SPARK Business Works

When your client is a top-notch custom ingredient manufacturer...you get to taste test their products! The SPARK team had a blast visiting International Food Products Corporation in St. Louis yesterday, and trying out their strawberry milk! 🍓🐄 #lovewhatyoudo #clientvisits #foodmanufacturing #customsoftware #partnerships

Too often we see organizations throw caution to the wind when implementing their new custom software. Eager to start using their new platform after months of development, they rush to the finish line. But successful software rollouts require intentional planning and communication across your team and development partner. You didn’t take shortcuts during the development process, and you can’t during the rollout either. Need help planning your rollout to your team? We've got you covered. Follow our popular software implementation checklist (including PDF worksheet). Check it out below. 👇 #customsoftware #softwareimplementation #implementationchecklist

❌ What digital innovation isn't: Choosing a couple of digital tools to implement within your business– especially those that just merely show up at the top of Google. ✔ What digital innovation is: A mindset and cultural shift to use software as a differentiator. It means stepping back, identifying your biggest business problems, and designing how you can take advantage of emerging digital technology, data, and processes. It should fundamentally change how you run your operations and provide for clients. Are you ready to innovate?

At SPARK, we build custom digital tools for a lot of trade contractors. Here is our best advice for other contractors looking to build their own custom tools: 1️⃣ 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝗯𝗶𝗴 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁. You can see quick results and ROI by starting with a single problem like time entry first, instead of trying to change everything at first. 2️⃣ 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲, 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗿-𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀. The best way to get adoption among your crews is to involve them in the software process. Let them test the tools during development and give input on how they should work. 3️⃣ 𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗿𝘂𝘀𝗵 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗿 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹. Make a plan to introduce the crews to your tool - it will lead to faster and more positive adoption. 4️⃣ 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹 𝗮𝘁 𝗮 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲. You'll build more momentum faster by rolling out different digital tools as you need, based on your long-term business strategy. How could YOUR business grow with custom software? Let SPARK know if we can help. #construction #tradecontractor #constructiontech #customsoftware

Five-Star Friday! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Check out what one of our construction clients said about working with SPARK to create and launch their custom time entry app: “It’s saving our payroll manager about 10 hours a week in processing and entering time. She’s now pulling info directly out of the app and importing it into our accounting system versus doing it manually for 200 people. We don’t even see our recycling guy anymore because we stopped using paper!” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Want to create your own construction tech? Reach out to SPARK today to see how we can help! PS - Read the full case study here: https://lnkd.in/gSdT39rP

Thank you to our VP Jake Lonc for recognizing all the families and businesses impacted by the tornado in Kalamazoo County the other week. We're thankful and glad to be part of a resilient community that has done so much to support each other these past few weeks!

If your company built and invested in custom software years ago...you might now be worried about some of the risks of your aging software. Risks like: 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙨 𝙞𝙛 𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙙𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙡𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙧 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙫𝙚𝙨 𝙤𝙧 𝙧𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙧𝙚𝙨? 𝙃𝙤𝙬 𝙙𝙤 𝙬𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙪𝙚 𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙖𝙣𝙮’𝙨 𝙜𝙧𝙤𝙬𝙩𝙝 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙨𝙤𝙛𝙩𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙞𝙨𝙣’𝙩 𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙜𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙩𝙚𝙘𝙝𝙣𝙤𝙡𝙤𝙜𝙮? 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙙𝙤 𝙬𝙚 𝙙𝙤 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙨𝙤𝙛𝙩𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙘𝙖𝙣’𝙩 𝙨𝙪𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩 𝙨𝙚𝙘𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙪𝙥𝙙𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙨? With these risks looming, you might also be unsure how to solve them. What are your options? How disruptive will it be to your current operations? In most cases, modernizing legacy software isn’t as simple as overhauling the system all at once. That's why SPARK recommends a phased approach instead. 𝗖𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗶𝗻 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹 (𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗵𝘆 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀) 👇

🌟 This year, SPARK had a blast working alongside local manufacturer Oliver Packaging and Equipment Company for a transformative website redesign. 🚀 Here's a sneak peek into their success story: "Our new website launched on time, on budget, and had all the features that we needed. We now have a beautifully branded website that is mobile-ready, has a working product search, and a backend that is so easy to use to create and update pages.” Since launching, Oliver has seen improved numbers across the board from increased organic traffic to better user engagement and search results. 💥 14% increase in organic traffic 💥 60% increase in engaged sessions across all channels A big shoutout to the teams at SPARK and Oliver for this fun and impactful collaboration! 🎉 Check out the full article for an inspiring dive into their journey. #WebsiteRedesign #DigitalTransformation #TeamworkSuccess #MichiganBusiness #Manufacturing

💡 Quick tip: When building custom software, involve key stakeholders EARLY in the process to get their input and ideas. Why? Because it does two things: 1️⃣ Each stakeholder has their own perspective on what the software should do and how it can help them. Getting their input can help you plan for must-have functionality that you might not have considered. 2️⃣ It helps you get buy-in from the WHOLE team. When people are involved, they're more likely to feel part of the project and, ultimately, readily adopt the tool once it's built. Need help gathering your team's input and ideas? Download our custom software planning survey (below). It's a go-to resource for many of our clients during the planning phase. Get the free download in the comments below. 👇

Grand Rapids: mark your calendars! You don't want to miss this month's GRWebDev: Grand Rapids Web Development Group meet-up, which will focus on the exciting world of DevOps. SPARK is thrilled that our very own Noah Jahn will be one of the featured panelists! He'll share more about his experience building and maintaining AWS infrastructure, along with building custom software applications for clients. This is a FREE event held in the Grand Rapids coLab building. Don't miss out! Get more info and sign up via the link below 👇 #grandrapids #grwebdev #devops