Appinventiv

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CPTO of a large recruiting and staffing agency in Asia Pacific region.

For what projects/services did your company hire Appinventiv, and what were your goals?

We identified an opportunity in the market to serve short-term job workers better and provide a better service to businesses that needs them. We wanted to build a mobile first platform that streamlines the entire experience starting from job searching, shift assignment to salary payment for workers. At the same time provide an almost-instant job fulfillment experience for businesses that are looking for workers in short-term roles. We needed to build this solution in a very short time frame, getting a MVP out to market for rapid learning, refine feature sets and build momentum starting with selected industries.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We found them through Google and chose them after comparing against another vendor. The deciding factor was their past experience in the similar domain and their clear communication during the deciding phase.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The project scope includes early exploration of ideas and solutions, defining key features and targeted users, agreement on critical business outcomes and creating delivery milestones that is achievable. Once project requirements and scopes are finalized, the development process starts with wireframes, design systems, screen designs and eventually moving on to agile user stories and continuous releases of completed features.

Towards the end of project, production release readiness includes stress testing and load testing to ensure platform performance can meet projected business growth in the first year. With the target external users and internal users in mind, the platform requires a mix of mobile application, web application and cloud based infrastructure along with a range of 3rd party services to enable fast and reliable transactions that are critical for great user experience but not core value proposition of the product.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Over the duration of the project, we worked with approximately 20 people. The team starts small with a few senior leads such as project manager, product owner, but quickly expand as the project moves from discovery phase to design (2 designers joined) and eventually delivery phase. In delivery phase, at any given time we’d be working with 6-8 engineers from various skill sets such as front-end engineers, mobile app engineers, backend engineers, test engineers and system architect.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Prior to a planned Beta launch, we had a series of pre-launch test or pilots planned. There’s a total of 4 test planned with the intention to improve our launch confidence and test/validate ideas pre-launch. All 4 test requires the product to be in various state of readiness so that internal users can run simulated scenarios and real-life scenarios using the platform. The project team managed to deliver on-time and always on stand-by during our test period which at times lasted for 2 weeks. Feedback from our testing groups were generally positive and list of improvement ideas are well received. They always work in a collaborative manner to adjust and refine the backlog based on the learnings from these tests.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Common answers include communication tools (e.g., email, Slack, Jira). The team followed a standard Agile project management style, where we would have a 2-week sprint to deliver high priority tasks, after determining what goes into the sprint in our sprint planning calls. Within the sprint, we would have catch up calls to discuss progress as well as any blockers the team might face. We had a couple of communication tools we used for various purposes: 

1. Basecamp: for announcements, release updates and meeting minutes
2. Skype: for calls and messages
3. Outlook: usually used when needed to communicate with extended groups and external parties
4. Jira: for issues and bug tracking

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Collaborative approach on every stage of the development process. And during critical milestones, the team is very supportive and reliable when time critical issues are identified.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Approach in experience design and design system could be improved. When working with more than one designers and multiple platform, consistency is sometimes lacking. UI and interaction sometimes lacks consistency in the design. However when feedback is given, they were always addressed and refined.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Expin. We’re a mobile app that was built in React Native.

What challenge were you trying to address with Appinventiv?

We hired Appinventiv to developer our mobile app.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They were supposed to build a mobile app, as well as an admin panel. The app was supposed to be in React Native, and the panel was supposed to be in React.

What is the team composition?

There were two developers, rather than the nine promised in the contract.

How did you come to work with Appinventiv?

We did a lot of research on Clutch and other review sites, and they also submitted their bid on Upwork. they offered us lots of guarantees in terms of timely deliverables. We shortlisted them, along with several other companies, based on several promises they made at the time of the negotiation of the contract.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent a little under $20,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from November 2018 until November 2019.

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.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a senior solution architect for Mutelcor, a company in the sphere of mobile telecommunication and mobile health care. We are an independent consultancy group offering market understanding and international best practices for clients across Europe, Africa, Asia, and North America for the last 15 years.

Since 2015, I’ve focused on providing telecom consulting to different network-operator clients. I also serve as a project manager for our mHealth project and am actively involved in the complete development lifecycle. I seek to explore new possibilities, solutions, and products and integrate them with our services to provide a great client experience. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Appinventiv?

We are actively involved in mobile health remote patient-monitoring solutions. We are seeking to ensure higher surgical success rates by enabling the patients to complete their follow-up period based on the protocols of their condition. Through the mHealth application, we are trying to put patients in touch with their doctors virtually all the time. This goal was somewhat tough to achieve due to the extensive activities that the app needed to support, including reminding patients about their appointments, monitoring their conditions, recommending medications, and keeping records for 5 years, which is the recovery period for bariatric surgery. So, we hired Appinventiv to build a customized mobile and web application that could achieve our innovative goal. Gladly, we found Appinventiv.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The main motive behind this platform is to enhance the success rate of bariatric surgery through optimal methods and services. Mutelcor is a platform where doctors can track their patient's records, including their appointments, medications, measurements, activities, and nutrition. Doctors can host video appointments with their patients and share required activity plans, prescriptions, and nutrition via the mobile app. On the other side, patients can set reminders for activities and receive notifications to help them complete the desired tasks and recover faster. The app offers an array of services like video calling from web to app, calendar synchronization, Bluetooth connectivity, PDF printing, and a dynamic dashboard, to name a few.

I think this project has a higher scope in the present era where people have hectic schedules and like getting their services/products on the go.

How did you come to work with Appinventiv?

With so many web and mobile application development agencies on the market, it wasn’t easy to choose one. We went through various portals, screened many companies, and communicated with a handful of them. After seeing Appinventiv’s expertise and portfolio in the health care vertical, we realized that they were the right partner for us.

Their developers have strong knowledge and experience in the health care domain and are well-versed with user expectations and technologies. They are hardworking and ensured that the communication between us was maintained properly throughout the process. They made every effort to enhance our app idea and turn it into a market-ready application. Selecting Appinventiv as our partner was a great decision.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost is confidential. Thankfully, they delivered our customized application services within the stipulated cost and without compromising on quality.

What is the status of this engagement?

The first phase took about 8–10 months. We started in November last year and they delivered the first phase in September. We are currently planning the next phase of the application with Appinventiv. 

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

The app hasn’t launched yet, but we strongly suspect that it will gain traction in the market quickly with features like WebRTC video calling and Bluetooth connectivity. We are excited to see this app taking our brand and services to the next level.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their passion for challenging jobs really stood out to me. They didn’t just deliver an application but also tried to be our technology consultant and business partner.

From day one, they showed complete interest in our idea and discussed possibilities to ensure the success of our app idea. They worked at a great pace and delivered impressive designs and other associated components within the time specified. They maintained communication throughout the engagement. They’ve invested their best efforts and made us feel relaxed about the arrival of a fully functional app.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of any.  

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a social gaming app.

What challenge were you trying to address with Appinventiv?

I wanted to develop an iOS and Android app.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were working on an iOS and Android app for a social gaming platform. I defined the scope clearly, and they instituted a milestone plan. I also asked for a website, but they weren’t able to design it on their own. The simplest tasks (headers and footers) required me to invest my own time to correct everything.

I drafted everything necessary to build a healthy business relationship and move us in the right direction but the results were never on time. I thought they’d improve because they’re a big company with headquarters in Manhattan, but it started going downhill after two months. I stopped thinking they’d improve and could no longer attribute their issues to starting slowly. I had to check certain jobs several times because they would always forget something. I’m glad I’ve closed my chapter with them.

What is the team dynamic?

We had a main point of contact, but the project lead changed three times.

How did you come to work with Appinventiv?

I was looking for reliable outsourcing companies to save money; development in Germany is quite expensive.

How much have you invested with them?

I spent over $50,000 with them. I paid in milestones and thought they’d stop working or lose motivation if I didn’t pay. I gave them my all, but they only gave me disappointment.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from June 2016 until October 2018.

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

I never received any acceptable results. It was unbelievable what I had to go through while working with them. They had limitless time and resources to develop a good app, but I only received a very bad, bug-filled build for iOS and Android. Even the simplest actions, like logging-in via Google, made the app crash. Some bugs were present for over a year.

The app wasn’t well known when we launched because I hadn’t done much marketing. This proved to be good as it crashed for 95% of users. When they went to save their birth date, it would save a different date. That was a problem for over a year. They always promised they’d do their best and improve, but nothing changed. The quality was so bad it wouldn’t make sense to use any of it. I lost two years of capital and had to start over. I’m now looking for another company to help.

How was project management handled?

We talked on Skype, but I only received empty words. They would act familiar and call me “brother,” but when they ought to have taken responsibility, they acted as if they’d done nothing wrong and barely knew me. Several times, it felt like I was talking to a bot. One developer promised to take care a problem and then gave me the same promise two days later as if he forgot he’d already said it.

They’re friendly, but their communication is misleading and doesn’t represent their results. They seemed inexperienced like I was their first client. They certainly weren’t like their website portrayed them to be. The only thing they did consistently was share invoices. 

Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength?

I can’t think of anything.

In what specific areas can they improve?

They need to be honest with their clients and not promise something they can’t deliver. They were kind and friendly, so I wanted to believe things would change; unfortunately, they didn’t. They kept making promises, and I always received disastrous builds with several old and new bugs. Finally, I had to cancel our cooperation because it was always the same, endless story. Their behavior was extremely unfair and gave me false hope for improvement. I hope I can prevent others from making the same mistake and trusting them too much.

What advice do you have for clients with similar needs to yours?

Be careful and don’t make too many payments upfront until results are in. I’m normally a private person, but I feel it’s my duty to give this review. I only worked with the headquarters in India (I have no experience with Appinventiv’s headquarters in Manhattan), but people should stay away from them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the owner of a company called CelebVue, which is an app development company specifically targeting artists, creatives, and influencers.

What challenge were you trying to address with Appinventiv?

We engaged them to help us streamline the app development process for influencers.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Appinventiv created a system from scratch that is pre-coded so that I can supply all of the artists and creatives with their own personalized applications. Our clients enter information about themselves, and the software system uploads that content into a premade template for the app. Our clients can then distribute that app to the app stores.

What is the team composition?

I spoke with about 10 people, but there could have been more on their team.

How did you come to work with Appinventiv?

I received quotes from about a dozen app development companies, but I went with Appinventiv based on the conversations we had. They were really thorough. Their attention to detail was outstanding, and they understood the process that I needed after a few minutes of conversation.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent more than $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in September 2018, and the work is ongoing.

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

The software and system they put in place are working exactly how we need them to. I couldn’t ask for much more.

How did Appinventiv perform from a project management standpoint?

Everything was on time, but I was made aware of any delays along the way. They followed through on their promises, and their attention to detail was pretty flawless. We tracked the project through Basecamp, and Skype was our primary communication tool.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication skills are notable. I never had to wait long for a response. They quickly answered any question I had.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing worth mentioning. It was an easy process.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d recommend working with them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of Skylark Innovations LLC. We’re an internet of things (IoT) solution provider, focusing on transportation and mobility management.

What challenge were you trying to address with Appinventiv?

We were building a web-based solution to help track vehicles. We had a basic prototype ready but needed a complete redesign of the user interface and a ton of feature development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Appinventiv was involved in all development phases of the project, from architecture definition, UI/UX design, web application development, and server-side scripting to deployment. The application was primarily developed in Javascript, PHP, and nodeJS.

What is the team composition?

The core team comprised of a technical lead and developers. We were assigned a project manager, but our lead was so strong in both technical and project management domains that we barely had to rely on the project manager. We had a business analyst who helped with wireframes, a design and html team to bring the wireframes to life, and a development team to make it all work.

How did you come to work with Appinventiv?

We found Appinventiv on Clutch and selected them based on their reviews and work portfolio. Initial communication via email was quick and precise. I decided to meet them on site to discuss the project details and finalize the contract. During our on-site meeting, Appinventiv assigned us an excellent technical lead, and I met the management team as well. By the end of the day, we had laid out a detailed project plan and even finalized a simple and intuitive user interface for our application. After this meeting, there was no doubt that Appinventiv would be a great partner in developing our project, and it turned out to be exactly that.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve worked with them on this project since April 2018, and our team size and project scope continue to expand.

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

We launched our beta product, which was very well received by our customers. For a startup, this is a crucial stage, and product quality and reliability are deciding factors to success. Appinventiv delivered a great beta. The deployment process was very fluid, and the team’s ability to respond to refinements and updates was swift. The overall experience was wonderful, and this gave us the confidence to significantly increase the project scope for launch.

How did Appinventiv perform from a project management standpoint?

All of the top-level management is extremely responsive and approachable. Our project lead is a technical superstar, has an impeccable work ethic, and is very transparent and responsive. He guides the entire team while also contributing to the development efforts himself. I appreciate how reliable they are; if they promise to do something by a certain deadline, they absolutely do.

In terms of communication, they’re willing to listen to feedback and take it in a constructive way. They implement our comments within a realistic timeframe and are committed to ensuring customer satisfaction.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Appinventiv's focus towards customer success, track record for meeting project goals with increasingly complex requirements, and ability to respond quickly to unforeseen scenarios make them a great development partner.

They’re a great service provider with concrete assets and house a staff of 300–350 developers. The organization has a great culture and work ethics, which translates into great product development. Appinventiv hits a lot of benchmarks like technology, quality, reliability, communication and feedback.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Appinventiv is expanding into new technological frontiers such as AR and VR, and I encourage them in this endeavor. Our own project in the near future will incorporate AR, and we look forward to developing these features with Appinventiv.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Although it’s not always possible, meeting face to face during project definition phases helps ensure a successful engagement. Appinventiv was very accommodative to our on-site visit requests, and, for that, we are very grateful.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and owner of Beprosoft Venture, a Belgian venture capital firm.

What challenge were you trying to address with Appinventiv?

We hired Appinventiv to build a mobile application based on our set of internal requirements.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We envisioned a social networking app that would help connect users face-to-face. The guidelines specified Android and iOS versions with a React Native frontend. Appinventiv chose PHP and MongoDB for the backend.

What is the team dynamic?

We worked with a project manager and one developer.

How did you come to work with Appinventiv?

I found the CEO and project manager via Upwork. Appinventiv appeared to be a good company with impressive experience.

How much have you invested with them?

I spent $2,000 on a down payment. Appinventive estimated the total cost at $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2018 and I ended the partnership a few months later in October.

How did the relationship with Appinventiv evolve?

The project’s original timeline was five months, but problems arose after only eight weeks. The team started coding without a structure or database architecture, even though we provided documentation. The demo was not functional during in-house tests. I emailed the CEO, development team, and project manager, but none of them responded.

Appinventiv had insisted on a $2,000 deposit. But it was after the demo tests that I ended the partnership and requested a refund. Although the team hadn’t been responsive, Peeyush (COO, Appinventiv) did reach out to say a refund wasn’t possible.

How did the vendor address the problems that arose?

I told Peeyush that the team was not professional and the project wasn’t working. Peeyush apologized and offered to change the development team; he acknowledged by architecture and mobile app development expertise. However, we didn’t see any follow through on that offer. Appiventiv continued to write unstable code for a non-functional product.

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

I haven’t received a code and my money is gone. Since this was a startup project, my business partner and I had to raise funds for the build.

How was project management handled?

I preferred to work with Appiventiv through Upwork, but they requested to arrange the project outside of the platform. We primarily communicated via Skype.

Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength?

No, I had a negative experience.

In what specific areas can they improve?

The team was unresponsive. Their lack of communication cost me a significant amount of time.

What advice do you have for clients with similar needs to yours?

Appinventiv is a larger company. They typically assign junior developers and other less-experienced resources to projects.

This review was updated on November 30th, 2018, by the client. The original star ratings were: Overall - 1, Quality - .5, Schedule - 2, Cost - 1, NPS - .5. New content is below:

What is the status of this engagement?

After the MVP was completed, I resumed working with them again in November 2018. Appinventiv has changed the project manager and added more senior people to the main project, and we have started working on it again.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did the relationship with Appinventiv evolve?

Initially, there was some lack of communication as mentioned in my original review. However, I like the company and the people overall. They tried to get things sorted out, but somehow things didn't go as well as planned.

How did the vendor address the problems that arose?

I'd hired an intern and wanted to train him alongside the Appinventiv team, but this went wrong at some point. We're now working with their new team of senior resources.

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

The code I received was not complete as the project is a long-term project. I'm giving them some more time to wrap things up with the new team and further continue development for next release.

How was project management handled?

We mutually agreed to work outside of Upwork because both sides were uncomfortable paying extra through the freelancer platform. Instead, we chose to pay them through wire transfers.

Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength?

Appinventiv is a process-oriented organization with skilled resources. I should have given their experts more time to settle and understand the project's complexity before expecting results.

In what specific areas can they improve?

As a startup builder company, we always look for quick turnaround times, which might have led to an unorganized work plan in our case.

The Appinventiv team could have helped us better understand their process and the industry's way of working in more detail, which would have helped us set more realistic expectations. I wish they took more time to clarify the knowledge transfer processes and agile formulas to non-IT people. A written manual on process would work.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief founder and the CEO of Group Set Go. We have a mobile platform that connects people for group activities such as fishing trips.

What challenge were you trying to address with Appinventiv?

We hired them to build our mobile platform.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Appinventiv developed the platform on a React Native technology stack for both iOS and Android. We provided the team with a complete scope, including the key features; we also supplied screenshots of other applications for inspiration. The team then did wireframes and mind mapping; our side sketched out designs before the development phase.

From there, Appinventiv built out the features. They created the payment gateway to accommodate the different dynamics and exceptions that go into planning group events. Next, they created filters for activity hosts to set gender and age preferences. The team also enabled hosts to promote their events on social media platforms.

Recently, we’ve released beta versions to select audiences and plan to launch the app in November 2018. Beta features include account creation, user authentication via Google, and email- and Facebook-based logins. New users automatically enter the group chat and have the option to engage in one-on-one chats.

For each event posting, the app lists cost ranges, which calculate capacity and the initial price. Users don’t have to pay for an activity until five days before the event; the platform lets users plan and modify the activity before they’re charged. Our company processes payments and then releases the money to hosts after the trip’s completion to prevent strangers from exchanging funds.

What is the team composition?

We work with a project manager, QA resources, and technical leads for the frontend and backend. Their senior management gets involved in high-level issues.

How did you come to work with Appinventiv?

Our team decided on React Native before hiring a vendor. We then used Clutch to assess 10 vendors with React Native expertise, which I then shortlisted to eight American, Ukrainian, and Indian agencies. My previous experience with international agencies made me cautious in selecting the right partner.

Appinventiv had the best bid; they understood our concepts, proposed a compelling approach, and displayed interest in pursuing our goals. The team met my expectations for a React Native partner, which is not always easy to accomplish.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Appinventiv in February 2018, and the collaboration is ongoing.

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

Despite my initial concerns about working with an offshore vendor, Appinventiv has been the right partner for this project. The team is committed to meeting deadlines; they work at night to push screens and tasks through the development process. User testing has also exceeded my expectations. The platform is functional and has only minor bugs around issues such as cost estimates. The positive user feedback excites us, as does the solution’s great look and feel.

How did Appinventiv perform from a project management standpoint?

During development, we had daily status calls—sometimes just 10-minute touch points—and only skipped them on the rare occasions when everyone was clear about the work. In addition to calls, I received weekly and daily status reports; the project manager and I spoke every Sunday to review the prior week the plan priorities for the upcoming one.

To verify everything was on track, Appinventiv did mini-demos in between functionality deliveries. The team originally used Basecamp to track progress, but I pushed them toward Slack because I didn’t care for the first tool. Although everyone has Skype, Slack remains our primary method for communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Appinventiv is committed to client satisfaction. Since the project is a fix-bid engagement, I’ve documented as much as I could to avoid scope changes and bugs. Although I promised the team in advance that we wouldn’t have significant scope creep, a few minor adjustments were necessary. Appinventiv has accommodated us in a flexible and reasonable manner; they've never complained. I can’t envision a better experience than what I had.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The team’s commitment is great, but their project management—including methodology and approach—could improve slightly. We started a bit haphazardly; the original project manager may not have been the best fit for our needs. I escalated the issue to Appinventiv’s leadership, and they immediately assigned me another resource in quick order.

Additionally, I’ve had issues with some Skype-based status calls because our internet connection isn’t always reliable. We lose the day when we can’t connect with Appinventiv. However, these are minor issues, and I have nothing against their team.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients should be clear with scope requirements, but also remain open to minor changes. Feel free to escalate issues as needed. As long as customers are fair, Appinventiv will fix issues right away in a fair manner. Expect to have a good experience with them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a multinational light installation company, providing lighting solutions for a wide range of applications (e.g., offices, schools, roads, private homes). Our offices span Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and more. I serve as the managing director of the Danish office and am also part of the management team across all locations.

What challenge were you trying to address with Appinventiv?

In the lighting industry, there are a lot of regulations to follow, so it’s important to understand how much light a project requires as well as how that light spreads in its environment. Although there are several programs on the market that can calculate those logistics, they’re all complicated to use. You’d need to be a highly-educated professional to make sure that you’re staying within regulations.

So, we decided to make a user-friendly app that allows independent contractors to easily calculate lighting needs while meeting regulations. We’d actually created an initial version with a local company, but it wasn’t as successful as we’d hoped. Appinventiv joined the project to help us build a new app from scratch.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Appinventiv has worked closely with our team to create a lighting calculation app for iOS/Android, iPad, and web. It’s quite a complicated project, so we wanted to make sure that the solution featured a nice-looking interface to streamline the UX. 

By using our app, it’s now possible to calculate a building’s lighting needs down to individual rooms with a single click. When a user logs in, they can access installation data directly from our servers to help evaluate their needs. The app will then determine the lighting requirements based on the user’s inputs, ensure that it’s within regulations, and produce a PDF quote. 

To do this, we collaborated with another software company to build a lumen calculation engine. Appinventiv’s team connected that engine to the app before linking it with our product information management servers. We’ve recently finished the first part of our project and are working with them on the second.

What is the team composition? 

There’s a tech lead who coordinates the project along with about 4–5 programmers. Additional resources join in from time to time, depending on the development needs.

How did you come to work with Appinventiv?

As I’ve mentioned, we’d worked with a local developer to build the first version of our app. However, it wasn’t as user-friendly as we’d liked, and the project was getting insanely expensive with every change. So, we decided to forgo that version and start over.

We knew that we wanted to outsource the work abroad. It wasn’t a question of finding the cheapest vendor but, rather, finding a company that conducted themselves professionally. After searching online, I shortlisted about 5–7 options that had a decent website and good references. I sent them a short tender to see if they could handle the assignment, looking at their time estimates and pricing.

Out of all of the candidates, Appinventiv gave a fantastic first impression. They delivered a professional PDF of their offer, which included all of our asks. They explained how the process would work, went into another client case that was similar, and came in for an interview. In the end, we chose them because we had the best gut-feeling.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $250,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2018, and it’s ongoing. We’ve finished the initial requirements and have requested more features along the way. We’re now entering the second part of the project.

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

The solution is pretty amazing; it works, is user-friendly, and seems to be bug-free. In terms of the design, it’s easy to look at and is consistent with our company brand. It’s hard to say how many users will join our app since we’ve just released it, but we’re pretty confident that this will be a success.

How did Appinventiv perform from a project management standpoint?

It’s been excellent because we have our own project management system. We communicate through phone and Skype meetings, and they give us weekly updates on what they’ve done and have planned. I’ve also visited their offices in India about 3–4 times.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most impressive thing about working with Appinventiv is that not once have they said “no” to a request. We often give them difficult tasks, but they’ve always come through. They’ve really built the world for us. Our solution’s capabilities are more complicated, but the use is far simpler. 

On top of that, when I first met them, they had around 150–200 employees. They’ve since doubled their headcount to over 400 in about 1.5 years. That really says something about them as a company.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we’re happy about the work they’ve done for us.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you don’t know what you want going into the project and haven’t sorted out the details from the start, then it’s unlikely that you’ll succeed. It gets harder and more expensive to change your ideas as you continue forward.

Furthermore, you should communicate your vision to Appinventiv early on so that they can prepare for it when the time comes. That’s what we did. We began with a simple build but were quite open about where we wanted to eventually go. As a result, their team developed the backend with our goals in mind, which has made it easier for us now that we’re getting to the second part of our project.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder of a productivity app.

What challenge were you trying to address with Appinventiv?

We hired Appinventiv to develop our product.

What was the scope of their involvement?

I provided Appinventiv with wireframes and the business plan, explaining what the project looked like and what I wanted it to be. Appinventiv was my technology partner from the beginning of the project. The app is a productivity tool that allows users to customize the quick launch of apps and app features; it’s basically a lock screen pattern that launches other apps or intents within apps through a swipe of a finger that you customize. For example, you can create a U-pattern to launch the Instagram app and not only Instagram but also launch the camera within the Instagram app. You get to customize the pattern, and then link it to the app with the intent you want to open. So every time you go to the app and do the U-pattern, it always opens that particular intent, which in this example is the Instagram camera.

We were super clear about our challenges in the beginning. The app wasn’t close to anything Appinventiv had developed before, which was a challenge in itself. The design part went really well; they were very impressive, super responsive, and on time. The development, of course, had issues in terms of functionalities, just like any challenging project. However, the team was quick to offer alternate suggestions and approaches —  Appinventiv was on top of everything.

Issues that one developer couldn’t solve were raised to a team of researchers and developers who together would come up with a solution. We went through multiple problems within the development stage; the biggest challenges were the little misunderstandings, which are normal. Other than that, things went smoothly.

The app is available on iOS. I have plans to create an Android version, but I might not need to. If the app gets acquired, all the company will need is the SDK [software development kit] and then they can do whatever they want with it. If it isn’t acquired in the near future, I might look into creating an Android version of the app.

How did you come to work with Appinventiv?

I found Appinventiv through Clutch. I was looking for specific qualities — they had a good review and I thought they were affordable. I reached out to a few other companies as well and interviewed each one.

My project is a unique app, so I was looking for a team that was excited about the product. Appinventiv said, “Yeah, this is going to be good. We’re going to find someone who can develop this, and we have a big team that can help if we have any questions.” I liked their attitude and how excited they were about the idea and making it come to fruition.

How much have you invested with them?

The budget was more than $250,000 for the app. There was a large initial stage completed in 6 months and then about 3 other stages beyond that were paid incrementally.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2016 or January 2017, and I believe the app launched in May 2017. The launch was delayed a month because Apple kept rejecting the app for multiple reasons.

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

The first month after the launch was pretty impressive, getting around 1,500 downloads. I did the App Store optimization myself. I built this app to impress other companies that might want to implement the SDK into their operating systems or into their Software-as-a-Service offering.

My focus was not making money on the app, but I did want to see if people would want to use it, so the download score was important to me. Right now, I probably have about 2,000 downloads, but I haven't spent anything on marketing and the app has only been launched for about 2 months. I'm happy with the product in general; it has only had 2 crashes in 2 months, so the metrics are good.

How did Appinventiv perform from a project management standpoint?

I would give Appinventiv a B-plus for project management. Communication was a bit off here and there and I had to do a lot of project management on my end. I was on top of my project manager to make sure that the things we discussed with Appinventiv were actually not looked over and forgotten.

I had 2 project managers from Appinventiv within the project itself; one project manager left, and then I had the new one. Things like that usually mean that it will take some time before you get the new project manager caught up on your project and you find yourself repeating things. Once the new project manager started and got updated with everything, things went much smoother. I did have to train and educate the new project manager on the product itself, which is super normal anytime you change project managers.

I worked strictly and directly with the designer and project manager; the project manager worked directly with the developers. Technically, one developer was tasked with my project, but when we started having issues, I believe they had several working on an issue at a time. They used Basecamp to manage my project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I would highly rate the quality of their design as well as their responsiveness throughout the project. They were very helpful during hard times. I would often get frustrated and wanted things to get fixed, and they always made sure that they took care of the problem, even if it took multiple attempts. They were on their game in terms of how much they cared about their clients’ satisfaction. Their development skills were also pretty good.

With all the challenges in this project, I thought that I might end up with a subpar product, but I was really happy that they fixed all of the issues in the end. I think they had a different and much better developer who stepped in to fix a lot of problems.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could improve with project management. What happened to me was probably a unique situation where my project manager was put on another project and then a new one was brought in. That’s when I had a lot of issues with the product in general, but I don't want to point at that and say they need to improve it because I know why it happened and it might not be the same for others.

Overall, to be honest, they did a really good job.