Here at DISTek, we value collaboration, teambuilding, and delivering unmatched value. We provide our clients with dedicated engineering teams that provide unparalleled value by freeing our clients’ time up so they can focus on broader business challenges. Our proven approach is not only extremely beneficial to our clients but brings significant value and meaning to our employee-owners, as well.
When it comes to partnering with our clients, our ultimate goal is to create long lasting, meaningful relationships that are modeled after the bonds that exist between good neighbors. We want our clients to be able to count on us when it really matters. For this reason, we focus on providing adaptable, well-equipped teams dedicated to a single client. The composition of these teams is structured to include members that have a diverse skill set, which is complementary to their teammates’ skills. In addition to the variety of skill-sets that are available on a single team, DISTek engineers have direct access to the entire DISTek network of expertise for quick and efficient technical consulting. As clients’ needs change, we may even swap team members to bring in new expertise. We are flexible, adaptable, and strive to create options to help meet the evolving needs of our clients.
Since our teams are so well-balanced, and often have a Product Owner as part of the composition, we are not limited to just taking on engineering solutions. We excel at taking on tasks to help free up the time of our clients, so their time can be better spent focusing on broader business challenges. DISTek teams are self-sufficient in that all daily work direction, project management, people management, and skill-set utilization are managed within the team. This allows for maximization of DISTek’s abilities to provide a complete solution to our clients and function as an extension of our client’s team.
In order to effectively meet the expectations of our stakeholders, we use a managed Agile development process. This ensures the structure of releases occur on a regular fixed cadence, encourages collaboration between our engineers and our clients, and allows for real time adjustments to project direction as discoveries are made. This proven process also enhances open communication, transparency, and facilitates mutual trust and confidence. For each unique project, we work to adapt our Agile processes to conform to our clients’ processes, so we can seamlessly integrate with their team.
Another benefit of our team-based approach is the consistency and predictability of the output. When there is a team of engineers dedicated to a single client, there is no disruption in work when someone takes vacation or is out sick. The same is true when growing the team or swapping out team members. This allows accommodations to be made without missing important target schedule dates. Our clients are taking notice of how our team approach alleviates their concerns for stalled progress. Our client at an Ag manufacturing company recently noted, “DISTek has a system developed where no one person is the only one who knows how it works. They’ve got teams of people, so we know our projects are safe and secure. There’s a whole group of people that can sort through our programming and carry on our project. And the quality is way better than what we can do ourselves.”
While client satisfaction is extremely important, we also place a heavy emphasis on the happiness of our employee-owners. Over time, we’ve discovered that our engineers flourish and feel connected when they are an integral part of a DISTek team. This helps prevent developers feeling like they are isolated on an island with little to no internal support. With our team-based approach, our employees are put in a position where they are allowed the opportunity to build relationships with fellow employee-owners that solidify bonds, not only between teammates, but also within the organization, which ultimately helps increase employee engagement and reduces attrition. Andrew Widmer, DISTek Software Engineer, recently transitioned from working on a project as the sole DISTek developer to working with a team of seven DISTekians. He noted, “Being back on a DISTek Team has really shown me the value of working closely with teammates and made it clear why ‘Team Focused’ is one of DISTek’s core values.”
When our engineers are part of a team, this allows an opportunity for daily collaboration, mentorship, skill sharing, and growth opportunities. We seek to provide our employee-owners with continued opportunities for personal development and growth and by pairing differing skill levels on a team, the benefits become two-fold. Senior level engineers are allowed to share their expertise, hone their mentoring capabilities, and exemplify their technical prowess; whereas engineers that are more green gain access to a technical expert to learn alongside, ask questions, and grow their skill set. One opportunity that exists with this approach is the ability to easily pair program. Pair programming is shown to reduce errors, lessen individual risk, and improve predictability.
As you can see, our goal is to provide top notch teams that integrate seamlessly with our clients by providing superior quality and customer service, while also providing a collaborative internal team for our employee owners. It’s really a win-win scenario for all parties and we strive to build lasting relationships through these opportunities that promote continued mutual success.
