Modsi

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a data insights company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Modsi?

We were just getting started and we were building out our technology platform from scratch, so we hired Modsi to help us. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had wireframes, user stories, and we basically had the entire system mocked up and built out. Modsi built it as a web-based platform using AngularJS and .NET for the backend database.

What is the team composition?

We worked with two teammates, the owner and one of their developers.

How did you come to work with Modsi?

I found them on a site that contains listings of vendors who are looking for work. They had good reviews, so I reached out to them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $95,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together in 2018.

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

The system they created kept crashing. We later found out that it was a shortcut version they delivered that was unfinished and I would say it was only 65% complete — it was very much like an MVP and it was not fully robust. It did work and they were able to build a shell of what we had in mind, but it was very clunky and had a lot of bugs. The whole system was built in a segmented way that didn't flow very intuitively.

The platform was supposed to deliver the ability to scale and accommodate a lot of UI, but it just fell a bit short. We had a user interface and a backend client portal, and that was where it took a long time to think and load. There were also a lot of details that didn't get transferred over from our previous platform. 

It created some challenges in our business operations, and ultimately we had to go back and hire another company to fix it. When a few other developers went in there to review it and do a full audit, they found that the way the code was written and categorized on the backend was very messy. The shell they had built is still what we're using, but it has since been cleaned up and redesigned, and it works much better now.

How was project management handled?

Their project management was not great; there were a lot of deadlines that were missed because they had misquoted and misestimated the time and the scope of the project. It ended up taking more than twice the amount of time they had estimated it and we were several months past the deadlines they set. They were just way off. 

The products that they left us with didn’t even contain the full scope of work —  the owner told us that it was not a good enough investment for them to be spending more time on it and they walked away from the project. It was disappointing because they had already taken our payment and did not deliver what was promised. 

Our engagement was not good and it caused a lot of issues on our end, like delaying client launches, and all I got was a lack of care and compassion from them.

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

They were very ambitious and eager to be successful. They tried to do a lot and said all the right things, but they took on more than they could handle and couldn’t meet the deadlines — when you commit to something, you need to deliver, and candidly, they did not. They got close and in their mind, they thought they were doing everything that they could. They had great potential, but the professionalism just wasn't there during this engagement.

However, the developer we were assigned to worked his tail off and he tried very hard and had a great attitude throughout. It was just the leadership of the company who really overcommitted and over-promised but under-delivered. It put the developer in a tough position, but he was really knowledgeable and good at communicating what was going on.

This isn’t meant to be a slanderous review, but I don't have very many positive things to say. It wasn't a great experience working with them and it hurt our business. I hope they've gotten better.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could improve on client management in terms of setting realistic expectations, delivering on established scope, and maintaining professionalism when things go south. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to proceed with caution — be prepared to do your due diligence and really question them throughout the process. Be hands-on and make sure that you give yourself an extra buffer, too, in terms of timing.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Cofounded of Habits Technologies. We provide self check-out technology for small businesses which helps them streamline their ordering process.

For what projects/services did your company hire Modsi?

Development of the core functionality

What were your goals for this project?

To build an end-to-end process of the self checkout technology

How did you select this vendor?

Good review, good presentation and cost effective

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Modsi provided the full end-to-end product development and expertise and full engineering and support process

What was the team composition?

An engineer and product manager

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Perfect results. They delivered on time and under budget. The service worked as designed and their technical advise and expertise was outstanding and I decided to go to them for my next project

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

They outlined each phase of the project and provided detailed step-by-step and weekly updates of the progress. It was delivered on time and under budget

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their expertise and quality of work were outstanding.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No