Appinventiv

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

I don’t think it had such an impact on the organization overall because the app is for an online community which is for a project we are involved in. We are not the only organization that is involved in the project. 

Their work has been more beneficial to the project and not so much to the organization. This project runs in a few countries where internet connectivity isn’t the best, and the web platform is sometimes too much for their internet connections. 

Having the app was also good for many users because they could see the content even when being offline. This was one of our criteria, and, from the feedback we received, this was something that was appreciated. Additionally, throughout the partnership, Appinventiv has given us stable support.

How did Appinventiv perform from a project management standpoint?

Overall, their project management has been great. At the very beginning, we needed some time to get started when the designs were done, and all the concepts looked good, but we were waiting for the development to make progress. 

In the end, it was due to the API being a bit complicated apparently. When that was overcome, everything went well. At first, we used a project management tool for small updates, but, in between, we didn’t. The first version was the biggest package and then we had a rather limited scope.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication and responsiveness stand out to us considering the time difference we have between Europe and India, which is about five and a half hours.

When I send them something in the afternoon my time, I know it is about 9 p.m. in India, but I usually still get a reply within the same day, which is exceptional.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing I can think of. We did experience a hurdle in the initial few weeks where the designs were ready and we weren’t quite clear where the development stood. However, that was a while ago and it hasn’t happened since.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have someone from your end to accompany the project. That is relevant for any project partner and it is particularly important if you have expectations.

You need someone from your own company to properly communicate what you want otherwise it will always be difficult. This is key for them and would also be key for other projects.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The first product — an Android app — we worked on with them didn’t do well in the market. So, we went to them with a new idea and that did better, but not really well. We then did a third product that clicked with our tattoo artists, but it didn’t click with the customers. We did one more and figured out how to market the product.

How did Appinventiv perform from a project management standpoint?

Appinventiv has very good developers and project managers. However, they failed to estimate exactly how many days it would take to develop the product, which was a challenge. Other than that, they managed the project well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very good technical folks. Their delivery manager is always supportive and really understanding. Additionally, Appinventiv is very accommodating to make changes.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could have better estimated the timeline because they weren’t able to stick to it. It needed to be extended out a couple of months.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Appinventiv is an excellent company with great customer support. They understand and deliver according to the requirements. The only downside is their estimates.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

We had to break it off because it was a complete disaster. To give a little overview, we sent them an 88-page FRS when we were negotiating. It detailed every single thing. The design was finished, the FRS was written, the technical documentation was presented, and they had plenty of time to review. They said they could deliver in three months with a team of nine developers. That became four and then five months and so on. They promised to build the backend in React, but then we realized they didn’t have any in-house React resources.

Then, they persuaded us to switch the language to PHP, which wasn’t ideal but we went with it because we were pressed for time. Again, we found that that the two developers they’d given us were also working on another project. We had four project manager changes. We had to give them access to our AWS, and one of their developers deleted our website, which cost us over $15,000 to produce. They offered no remedy whatsoever. We asked for them to do something many times but they haven’t agreed. They fired the resource, but that doesn’t compensate for the damage. We had to spend another three months building a website, paying for all of it ourselves.

We didn’t start the agreement until we ensured that all the code would be put on our Git repository, and then, later during the development phase, we realized they weren’t using our Git. They held our code hostage until we made payments, contrary to our agreement. We negotiated it beforehand and they didn’t honor it. There was no code documentation from their end whatsoever, and there was no QA, so they used us and our team as their own personal QA, telling us to check this and that. it was very basic stuff that we had to do over and over.

They delivered under 40% of the project after one year when it was supposed to take only three months. We had to let them go and carry on with somebody else.

How did Appinventiv perform from a project management standpoint?

They changed the project manager four times without notice. The new manager wouldn’t read the FRs, which I think is absolutely critical. How are you going to manage a team building a complex project without reading the client’s documentation? Usually, vendors will get on a discovery call, understand our objectives, and they’ll write it for us. We incurred the cost of writing it ourselves to ensure that they understood what we wanted to accomplish in their language.

Each switch was detrimental, going from bad to worse. There were technical problems, and I’m not a technical guy. I spent hours on Google to find solutions for them, send it to them, and they would try to address it. As a non-developer, it’s hard to understand which technologies, frameworks, and libraries are compatible with one another. I shouldn’t have had to do this for them, but, even though I did, we still got nowhere.

What did you find most impressive about them?

No, not at all.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They should hire better resources and dedicate them to projects rather than sharing them. They had one or two good resources, and they put them on several projects, meaning they couldn’t concentrate on any one project specifically.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If your project is very, very simple, extremely simple, perhaps it will work. But, if its anything semi-serious, they are not the company to go with.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

The app launched a few days ago, and we already have seven or eight five-star reviews. Granted, these are mostly from family and friends, but Appinventiv is helping me gain more traction on the App Store. I’m in touch with their head of marketing, and we connect via Skype every now and then to discuss tactics.

How did Appinventiv perform from a project management standpoint?

We had a project manager, Shagun (Project Coordinator, Appinventiv), who was in touch with us every single day. She was awesome to work with and would give me frequent updates about what they were doing. We typically had meetings three to five times a week to go over the direction of the app. 

I would correct the course whenever I needed to, but for the most part, they stuck to my vision. They were always willing to look over my drawings and ideas, and we’d set up a meeting if there was a major change. They sent me a recap at the end of each week with plans for the next week.

The communication was super clear and effective. Even if we had stuck to just Skype calls, it would have been perfectly suitable. The in-person meetings were just an added bonus. 

They used Basecamp for tracking progress and Skype for communication. I wasn’t super familiar with Basecamp, but it’s an easy tool for sharing files and discussing changes. We would often use Basecamp to talk about ideas and then have a Skype meeting if we needed to clarify anything. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I didn’t have that many expectations going into the engagement, and they still managed to blow me away. I’m a young guy with a dream and zero experience in app development, and they’ve made sure that my dream continues to become a reality.

Even from the beginning, I had the COO and the head of marketing reaching out to me. It felt like a ton of personal attention despite my having such a small brand.

I was also super impressed with their designer. He was phenomenal. I’m terrible at drawing and sent over the worst illustrations, and he always made them look amazing. He did screen designs and interface designs, as well.

He was also very responsive and would reach out to me personally whenever he needed more information. Working with me was probably a challenge at times, but they made it an incredibly nice experience.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I haven’t had any issues with them. Part of that could be because I’ve never worked with an app developer before, but I can’t think of any areas for improvement. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Go in with as much information about your ideal product as possible. They’ll make exactly what you want. Their head engineer once told me that they would be able to build any of my ideas, and that nothing is impossible for them. That stuck with me.

Especially if you’re like me and don’t have any coding experience, try to use resources online to gain a better sense of what’s possible. Have a detailed plan and idea, because they’ll be able to deliver it, whatever it is.