Debut Infotech

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Cofounder of Noah. We’re trying to streamline the English teacher recruitment process.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Debut Infotech?

We asked them to create a mobile app for us.

What were your goals for this project?

Not really. It was frustrating to work with them. They said great they had designers on hand but in the end, they actually hired a consultant from Russia and his designs were sub par. We eventually updated and created new designs ourselves.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Places like Clutch had good reviews but now I’m skeptical becausE they did a horrible job. I wouldn’t recommend Debut if they were the last developers on this planet. I’d rather figure it out myself.

Describe the project in detail.

I’ve been contemplating for about 6 months whether I wanted to write a review about Debut Infotech. Verdict—- please save your money and time and don’t work with them. As individuals, they are all nice and friendly. We worked with Debut from July 2017 to March 2019. They initially quoted us 13 weeks for Android development but it kept extending and extending. What was supposed to be completed November 2017 didn’t actually complete until March 2019.

We had many troubles along the way. Once they fixed one problem, they seemed to break another. This was the cycle. It was so frustrating that we actually went to Chandigarh to meet the team in person in March 2018, but it didn’t help at all. In fact, after our in person meeting, everyone was optimistic that we would release the first build of our app but that didn’t happen until one year later.

Around August 2018, we accidentally stumbled upon a big issue. Debut was and currently is careless with security. They store everything in Google Drives and it’s shared publicly. What do I mean by publicly? I mean the APIs of several companies was shared with us and they didn’t even know.

Debut creates a shared Google account so that we could access the admin page but they didn’t treat that account as shared. We had APIs for about 10 other companies.

One of the things that I distinctly remember was trouble with translations. We needed to translate our app to a different language and even though we gave all the translations to Debut, they still seemed to get it wrong. It looked like they resorted to Google Translate despite our warnings not to.

It’s been more than 6 months since we discontinued working with Debut but we are still finding bugs. Our users are suffering because of the quality of work that Debut provided.

What was the team composition?

2 iOS developers 2 android. 2 backend

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

No. Not recommended at all. We’re upset that we didn’t leave when we saw the first warning signs. If they don’t meet a deadline, don’t continue. Just find different developers.

Because Debut wasn’t able to keep their deadlines, our business suffered tremendously. We were constantly marketing for planned releases but since they could never meet their deadlines, we were not able to meet the customer’s demands and user adoption was low.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Not at all. During the process, they said that they would be proactive but they never once made it on time to a meeting, their internet always cut out while we were Skyping with them, and they never made a deadline. If you’re considering Debut, please don’t even bother.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Nothing. I’m was impressed by their lack of skill.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Communication, delivery, basic coding skills, design, .... everything. Do not work with a Debut under any circumstance. I’m saying this because I don’t want other startups to suffer like we did.

Please take the time and do research to find another company. We almost sued them because of their security breach. They were and continue to share other clients proprietary information. Your app will not be safe with them.

Company Responses

The vendor responded on September 18th, 2019.

This client had been unreasonable with us from the very start.

1. Even after signing up of a formal agreement and scope document, he kept on increasing the project scope. We tried to accommodate as much as we could, but at some point, we had to say no.
2. Design UI/UX was not part of the agreed scope since we told him that we don’t have the capability to produce high-quality designs like the one he desires. He asked for our recommendation for designers, and we introduced him to the Russian designer (the one he is referring to in his review). 
3. The client negotiated with the Designer for his work and paid him directly. We were not even involved in any design-related process.
4. He did come down to Chandigarh and had a pleasant stay with us for a few days. He met the team, discussed the project status, and we defined the future road map accordingly. 
5. At no point did he express any discontent with the way things were moving. He did ask us for additional functionality to be included but was not willing to pay a fair price for it. So, we both agreed that we will leave out the additional functions for now and stick to the originally agreed scope.
6. Regarding the security breach and the Google Drive incidence, it was simply test data and not the live one. It was placeholder data to test out the APIs and some functions.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of a company that is working on an idea for a social media mobile application.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Debut Infotech?

We needed to create a high-quality app.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to create a complete app on schedule.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We found them through this website. We needed a trustworthy company who could offer a great price.

What was the team composition?

My co-founder and I worked with their team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The quality was excellent. They delivered the product on schedule with no issues at all. We are launching it soon.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Communication is key for a project like this. Fortunately, Debut would answer our calls any time of the day or night, even during weekends. This made it very convenient for us.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their reliability and quality were quite impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I did not find anything that was lacking.