HOW WE OPERATE

Business Model

Our business model is to work closely with our clients, develop practical applications, and work “in the trenches” in order to get projects deployed. SpatialAge Solutions has delivered projects ranging in size from those requiring more than 400 people working more than five years to those requiring two people working for only a few weeks. Whatever the size of the project, our commitment to quality remains the same. Our goal is a job well done and to our client’s satisfaction.

Knowledge Base

SpatialAge management and staff are experienced in and dedicated to working with the telecommunications and utilities industries. Management averages over 20 years of experience in the telecommunications and utilities industries, project managers over 15 years, and technical specialists 10 to 15 years.

With our extensive knowledge base, along with our successful project management methodologies, we stand behind our products and services and are one hundred percent committed to achieving the best business solutions.

Project Philosophy

Our reputation for delivering consistently high quality data, software, and services has grown out of our two-part philosophy for working with our clients.

We partner with our clients. By being partners with our clients, we understand from the “inside-out” each client’s business needs and project goals. Our technical staff and production management work closely with the client to keep the project focused, on schedule, and within budget.

We manage projects in a process-oriented development cycle. In other words, we involve all parties — from project manager to support to development — from the very beginning. This way, we do not filter out client and user feedback. For example, our project managers get direct input on desired design changes, thereby ensuring a free-flow of communication.

Planning

SpatialAge Solutions works with the client’s implementation team during planning so that we develop a comprehensive work plan and establish realistic estimates for resources needed and time required. We tailor our project initiation procedures to meet the specific needs of each individual project. Our goal is to ensure consistent and reliable planning that provides a clear picture of the project scope to the client, and at the same time, stays flexible enough to address all eventualities. The time frame assigned to any given project will vary in relation to the types of activities required in fulfilling the project’s planned goals. We guarantee, before a project begins, to establish a clearly defined start-to-finish time frame based on the project plan, and to have an agreed upon time frame with the client.

Consultive Sales

Our Account Executives have been accused of driving our clients crazy with details. Our focus is not on “smoke” but on “how to.” We “dig-in” in order to determine your needs. We provide a basic “meets requirements” option, as well as a “deluxe” solution. We will put your requirements together and help you determine your ROI. We feel this is necessary in order to propose a practical solution and implementation plan. When we make a proposal to you, we know how to get the job done.

Project Management

We never lose sight of the fact that, although a project plan defines both the scope of work and the time frame, it is a dynamic document and subject to revision as the project evolves. Before a project even begins, SpatialAge selects a team to supervise the project from beginning-to-end. We select each member of the team for the experience they bring to individual projects and for the time required to conclude each project successfully. Careful consideration goes into the management of each project. We build quality assurance milestones into every project. We guarantee our clients complete satisfaction. If any issues arise, we research them fully and bring them to closure, thereby ensuring complete client satisfaction.

Project Approach and Methodologies

Comprehensive Methodology

The approach SpatialAge Solutions takes to data services and product development follows formal procedures that are outlined in a detailed methodology for executing a project through each phase, from start to finish, and into production. It outlines what to do, how to do it, and what output is produced. This methodology, documented in our digital library of methods and procedures, guides us in working with our clients to develop detailed plans for each project. Perhaps more importantly, it provides a reliable means of continuous performance improvement so that we can be sure to stay on track and provide the client with the best service and technology possible.

Our Proposal is a Project Plan

Before we send a proposal out, we assemble a team to review costs, develop a project design, and formulate a production model — to develop a work breakdown structure. In other words, when we submit a proposal, that proposal is more than a cost estimate, it is a project plan. The proposal is our statement of work, providing detailed information to finalize an agreement with our client.

The following steps are an overview of the process during which each step builds upon each preceding step.

At SpatialAge Solutions, we:

• Develop a project plan;
• Estimate project costs;
• Devise a capacity plan based on the project resource requirements;
• Work the results of each preceding step into a template for tracking project activity and producing client status information; and finally
• Chart the project progress and provide weekly status reporting.

Project Reviews

Project reviews are an important project management tool because they ensure that projects start on the right foot, stay on schedule, and meet client expectations.

We hold reviews at several significant stages:

• Project kickoff – to ensure specifications are complete and resources are committed;
• Incubation – to identify ways to fine-tune the processes;
• Periodic-project reviews – to review processes and reassess goals, and
• Postmortems - to review lessons we have learned so that we can improve our process in the future.

Risk Management “The dark side of project management”

Every project has risks. Some risks can be prevented or easily recovered from, while others carry significant consequences. During the project proposal phase, we assess potential risks and build contingency plans into the project plan. In this way, we avoid costly surprises and are equipped with the necessary information to stay within the budget. As the project moves forward, we continually assess and manage any risks as part of the review process. This continual risk assessment is our best safeguard against project surprises. By evaluating the project plan for potential problems and then developing strategies to address them, we greatly improve the probability of a successful project.

Early Warning System

Our ongoing risk management provides us with an early warning system. This “dashboard” supplies constant information about the work that has been accomplished and a review of each risk that has been identified. During the course of a project, we recognize issues early and communicate them to the client; this ensures there is still time to take corrective action.

Quality

SpatialAge has implemented quality control methods, which use extensive statistical process controls, to establish compliance for each stage of the project. We created an independent audit group to analyze quality on both our software development and data services projects. We have integrated the quality process deeply into our core methodology, which provides three major benefits:

• The client receives a high quality product that results in higher end user satisfaction, as noted within their survey scores;
• The client benefits from lower internal acceptance testing (QA/QC) costs as a result of our extensive use of automated testing procedures; and
• The higher quality product reduces the client’s ongoing field, maintenance, and support costs.

Project Performance

The SpatialAge Solutions project manager averages more than 15 years of industry experience; experience brought to each project they manage. During the life of a project, the project manager tracks and records all information pertaining to specifications, scope issues, and status within our document management repository. The project manager is responsible for overseeing the documentation of the project to ensure that it is clear, consistent, easy to update, and easy to distribute. Project managers are required to generate reports that facilitate the definition and implementation of future actions and that aid in the management decision-making process throughout the support and maintenance. The manager also ensures that the contract and project plan are carried out as agreed upon and further determines the schedule of activities that outline the time frame, deliverables, and project assumptions.

All essential project participants circulate weekly status reports and hold regular status meetings. This constant attention to the process enables us to continually review the project quality and productivity. As a result, we are able to clearly identify client issues and reassess project scope as necessary.

Organization

SpatialAge follows the best principles contained in “hierarchical” and “project” organizations. Our organizational chart defines the responsibilities of those required for approval and for resource allocation. Since most of our work is performed as a flow across functional lines, we also employ a “responsibility matrix” - our business process - which depicts the coordination of work as it moves from idea inception, to requirements definition, to project design, to operations. This organizational structure allows us to get our work done in an unimpeded lateral flow, with no dilution of responsibility.