platform that is widely used for a series of backend processing within enterprise integration.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The key things we do are loan verification, loan processing, mutual funds, and company purchase loans from different platforms and SPR supports us with the management of our platform.

Those include P2P lenders in the market. Anyone taking loans from the P2P lenders in the marketplace is verified as they go through a series of validations on our site before a mutual fund company or private custody department is able to provide those loans.

There is a laundry list of documents and other information delivered to the mutual fund company so they can purchase those loans from those platforms. This is also being used in the backend for other activities like distributions when someone needs to take money out of their retirement accounts. 

We process $20,000 distributions a month through the platform. They were also involved in implementing a BPM framework as well as full architectural evaluation and business process management.

What is the team composition?

I work closely with Dennis (Senior Consultant), he worked closely with our business partners and our operations team. Bryce (Principal) and Mike (Principal) are two of the other team members that we work with. They occasionally bring in other people as needed, but I don’t work with them on a daily basis.

How did you come to work with SPR?

SPR was already working on the project when I joined. I inherited the resources when I took over the team.

How much have you invested with them?

I would say we’ve spent $700,000 per year since 2012. 

What is the status of this engagement?

They started around July 2012 and the project is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have a vendor evaluation process. We do score carding for different areas that they cover and how they're doing. We don't publish those numbers, since those are all for internal leaders.

They have done a good job overall. I'm satisfied with the work they do.

How did SPR perform from a project management standpoint?

The great thing about Dennis and Mike is that they keep me informed about the issues or risks for any project that they're working on. I never had any major issues.

They manage projects well. We had cases where they provided quotes and we did not move forward, but other than that we have great deliveries and no major issues overall with project management or delivery cycle.

We use Atlassian for any type of project program management. We also have Microsoft Project and our project management officer (PMO) is looking at other platforms, but these are the two we have right now.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The attitude, the willingness to help, and professionalism were impressive. I never had any problems like I’ve had with other consulting firms.

I've worked with SPR before joining my current employer. If I had to rank all these companies, they are in the top five of my list based on my experience working with them. They are definitely a great company and great people as well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They can offer free sourcing in other technology domains. We have other technologies like Salesforce but I did not see a whole lot of exposure. They don't really have a big practice test for new technology platforms.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would definitely recommend them to anyone out there. Any other companies, whether they're in financial services or not, could benefit from them. I know SPR provides services to other companies out there, they do a good job overall, have good management, good teams, and I do recommend them to anyone. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're a distributor of plant and seed products across North America. We also do other aspects of the horticultural industry including research and development. I'm the manager of application development. Any custom applications are handled by my group.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SPR?

We needed help with a number of development projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, they replaced the landing page for our customer portal. They also helped us create a mobile application for that same customer portal. Additionally, they helped us create a supplier portal and a catalog search for our products and re-tool our corporate intranet. Usually, they did a bulk of the projects but we would deploy them and we'd de-bug and fix issues ourselves. They also provide staff augmentation for when we need full-time support.

What is the team composition?

It's changed over the years, but we typically have one main point of contact.

How did you come to work with SPR?

We were having performance issues on our intranet and the company that was helping us at the time recommended them as another perspective. We were so impressed with the work they did in such a short period of time that we hired them for our next engagement.

How much have you invested with them?    

We've invested more than $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in March 2012, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

For the mobile application, we were capturing metrics on downloads. We got more than half of our users to download the app, which was pretty significant. The customers really like it too. The mobile application is a watered-down version of the full application. We simplified the functions and they liked how easy it is to use.

How did SPR perform from a project management standpoint?

SPR will come in with a project manager but we want our personnel to be in charge, so it's difficult to judge them on that aspect. The few times their project managers were in charge, they kept us to the deadlines and kept us on task. In the past, we've used Lighthouse, Jira, and our own custom system.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their consistency has been great. They facilitate keeping the same resources for our accounts to keep us happy.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not every project has gone successful. Sometimes the people that we're given just don't work out. They've always been open to switching the resources.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to talk to the individuals placed at the head of their accounts ahead of time to make sure they're a technical and cultural fit.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We work with highly confidential pre-market financial data to ensure regulatory compliance. Our software has large spikes of activity to mean various regulatory deadlines. Our company has over 150 folks in the Software Engineering department. I am SVP of Software Engineering.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire SPR?

SPR was hired to provide architecture and software development alongside our existing teams. They were able to combine large existing systems with new more modern approaches. There was a high level of use of Azure services.

What were your goals for this project?

The primary goal of the project was to replace unreliable components of the system that did not perform well under large amount of traffic.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We have worked with numerous consulting firms in different capacities. For this project, we knew we needed a high level of folks that could come in and make an immediate impact. We selected SPR because I knew that they could provide extremely experienced folks and work within our timelines.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

SPR did an initial evaluation of the existing large distributed system and identified areas of improvement. They led the architecture of new components to replace the existing dated technology. Working alongside our existing team, SPR helped to deliver and fully test the new components.

What was the team composition?

SPR worked with us on a variety of different projects and had about 10 different folks that were part of our team at different times. The team was comprised of Architects, Automated Testers, Project Manager, and Software Engineers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The solution was completed on time and was in place for the next large period of traffic to our site. The new solution results in far superior uptime and overall performance compared to previous peak periods. This allowed for our team to be able to deliver their work on time and meet aggressive deadlines.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

SPR integrated into our existing project management using Azure Devops. Their team seamlessly integrated with our standard SDLC.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

SPR delivers a higher level of quality and responsibility than other vendors that I have worked with. They are constantly solution-driven and are willing to take on challenges that others may avoid.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There is very little that should be improved. As with any vendor, great teams are built from great individuals. SPR keeps their quality high and anytime we had any sort of issue with a team member, they did not hesitate to replace that person with now questions.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Chief Product and Technology Officer for the leading Health & Wellness data company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire SPR, and what were your goals?

Data ingestion help for incoming retailer data. The goals were to catch up on the existing backlog which was becoming cumbersome.

SOLUTION

How did you select SPR and what were the deciding factors?

After reviewing multiple firms, we decided to go with SPR. They have proven consulting leadership in various IT realms.

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

The scope of work was to normalize and help improve the data ingestion process for our incoming retail data from retailers. The scope of the project was to improve and cover our backlog. Key deliverables were to speed up our ingestion process, via steps such as FTP, sFTP, SQL, and Salesforce.

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

One. A SQL expert.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project was a resounding success as we improved our process of ingestion and knocked down our backlog.

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

Working one-on-one with our data ingestion expert, most of the work was done in person.

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

The most impressive thing was how they scoped and got the job done.

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

Nope.