Zco Corporation

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're an app development firm which has developed a product called SalesTaxTracker.com. It's our first app, but we have a plan to take it globally, not just in its current form.

Our product was derived from personal experience. I live in New Hampshire and sold a company 2 years ago in that area. The US government allows people to either deduct their income or sales taxes. There is no sales tax in my area, except for restaurants and hotels. In these situations, because I was meeting with clients, I was able to write everything off. I started keeping records of this and soon realized what a pain it was. I did a little research, coming up with our solution, which basically keeps track of the sales tax users pay through an app on their phone.

For the 8 other states that do not have an income tax, there are sales taxes on everything. The 83 million people living in those states can use our product. Our catchphrase is "Snap, track, and save".

I am the president of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Zco?

We are not developers, so we did some research, looked for resources, and found Zco as a partner.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were given the option to develop the apps as native versions, or through cross-platform technology. We chose the latter option, which has allowed us to make changes quickly during operating system updates. Zco is also designing our website.

In order to track sales taxes for the user, our app takes a picture which is associated with the expense and tax information. The data is backed-up in the cloud account associated with the user's operating system. As a wildcard, Dropbox can also be used. The backend creates a database in this way, but we came to the realization that a new database would be created each time a new description was created. We needed to create a solution around this, given that by having a number of databases at the end of the year, the purpose of the app would be defeated. We got together with Zco's engineer and project manager, coming up with a good solution. Things like this have made it easier for a company like mine.

Another situation we ran into was a technical issue with Apple. I gave Zco administrative access to my domain service. They got together with the engineers from Whois (the company which I use for hosting) and found a working solution for our Linux database issue. Zco's approach is to call in whoever is needed in order to get the work done. I am sure that the 3-4 hours needed to get my issue fixed wasn't in the quote, but Zco was willing to put in a few extra hours. I've worked with other companies that charged extra for any unforeseen problems. I can understand this, but when working with new technologies, they need to account for something going wrong. 

How did you come to work with Zco?

We came up with a concept and created a storybook on how the app should work, and met with 4-5 companies in the Boston and New Hampshire areas.

I chose Zco based on reviews, personal recommendations, and based on our meeting with their team. Zco's people were very good, so we felt confident in them. They had worked on similar projects in the past and had an understanding of what we're trying to do. I feel we've made a very good choice in partnering with them.

How much have you invested with Zco?

The cost of Zco's work has been between $10,000 and $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have been working with Zco since July 2016. Our app is currently up on the Apple and Android app stores. We made a mistake with our Microsoft account, but we're also working on having the app published there as well. After that point, we will be launching our product.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

The application we've created with Zco is intended for 83 million US citizens. We are also working on an international version of the app, for value-added tax, so our relationship with Zco will extend beyond our current project.

How did Zco perform from a project management standpoint?

I especially want to mention Zco's project manager, who has been spot-on. Many other companies I've worked with don't offer good customer skills, but our contact from Zco has been great.

What did you find most impressive about Zco?

I've had some experience with software development in the past. Zco stood out through their ability to listen and understand what we were trying to achieve at a conceptual level.

Zco put together user interfaces with us, working through the process from A to Z, based on our storybook. Zco's project manager fully understood what we were trying to do. Some of the other companies we interviewed were completely clueless. In one case, after spending an hour and a half talking to a rep, she told us she wasn't the technical person, so there were parts she didn't understand. By bringing the technical project manager into what was a sales meeting, Zco made us feel comfortable. As we went forward, Zco came back with proposals on how to make our vision better. They're a true partner.

Zco gave us 2 different options for many of the creative aspects of our app, like its interface design and logo. Their designs have been crisp and clear, and Zco has also allowed us to make tweaks to the work, and combine elements of each proposal.

Are there any areas Zco could improve?

Like with all projects, we encountered a couple of glitches due to items which I may not have communicated properly. Zco was willing to address the issues, and resolving them only took a few hours of extra work. Zco didn't try to nickel and dime us, even though our project was quoted on an hourly basis. It was very easy to work with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company publishes and distributes elementary music materials. I am the vice president.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Zco Corporation?

We needed to develop an interactive version of our printed method book that would be both teacher-friendly and child-friendly. We needed to ensure that it would be easily accessible for both teachers and students. It was also important that it would be able to be used on a variety of devices. Making the version attractive without distracting from the music was a big challenge. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Zco developed the interactive version of our method book in an engaging and student-friendly fashion. They turned the illustrations into animations and embedded audio into the digital version. They also developed a website for accessibility as well as an easy-to-use administration module.

How did you come to work with Zco Corporation?

We found them through a web search. After we had spoken with one of their sales reps, we decided to go visit their facility in New Hampshire. We also met with a number of other developers but felt that Zco was a better match for our project.

How much have you invested with Zco Corporation?

It has been more than $60,000.

What is the status of the engagement:

The project has been completed and is available for purchase to the education industry.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Our test market was very receptive, and we have recently launched but do not have any matrix information at this time.

How did Zco Corporation perform from a project management standpoint?

The project was very complex, and we were pleased with the updates provided on each part of the project as well as the meetings, which were very helpful. Being out of state was never an issue because they were on it.

What did you find most impressive about Zco Corporation?

The final product.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a golf GPS app. It's not just me we have a team of people. I'm the president.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Zco?

Zco has been with us for 7 or 8 years. They helped us create the original app. It gives you golf GPS distances out on the course and keeps track of your scores and stats among many other types of things.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

It's on both iOS and Android. It has changed tremendously during the course of our launch.

How did you come to work with Zco?

We were considering other companies, narrowed it down to a few and chose them. We liked that they had a United States presence.

How much have you invested with Zco?

Our partnership in total has been $200,000-plus.

What is the status of this engagement?

It's ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We ended up with millions of downloads, a high star rating and good rankings in the app store.

What did you find most impressive about Zco?

They've been great and very flexible and easy to work with.

Are there any areas Zco could improve?

No.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are specialists in the field of dyslexia, and are recognized worldwide as experts. We create dyslexia professionals by teaching graduate courses around the country. We also train professional tutors and teachers on how to handle dyslexic students, teaching them how to read, write and spell using our system. We act as a free information and resource center for people researching dyslexia.

I am the founder of the company, as well as the developer of our reading and spelling system.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Zco?

Our reading and spelling system uses physical manipulative, color-coded wooden letter tiles. Because there are so many of them, it can become cumbersome and time-consuming to manage. We hired Zco in order to turn those into electronic tiles, and program all of the words which a tutor would normally have to build. We also needed to create a student tracking system for our teachers and tutors.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Zco created the whole interface of our solution, with an emphasis on functionality and user friendliness. Zco did a fabulous job, and people have loved the software. We first built an iPad version, because that's the most prominent device within education settings. We also hired Zco for a conversion to the Android platform.

We have a restricted app which can only be downloaded after a request process. We then needed to make sure that those users truly owned our system, while also providing various in-app purchases.

How did you come to work with Zco?

I performed detailed Google searches, and had a back-and-forth email discussion with Zco and other competitors. I also flew to New Hampshire to visit Zco's team, in order to make sure that they understood the full scope and depth of our project. Ours wasn't an easy app to build, as it had to take students from a non-reader state, up to a 10th-grade-level in reading, writing, and spelling, with over 10 levels and 150 lessons.

How much have you invested with Zco?

This is confidential. The price of our project would not be indicative in the case of a simpler, more straight-forward app.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our app was launched almost 3 years ago. I have hired Zco to update the app as-needed, with every iOS change.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Our work with Zco was very successful, and I'm tremendously satisfied. I would use them again without reservation. Our apps have over 100,000 users. Through our in-app purchases, people can buy any of our 10 levels of lessons. Zco was a bit skeptical that users would pay $30 per level, but I wasn't, given that I know our user base. On the launch day, we became flooded with error messages from Apple, saying that we had exceeded the dollar amount allowed per day, in terms of purchases. People were trying to buy 5-10 levels at a time, which came in conflict with a security feature from Apple.

How did Zco perform from a project management standpoint?

We were quoted on a project basis, and Zco finished on time and on budget. I only had to meet Zco's team one time, in the beginning, in order to make sure that they understood the scope of our project. That was a worthwhile trip, and Zco has remained tremendously responsive by both email and phone. Zco did everything I requested, and explained items which I didn't understand.

What did you find most impressive about Zco?

We tried a different app developer initially, and had a bad experience. Zco let me know that we'd be contacted once the initial layout had been created, showing me screenshots of how things worked and why, and allowing me to request any changes. After that, we'd also be included in the beta testing process. This was very different to the other company we'd used, which wanted us to constantly spend time proofing their work. Zco let me run my company, while they did all the leg work. This made our collaboration a pleasure. I wasn't bothered every week for various tasks.

Are there any areas Zco could improve?

No.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Zco?

I would recommend that any client meet with Zco's team and show them as much as possible about the requirements. The more Zco can understand about what the app is supposed to do, and who the customer base is, the better they'll perform.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company has developed a mobile-based trash hauling app, similar to the Uber service. Independent haulers can be contracted to pick up people's trash using our mobile app. I am the founder and the Chief Executive Officer of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Zco?

We needed development resources for our app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Zco developed my application and also produced an orientation video aimed at both haulers and clients. Since we didn't have a marketing department, we used Zco for a logo design as well.

We've taken part in the marketing for the app, but Zco provided suggestions for what the functionalities of the app should be, like Google Maps integration.

How did you come to work with Zco?

We received 3-4 offers from different app developers. Zco offered a more turn-key solution, and they were priced competitively.

How much have you invested with Zco?

The total cost of Zco's services has been around $125,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The app is finished, and we're planning to roll it out soon.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We haven't launched the app yet, so I have no metrics.

How did Zco perform from a project management standpoint?

We envisioned most of the app’s functionalities, and Zco accommodated us well. Revisions were made when necessary, so I was happy with Zco's service.

What did you find most impressive about Zco?

Zco was always very responsive when we had an issue. We sent our requests to the team in India and received results the next morning. Zco was a professional company.

Are there any areas Zco could improve?

Zco should employ someone on the US side who would have more business understanding of the app development field. This way, they wouldn't have to rely so heavily on the client for the general development vision.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

5 Stones intelligence [5Si] is a global intelligence and investigations company based in the United States with offices throughout the world. I'm the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Zco?

We went to Zco develop an app designed to encourage the reporting of information and intelligence regarding human trafficking.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Zco provided ground-up guidance with respect to app development, use, and operation.  

How did you come to work with Zco?

We chose Zco over several competitors due to their depth of knowledge, subject matter expertise, and availability on nights and weekends to respond to our needs.

How much have you invested with Zco?

The total project cost just around $75,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project took approximately one year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

One of the apps Zco built for us, the STOP APP, has been widely accepted and is in use throughout the world.

What did you find most impressive about Zco?

Zco's personal service and commitment to us as a client ultimately led to the development of trust and friendship.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

It’s a B2B app. What we do is very specialized and very niche for wireless retailers. Historically, if you go to a wireless store, the pricing information is put on a little paper price card in front of the device, and what we did is then made it where the screen itself shows the pricing, promotions, specifications, etc.. It’s a series of screens that provide as much information as a customer may want. They rotate in a very visually pleasing way, so if a customer walks into the store, the phones are all lit up, animated, showing pricing, showing promotions, and showing specifications.

I don’t know if you buy your cell phone in a store or online, but in a store, it’s a pretty lengthy process. What this does is it helps also show customers a lot of the other promotions the sales reps may not. By the time the customer finally buys their phone, they’re already ready to go; they don’t want to hear other stuff, so it helps with the promotions part.

More importantly, what it does is it instantly updates prices across the system. Let’s say you’re a carrier or retailer and you have dozens, or hundreds, or thousands of stores, prices change relatively frequently on devices. The current method that most retailers have is that they centrally print the prices out and mail them to the stores to update on a specific date, or they tell the stores, “Here’s a template. Go print it out, go cut it out, and go slide it in the little paper slot.” This allows one admin to go in and change the price and hit submit, and because it’s a mobile app, it’s updated then across their entire system. If I’m just changing the price of Device A, let’s say, an iPhone 6, instead of all the stores having to manually do it, one person can change the price in the background, hit submit, and then it’s instantly updated across the whole system.

I’m one of the co-founders. There are two of us. I’ve been responsible for designing the functionality and the UI [user interface] of the app, and then had Zco make it real.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Zco?

We hired Zco to implement and code the design of the application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did mobile app development. Then, in the back end they did a lot of dashboard PHP coding. The way it works is as follows: the admin at a store signs in on an online portal and changes the price. Zco created that part and then hooked it up to the app that they created. If the app is downloaded on each device in that store’s system in all the stores, there will be pricing updates.

They offered a lot of UI suggestions and tweaked some of our designs, but we were pretty specific about what we wanted. They were not our first developer. We had developed the app with another developer, probably spent about a year with them, and were just unhappy with the result and a variety of other elements. The other company was 100% US-based. Outsourcing has its pros and cons, but Zco was able to deliver much more functionality much more rapidly for much less money than what we were able to find with 100% domestic app development companies. Zco has its US base, and we would either work over the phone or go in person to meet. It was predominantly online through Basecamp or emails, but they were always very accessible via phone or to meet in person. There are some things that are just too nuanced that a personal meeting is more conductive than necessarily something just emailed. They were incredibly responsive.

I’ve worked with app development companies and mobile development companies, and I’ve been in marketing. I’ve had my own companies, and there’s always that challenge of scope creep. Someone says this and then, as they think about it, they keep doing more and more. We were very cognizant of that and specified everything because we had already built the app once. We knew everything that we wanted and what we didn’t, and we were very detailed about it.

Unlike any other developer I had worked with, they would bring in great ideas. Because it was their ideas, they didn’t keep charging us. If they had an idea to improve something or add functionality, they took pride of ownership and did it. They approached the work as much more of a partnership than a lot of my experience has been, where it was purely a work-for-hire gig and the developer’s goal was to extract as much money as possible and made sure they billed for every second.

How did you come to work with Zco?

We had used a development company in the past out of Portland, Maine. They were very capable; it’s just that things took a long time and always cost a lot more than what was specified. They were very capable people, but it felt like they spent a lot of time with on-the-job training, learning as they went.

When we became discouraged with them, I took a look at most of the top lists, companies like clutch, and looked at people that were regional, that we could go visit. We’re in the Northeast, so I looked at companies in metro Boston predominantly. There were very capable companies there. The process was a combination of taking a look at quality, scale, and cost. Looking at some of the clients that Zco had, they had some apps that scaled very high, so we knew that they could support the back end and that their infrastructure was sound. That was criteria one because with the app that we have, we plan to scale worldwide. It’s applicable to our clientele around the world.

The other criteria was that the company had to be familiar with other cultures, other carriers, and things around the world. By having somebody who is outsourced, and someone who has a more global footprint, they fit the bill there. Another realistic criteria was cost. Taking a look at what some of the other premium app development companies were, they were dramatically more affordable. Those were the three major criteria that we used: the ability to scale, the ability to scale worldwide, and then overall affordability.

How much have you invested with Zco?

With them, I’m going to guess about $125,000 for this first round, and I’m going to guess we’ll spend another $25,000 to $50,000 in our next iteration. To date, I think we’ve spent $120,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The work is ongoing and will not stop in the near future. This is a long project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

It is very early to give metrics so I can just talk about project management and quality of code so far.

How did Zco perform from a project management standpoint?

The overall project management was very well done by Zco. I think the terminology today is agile style, where there would be a lot of small sprints, and they were clearly defined, clearly executed, and well done. The project management was done in their main office in Nashua, New Hampshire, and the people that oversaw that were very capable. As they would uncover something and thought there may be a better way, they were always very forthcoming in offering options. When they offered them, it wasn’t a green light to charge more; it was just to help more.

What did you find most impressive about Zco?

Since we’re a B2B app, with each client there are always going to be some unique scenarios and potential issues that could happen. They have offered a variety of ways to accommodate that. We had one scenario where it was an error that I had done. We had a ton of data, and it’s designed to be able to upload and create a lot of data very easily, but this one client didn’t necessarily have things that followed our rules.

In the database, I had put something that they weren’t expecting. I had put letters. I put NA as in not available for something that the database was expecting to be numbers. Inadvertently, towards the end of their day there, on my side here I broke it. We were planning on showing it to the client the next day, so I was preparing for it.

I called out with the emergency and the team worked, I think, throughout the entire night just to make sure that the deliverable was delivered, even though the error was completely my fault. It didn’t rattle them, didn’t upset them, and they just stayed and worked throughout their night until it was resolved. As big as it is – there are hundreds of rows and columns, and it was one little piece of all the data that I inadvertently broke – they went through line by line solving it and built safeguards so I couldn’t break it again.

Are there any areas Zco could improve?

This is not a knock, but if there is anything I would say that I wouldn’t rate them an A+ on, it would be some of the little quality assurance pieces. Mostly just typos. They would build in a lot of warnings if you uploaded some data that didn’t work. There would be clear communication of what didn’t work, but sometimes there would be a misspelling. Some of those, I found before they did.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We develop mobile apps. We use Zco as one of our development companies that worked on both of our apps. My wife and I are cofounders.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Zco?

We needed mobile app development work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Right now, everything is iOS. They’re bidding on a job for Android now. They did great with iOS. We worked with another development team and had them take the code from the old development team which was iOS and learn it. They’ve been working on that code.

How did you come to work with Zco?

We spent a ton of time researching other agencies and how different developers go to market. Some are overseas, some are strictly US, and some are hybrids. We focused on Zco - economically it worked with what we wanted to do. It was a nice hybrid model and they happened to be in our backyard. We meet with them once a week or every other week.

We found Zco much more accommodating to how we had to go to market as far as working on features rather than working on it on a time basis. They were very receptive to going back in and making sure that everything we had them do was working at 100%.

How much have you invested with Zco?

We’ll be somewhere around $50,000 once the project is completed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We have two apps. One came out at the end of December 2015 that they worked on from A to Z. They did it on time and of high quality. It actually required a few fixes, but it is up and running well now.

What did you find most impressive about Zco?

We like that Zco has a vast team. We realized the importance of depth the hard way because we started with a smaller team. Zco seems to have a tremendous amount of depth to their team. If one person can’t figure it out, they’re very up front in saying that they have a specialist who can, and that we should give it a try. That’s a nice selling feature of theirs.

Are there any areas Zco could improve?

They’re like anybody else. We watch what we do very carefully, no matter who we work with. It’s not just about the money, but the quality of work. Once in a while things will escape their quality assurance that we have to catch, but they go back and fix it. Other than that, Zco is a great team to work with.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

The name of the company is Zentangle, and we teach a meditational art form. We’ve been doing this for about 12 or 13 years.

What is your position?

I’m the President.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Zco Corporation?

To support our community, we developed an integrated application to allow people to post their artwork, that is created according to the Zentangle method, with people in the Zentangle community, and then to arrange the images in groups as well as comment on the images. The name of the app is Zentangle Mosaic, and the reason that we call it mosaic is that the individual artforms are made up of small pieces we call tiles. Users will post the tiles, and each one is like a little mini blog. People can comment on them, and we have a large community around the world, probably hundreds of thousands if not millions. We have about 2,500 teachers in 33 countries that have come to the U.S. to learn how to teach it.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

We released the app in several languages, and then today we’re upgrading to iPad and adding some more languages so that it’s now available in English, Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Japanese, and complex Chinese. There is a free version, which you can look around at low resolution, and there is a subscription version at a monthly rate and a yearly rate that allows you full access for commenting, posting, and seeing everything in high res.

How did you come to work with Zco Corporation?

I went online and looked for best app makers, and they came up with really great reviews and really good comments about them. An additional fact that was intriguing to us was how close they were geographically. We’re in Central Massachusetts, they’re in Southern New Hampshire, and we were able to go up there to see the team physically and sit with them at the table. They’ve been down to our offices here, and we were able to develop a good personal relationship based on some initial contact. I think they had won a few awards in our space. We contacted them, continued to follow up, and decided we wanted to work with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Zco provided what we asked them for, and that grew out of lengthy meetings with them. Our team would go up oftentimes, four or five of us, and we’d sit in the conference room for hours, or they would come down and see us. Many whiteboards and many user interface documents later, we hit upon the basic format. The user interface was over 100 pages. It’s a fairly sophisticated app right out of the gate.

We had a very clear vision of what we wanted going in, and we knew our product and our customers, but what I think is really key in this case is that this wasn’t something that they could just pull off a shelf and say “yep, we can do that, here it is.” They had to get into a headspace to really understand our somewhat unique community and business model. They were able to get inside our heads and come to a place that we could work really closely with them so that we weren’t having to explain what we wanted all the time. Then, they were able to take that even further and bring a lot of their experience and insights to give us suggestions based on our ideas. That definitely added a lot of value to the app.

What distinguishes Zco Corporation from other providers?

That’s hard to say because they’re the only app development team that we’ve worked with. However, we really appreciate that whenever we email Zco, we get an answer immediately back from somebody, and every issue that we’ve raised has either been corrected quickly or worked on into the next version, or we’ll have a discussion and then decide not to do it. They’re very good about being very clear on what the hours will be for a particular project and then coming in on those hours so we’re able to plan our expenses and decide whether we do a specific upgrade now or wait. All of those things have been really valuable to us.

Is there anything Zco Corporation could have improved or done differently?

I don’t know what I don’t know, so it’s hard to say as comparatively. This is our first app. However, I can say that there’s nothing that has come up where we wished that they could do something different or better.

Everything is beautifully recorded. Any time there’s a question, it’s immediately resolved, whether that’s development or the rare billing question. I think that’s a good thing. In any project of this magnitude, there are going to be things that I forgot to say or they forgot to say, and that’s usually when you realize what type of relationship you have with somebody as how you work out unexpected events. I have no complaints and all compliments.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a produce wholesale distributor in the San Francisco Bay Area. We distribute fresh produce to grocery stores in California.

What is your position?

I am a Regional Sales Manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Zco?

We wanted to create a marketing tool in order to reach customers and educate them on new products. In the produce industry, things change daily and weekly. Products go in and out of season, so we try to keep people informed through video and pictures. Users are able to access that information through the mobile app, which is available on both iOS and Android. We also provide pricing for products which are accessible through a username and password.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

We're using Zco to develop a web-based pricing software which interlinks with our website, pulling product information and delivering it to the mobile app.

How did you come to work with Zco?

I used a ranking site which featured Zco in one of the top positions based on customer satisfaction. I reached out to the companies within the first 4 positions, ultimately deciding to use Zco.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

Over the last 2 years, we've spent approximately $100,000 on the development process.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our app is functional at the moment, but we're continuing to build its next toolset using Zco.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We definitely feel that the engagement with Zco has been successful. We have a collaborative process, so Zco won't always be able to do exactly what we want due to software constraints. In the end though, Zco has delivered awesome work. Every user that has given us feedback has said that the app is easy to use and intuitive. It is one of the better apps which our clients have used.

How did Zco perform from a project management standpoint?

In terms of customer service, Zco has always addressed every issue which we've had and they strived to deliver exactly what we were looking for.

What distinguishes Zco from other providers?

I've worked with a few developers. Zco is strong in terms of design capabilities. They have an ability to choose relevant designs, which makes them stand out.

Is there anything Zco could have improved or done differently?

The only issue which we didn't know in the beginning was that, when an app is created, there is a maintenance need that goes along with it. iOS and Android are constantly updating, so some of our features came to not work properly as a result. We came to find out that maintenance was an added service with Zco. We've come past this, but I wish that it would have been communicated better in the beginning.