SPARK Business Works

“There’s so much more opportunity for us and our business to expand into whatever we can put our hands on. Just knowing that the integration is possible, we’re able to tailor it to our needs and get exactly what we need out of custom software.”

How Volleman’s Family Farm Transformed Their Delivery Operations

In 2020, the Volleman’s Family Farm began producing their own glass-bottled milk products that feature unique flavors. Within 18 months, they grew to delivering to over 450+ stores across Texas. They turned to SPARK to automate their delivery operations by turning their paper-based ticket system into a custom mobile app and backend portal.

The Challenge

After building their own processing plant for their unique, glass-bottled milk products, the Volleman’s Family Farm experienced rapid growth. Within 18 months, they were delivering to over 450 stores across Texas! 

But behind the scenes, their operations weren’t as smooth. “We started out with my brother-in-law delivering in our one truck with paper tickets,” remarked Anna Volleman, CFO. “As the business grew, we were manually entering 600 to 700 order tickets each week into our accounting system back in the main office.”

Initially, the Vollemans tried off-the-shelf solutions, but found them too rigid. After some research, they discovered SPARK and clicked with the team’s transparent and collaborative approach to custom software development.

The Solution

Working with the SPARK team, they developed a custom mobile app to manage and track their bottled milk deliveries to stores, along with a backend portal that shows real-time delivery data. No more paper tickets and manual data entry.
 

• Item data and sales orders from their ERP system NetSuite automatically sync to the mobile app.
• Driver delivery team uses the app to view and manage their daily deliveries and routes.
• After delivery, drivers can create real-time invoices and credits for their customers.
• Once a driver’s trip is complete, the app automatically pushes the invoices and credits back into their NetSuite ERP.

After launching the app, they were able to cut two office staff just processing paper tickets. With SPARK as their technology partner, the Vollemans have endless opportunities when expanding their business.

“The best thing about working with SPARK was their team and the investment everyone made in learning about our manufacturing niche so that we got exactly what we were looking for. During this project, it felt like we were all on the same team, not working as an agency and client. This was one of the best projects I've worked on in my career.”

SPARK Helps Oliver Undergo A Transformative Website Redesign

Based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, food packaging manufacturer Oliver worked with SPARK to overhaul their outdated website into an intuitive site with easy navigation.

The Challenge

Despite being an industry leader, Oliver’s former website left much to be desired – it was over 7 years old and presented a slew of challenges such as outdated branding, poor product searchability, and unresponsive pages for mobile users.


Oliver chose local Michigan-based partner SPARK for a complete website overhaul to ensure better messaging, site navigation, and page speed.

“Our focus for the website update was our customer journey and a better site-wide search program,” shared Becky Neibarger, Digital Marketing Manager at Oliver Packaging and Equipment. 

The Solution

SPARK collaborated with Oliver Packaging to create a modern, intuitive website that showcases their extensive catalog of high-quality food packaging equipment. Their new website now features:
 

• Brand messaging for multiple audiences
• Easy site navigation through a mega menu
• Robust search functionality for 150+ products
• On-page SEO and keyword optimization
• Mobile-responsive design
• Easy page and content editing through backend

“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 easy to use to create and update pages,” praised Becky.

"We tried off-the-shelf tools that solve a large group of people’s problems. But they just weren’t user-friendly or didn't do the things we needed. It wasn’t effective or efficient at all for us. We still had to create a lot of workarounds. We needed to create something that serves OUR company and OUR guys, not what serves thousands of others. Having something user-friendly is key for adoption. All MCM projects are now connected through our custom app. Teams out in the field are able to just pull up the information they need to enter time. We're now automating versus doing manual, double data entry for 200 people."
 

Innovative Mechanical Contractor Improves Efficiency with Custom Mobile App

On a mission to become the “most sought after mechanical contractor in the Midwest,” MCM has doubled in size over the past few years. But, they began to feel the weight of their outdated, manual processes. Instead of using a typical software vendor, the owners of MCM partnered with SPARK to design and build a strategic custom management platform that would help them streamline operations. The result is a mobile app that even the toughest field crew has readily adopted.
 

The Challenge
 

With a growing team and number of job sites to manage, MCM’s management was bogged down in information coming from several different formats. Frustrated with the rigidity of off-the-shelf software, MCM’s owners knew there had to be a better way.
 

A collaborative Assessment process with their SPARK team led to a reimagined workflow that would be easy-to-use and also connect automatically to their accounting system (CompterEase). 
 

The Solution

Leveraging the business-first approach from their SPARK team, MCM was able to make sure the adoption of their custom solution by their field and office users was embedded into the process.
 

The new app has been a game-changer for efficiency and data accuracy.
 

The app’s adoption by field workers is just one part of the project’s success. The difference the mobile app has made for their back office is also clear, saving the payroll manager about 10 hours a week in processing and entering time.
 

As a dedicated software development partner, SPARK is now helping MCM add custom modules for their Services team and continuing to identify new opportunities for tech. 

"Everything on the dashboard was put there because we went out on the shop floor and asked them what they wanted to see. Now, our workers no longer wait for someone to tell them what to do. The dashboard gives them the ability to be proactive and take initiative when planning production."
 

Custom Dashboard on Manufacturing Shop Floor Ups Productivity 
 

With a mission of “leveraging technology, talent, and innovation to deliver quality outcomes for our customers every day,” DeWys Manufacturing has a lean mindset ingrained in its culture. 
 

And as a new way to innovate, DeWys partnered with SPARK to build a custom dashboard to display labor performance metrics right on the shop floor. With data at their fingertips, their operators can take initiative when planning production and improving their performance.
 

The Challenge
 

DeWys recently went through an ERP change from Profit Key International to Global Shop. This major system change was a catalyst for digitizing one of their manual processes. At the time, DeWys relied on paper travelers– packets of instructions for each stage of manufacturing–  that were being moved throughout the shop floor with the parts.
 

A collaborative Assessment process with the SPARK team led to DeWys replacing the paper travelers by pulling data from their ERP into an interactive labor performance dashboard that would display key metrics in real-time on the shop floor.
 

The Solution
 

With SPARK’s user-centered approach to technology design, DeWys was able to design the labor performance dashboard based on input from the shop floor operators.
 

Displayed on 20 TVs around the shop, all 160+ workers can now see the status of different jobs and where they are in the manufacturing process. Operators are now proactive when planning work for the day, instead of waiting for the information. 
 

As a dedicated software development partner, SPARK continues to work with DeWys to enhance the dashboard as well as future custom software projects.