Otter Tail Power Case Study
When Otter Tail came to Onsharp with the overhaul request, they weren’t looking to just hire and forget. They wanted to ensure they chose someone who would guide them through every step of the process and communicate closely with them from start to finish.
Building Momentum
Searching for a partner.
Steffes Group is at the top of their game in the auction industry.
But when it came to their online platform, Steffes lacked the internal resources and coding expertise necessary to transform in a way that allowed them to maintain the momentum they had built over the last few years.
They needed a strategic partner who, beyond providing the development support required to achieve their goals, was committed to their long-term success.
John Wieser, IT Director at Minn-Dak, discusses their decision to build a new grower portal with Onsharp.
Overcoming Challenges
Steffes was searching for a partner that would truly integrate with their business and internal teams. By working with Onsharp, Steffes got the best of both worlds — their own industry expertise with the development capabilities of expert coders.
Momentum
Steffes’ online platform allowed them to spring ahead of their competitors. To maintain that forward energy they needed to modernize and continually optimize their platform.
Capacity
Steffes realized that they needed to expand their team with expert developers. After evaluating a number of possible options, they chose to bring in Onsharp for supplemental development.
Expertise
Steffes knew that they needed to keep things in-house in order to capitalize on their own auction-industry expertise while expanding their team's bandwidth and skillset. Onsharp made that happen.
The Reservations
Before bringing on supplemental development help, Steffes Group had a few reservations.
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Cost
Pricing carries a heavy weight no matter the project, and when you’re spending big bucks, you expect a top-notch job. This was a top concern for Steffes, who felt as though they could fall victim to a bait-and-switch type of scenario or lackluster dev support that still came at a high price point. -
Quality of Resources
Steffes carried concerns about the extent of expertise that external devs would be able to offer. -
Ego
Steffes believed that those ingrained in technology “knew what they knew,” which raised hesitations about hiring supplemental support. The last thing they wanted was an external team that acted like they knew it all without the technical expertise and performance to back it up. Or, devs that were too prescriptive and set in their ways with little room to make adjustments.