Dennis In The Starting Blocks

Tomorrow Dennis starts his journey in earnest with our first full development workshop with the tremendous chaps & chapesses from Simplicity IT. In four month's time we should have a public alpha site that everyone can test to destruction....

For the record and future reference I'd like to note the reasons why we selected Simplicity (apologies if this is a bit dry in comparison with my normal ramblings!)...

First impressions
Right off the bat the MD, John O'Dwyer's phone manner and dialogue was professional and articulate. Follow up emails were prompt and courteous. Questions were clearly expressed and pertinent. This was carried through into our on-site meeting at Simplicity's offices, which are in a quiet but convenient location in Highbury. The office vibe was relaxed but studious. We knew we could work with these people.

Grasp of concept
Either Project Dennis is rather complex or we are not very good at explaining it. In any event, not everyone "gets it" straight away. Some of the developers we spoke to were clearly just going through the motions. Not only did Simplicity take it all on board, their proposal contained descriptions of our objectives that were far better than our own, and there has been a demonstrable enthusiasm to be part of what they see innovative project. John has been the only person to admit to being able to point to the "light-bulb" moment during our discussions.

Reference work
Simplicity have done a bunch of cool websites (or webware apps as they call them), a number of which contain very relevant modules for our own project. This was not immediately obvious from the reference sites listed on their own site, but during demonstrations at their office we were very impressed at the scope and quality of their portfolio.

Overall professionalism
Touched on above already, but the quality of their proposal, which was put together in less than a week and delivered ahead of schedule was excellent. Clear, concise, with an obvious methodology. Following the proposal all questions have been answered by return on what has seemed like a 24-7 basis. Changes to specifications have been accomodated and plans adjusted quickly and without fuss. Simplicity were our clear favourites in advance of receiving the commercials. We feared that they would be easily the most expensive.

Project quote
We were pleasantly surprised to find that their quote for the first phase of the project was broadly in line with others. In fact there was little difference between theirs and the cheapest quote we received (and 1/6th of the most expensive!). A done deal...