What was the scope of their involvement?
The app was internal for Hydromax’s team, and it’s actually integrated into a suite of other applications now. It’s our product for this particular industry, and it’s a total package solution that does everything you need in order to collect all of the data necessary for this program.
This particular app, besides the data processing, was 100% developed by Digital Krikits. Internally, we have lots of development capability. We have full-time developers for GIS, C#, Android, Apple, etc., but they were maxed out at the moment, and this was such an in-depth, specialized knowledge kind of project that we didn't have the capacity to take it on at the time. The client needed the solution as soon as possible, and the capacity was going to be six months minimum, so we reached out.
Digital Krikits provided pure app development in this case, and they had some good ideas. We were having trouble with integration in the beginning, and they had some good ideas for how to do testing. It was useful, but there was no market impact or anything like that for them to really give us any advice or strategy on.
How did you come to work with Digital Krikits?
Before hiring Digital Krikits, we had reached out to the manufacturer of the device and some other people about developing an app, but everyone basically said that they could do a part of it. We needed a one-stop solution to minimize the potential for error. I put out a request on Upwork and eventually found Digital Krikits. I talked to probably 40 app developers on Upwork and did not get past “Hey, here are the basics of what I need you to do.” Most of them didn't seem confident they could do the work, and their time estimates were just astronomical. Digital Krikits has been attentive to our requirements, they’ve done a great job with the integration, and they were able to do something that a lot of the other companies didn't have the technical chops to do.
How much have you invested with Digital Krikits?
I think we spent about $6,000 to launch the first iteration of the app. The first version did all the basic things we had originally asked for, so I thought that was a good price. Then, we probably bolted on another $5,000 in development time last year. This year, it’ll probably be another $3,500 before we’re done, and even then we might not be completely finished. It might be a whole other year until we’re done.
What is the status of this engagement?
I think we started working together in February or March 2016, and the first iteration probably went live in May 2016. We’ve gone through six or seven iterations since then, bolting on more specs, etc. We’re actively working on a more complex version of the app. We have an ongoing relationship.
The team only produced two deliverables after five months, grounding the project’s next phase and ending the partnership. Digital Krikits LTD invested minimal resources into the project and communicated the delays poorly. Their inconsistency and lack of professionalism led to a loss of trust.