Interactive Smartbook Development for Educational Company
- Custom Software Development Mobile App Development
- $10,000 to $49,999
- May 2021 - Mar. 2022
- Quality
- 0.5
- Schedule
- 0.5
- Cost
- 0.5
- Willing to Refer
- 0.5
“The team should spend more time with their client to understand their requirements.”
- Education
- Mumbai, India
- 1,001-5,000 Employees
- Phone Interview
- Verified
Agency Coda was hired to develop a smartbook platform for an educational company. They used PHP and C# on the backend and Angular on the frontend. For the platform’s mobile app version, they used Flutter.
The company was disappointed with Agency Coda. The team had asked for deadline extensions two times, but they ultimately didn’t deliver the platform. Even the work they did finish also had flaws. The client also noted that the firm insisted on asking for payments even when nothing was delivered.
This review includes the service provider's response.
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
BACKGROUND
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m a product manager at an educational company. I handle the firm’s technology platforms.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
What challenge were you trying to address with Agency Coda?
We approached Agency Coda to create a smartbook platform that could transform InDesign files into interactive smartbooks. For context, our educational books were all made in InDesign, and they were published all in the same format. This process took a long time since we had more than 5,000 SKUs.
SOLUTION
What was the scope of their involvement?
Agency Coda’s task was to create an interactive smartbook reader. By interactive, I meant the platform should have animations, audios, and other interactive exercises — everything that was in the book should be interactive. They used PHP and C# on the backend and Angular for the frontend. We also used Flutter for the iOS and Android development of the platform.
What is the team composition?
I directly coordinated with Juan (Co-Founder & COO). We also worked with project managers. In fact, we interacted with three project managers over the course of 6–8 months. After switching between two project managers, Juan himself became our project manager.
Moreover, Matias (CTO & Co-Founder) handled the technical aspects of the project. The financials were handled by Delfina (Manager of Strategic Partnerships & Solutions Architect). I also interacted with their Flutter and Angular developers.
How did you come to work with Agency Coda?
We found Agency Coda on Upwork. Our team also shortlisted a couple of other teams, but we chose Agency Coda because of their confidence in building the technology we wanted. They told us that they’d created something similar to our app in the past, and they were confident that they could deliver our needs.
How much have you invested with them?
We spent around $45,000–$46,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
The project lasted from May 2021–March 2022.
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
How did your relationship with the vendor evolve?
We broke down the project into 14 milestones, and it was supposed to wrap up by the end of December 2021. However, Agency Coda reached out to us saying that they couldn’t complete the project on the agreed-upon deadline; they said they needed one more month to do it.
At that point, we essentially had nothing. We didn’t have any admin panel or any working frontend. All they gave us was the UI design, which was also not completely functional. No services were connected to the app. Even so, we agreed to their request. After a month, they reached out to us again, saying that the project was still not done; they said they needed 1–2 more months to do it. As a result, the project was extended until February 2022.
By the end of that new deadline, Agency Coda talked to us and said they couldn’t do it, describing the project as technologically impossible. What they submitted to us wasn’t even 10% of the platform. Because of this, our team was disappointed in them; this wasn’t how they should’ve behaved. They didn’t coordinate well with us. They never informed us that they couldn’t do this type of project.
We asked them about their plan the whole time. In fact, we asked them how they planned to get everything done and give us some ideas, but they always said they were already moving ahead with the project. We spent $46,000 on this, and that was a huge amount of money for us — and we basically had nothing in our hands.
On top of that, the team was truly unprofessional. They didn’t even give us access to their GitLab; they were only sharing code on Google Drive. A good technological company wouldn’t do that. If they were good, they would show us all the libraries they used on GitLab.
How did Agency Coda address the challenges that arose?
Even when we told Agency Coda that we were not satisfied with their work because they didn’t give us anything, they still kept asking us for more money. They stopped working on the project the moment I told them we couldn’t give them money unless they delivered results.
In fact, they stopped the project twice. They said that the timeline was over, and that supposedly meant we should give them the payment. Again, they didn’t deliver anything, so there was no reason for me to release any more payments even though we’d crossed the timeline — and we’d only crossed that timeline because they didn’t deliver on time.
Recently, I sent them an email asking them to justify the reason for their request for more payments. They said they’d get back to me shortly — they didn’t. The team only ended the project, and they didn’t even inform me. They hadn’t even responded to my email.
How was project management handled?
We used Slack to communicate and tracked milestones on Google Drive. Our team also had weekly standup calls with them, which we increased to biweekly. Even during that time, they never wanted to be on the call with us for more than 30 minutes.
I would’ve preferred the project to be managed on Jira. Agency Coda also should’ve been more clear about the deliverables. We had fixed deliverables, and if they delivered something to me, I would’ve tested it — and then I’d release their payment. That was a fair way to manage the project.
Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength?
No, there weren’t any.
In what specific areas can they improve?
Agency Coda should improve on everything. Their project management should be more transparent, and their communication should improve. The team should spend more time with their client to understand their requirements. They didn’t do this properly even though we had an initial discussion.
We were building this product for over eight months, and they should’ve ensured that they understood all of our requirements before going on with the project. They came to me when the deadline was up, claiming they couldn’t develop the features I wanted. I then wondered what they’d been doing over the past eight months.
What advice do you have for clients with similar needs to yours?
Don’t work with Agency Coda. I’ve spent a huge amount of money on them and this project, and I’m not sure if I’m ever going to get my money back. If you actually want to work with them, don’t release payments unless they’ve already given you working deliverables. Do not trust them on anything.
Company Responses
The service provider responded on May 2, 2022.
Dear Customer,
We are so sorry to hear your experience was negative. Please, let us respectfully disagree with what was mentioned because of the following:
First, as agreed in the beginning by both parties, timeframes are estimations, and of course, they are susceptible to any changes introduced into the Scope of the Project, which you happened to do constantly. Some examples of your delays were: replacing your Project Manager several times, late feedback, changes to the original approved Designs, new requirements and functionalities, and unresponsiveness — sometimes, even for weeks.
Moreover, every payment you made was in constant delay (even for months) and we had to remind you to pay for work successfully delivered.
Also, a surprise, was the rating received in your review, as you paid in agreement at every part of a several months process. Please, don´t forget we were always following your instructions and approvals. We feel this review is completely out of touch with actual events and it certainly does not reflect either our real performance or commitment to the Project.
Furthermore, what we delivered on each delivery was exactly what was expected according to the Work Plan.
Contrary to your false and defamatory claims, we have substantial evidence and records of what we mention here. We are happy to provide records that back up all points above if needed, including screen captures and transcripts from our conversations.
We’re not perfect and are constantly making improvements, but what you mentioned in your review is simply not true.
Thank you,
The Coda team.
RATINGS
-
Quality
0.5Service & Deliverables
-
Schedule
0.5On time / deadlines
-
Cost
0.5Value / within estimates
-
Willing to Refer
0.5NPS