Devcenter

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CFO and a co-founder of a company that provides developmental solutions and advisory services. One of our current solutions is a digital portal for community management. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Devcenter?

I wanted to build the first version of a responsive web app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Devcenter developed our app using PHP and React.js. Features include user registration and bill payments. Functionally, users can activate a panic button and make calls.

What is the team dynamic? 

We interfaced with two people from Devcenter who acted as project managers. I believe they outsource all their developers. One of our contacts left their company six months in.

How did you come to work with Devcenter?

We searched for a vendor online and browsed through Devcenter’s side. The projects they had listed looked appropriate, so we initiated the first conversation with them. They were affordable and understood what we wanted.

How much have you invested with them?

The contract was $1.5 million, and we’ve paid around $900,000 of it. Since we weren’t happy with the results, we decided to part ways and moved forward with a different vendor.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together for nine months, starting in August 2017. The project is still ongoing with a different developer we hired to fix the app.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

There are no metrics to this effect. Devcenter had slow reaction times and wasn’t very responsive. Progress was slow. 

They performed poorly regarding providing documentation and delivering the work. The app they produced was slow, took forever to load, and had bugs.

How was project management handled?

We kept in touch via phone and Slack. We also used Trello boards. I also visited their office on a couple of occasions when I felt things weren’t moving fast enough. Their responsiveness was on and off.

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

No.

In what specific areas can they improve?

They should get better developers and be more responsive.

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

After our experience, I couldn’t recommend that a client go with Devcenter.