Venturex Apps

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of SONCAS, a start-up created in September 2019 which aims to create innovative solutions for field sales people.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Venturex Apps?

I've been working with Venturex Labs on a mobile application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Create a mobile application exploiting geolocation for salespeople., API and other advanced technologies with significant challenges. A website, a dashboard as well as the development of a design and a visual identity.

What is the team dynamic?

All the development staff is based in Pakistan.

How did you come to work with Venturex Apps?

After several interviews with various providers. I chose Venturex because the approach focused on support, kindness and transparency.

How much have you invested with them?

The service cost 176 000 € for a very unsatisfactory result.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did your relationship with the vendor evolve?

Now that I work with a new team, I realize that Venturex Labs is low-cost with a poor quality-price ratio. Promising beginnings for the design of a mobile application intended for sales people, then the masks fell. 

I specify that it is my first entrepreneurial project and that I do not have a technical hat. So I trusted them. In the end, the service became a real nightmare with a delivery of the project in bits and pieces over several weeks, a disconcerting lack of information and reactivity, no answers to the messages and a code that turned out to be of poor quality after having it audited by an expert. 

Moreover, after an aborted attempt of association so that they exploit my concept in the Anglo-Saxon countries (of which they were at the initiative), The team didn't give any more news about its will to launch a copy of my mobile application without compensation. There is a real conflict of interest and dishonesty in their methods. 

How did Venturex Apps address the challenges that arose?

The main failings observed are as follows:

• During the 15 months collaboration, I had to play the role of quality manager by sending not far from fifty documents explaining the dysfunctions of each deliverable. 
• Deplorable quality source code: no naming convention is respected, functionalities are difficult to identify, functions are commented entirely or partially, all the code is not commented, strings are written in hard copy in the code, ... 
• Total lack of documentation: no README at the root of the project, no technical documentation, no architecture document ... In short, nothing that explains how the code works and how to use it
• No test plan: no unit test, no integration test, no acceptance test ... 
• Questionable technical choices 
• Deployment of devs directly in the production environment without going through testing phases 
• No reporting of devs and bugs encountered 
• Central and essential functionalities leave something to be desired 
• Penniless visual rendering of the application, many graphical elements need to be reviewed Moreover, the code delivery was done with many hitches despite the support of a technical referent 
• Categorical refusal to fill out a technical checklist (a questionnaire) that allows to obtain the main elements concerning the project The provider defends the absence of a document by claiming that it is not necessary, and that therefore, it is not useful to fill in the checklist 
• Delivery of the accounts (for example the database) in dribs and drabs over several weeks. 
• Late delivery of the source code through a GitHub account created for the occasion, so there are no devs logs. When we ask to give a dump of the repositories, he opposes it, why so much opacity?
   

UPDATED REVIEW

This review was published on June 4, 2020.

Madjid Zoreik

CEO, SONCAS

Software

1-10 Employees

Heillecourt, France

$50,000 to $199,999

May 2020 - Ongoing

Project summary

Venturex Apps developed a mobile app for a sales software company. The team built and designed the app for salespeople, including geolocation services, and integrating an API.

Feedback summary

While the project is still ongoing, the engagement has received both financial and community support, a sign of it's potential. Venturex Apps is open and collaborative, establishing a seamless workflow. The team is dedicated, hard-working, and attentive.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of SONCAS, a start-up created in September 2019 which aims to create innovative solutions for field sales people.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Venturex Apps?

Create a mobile application exploiting geolocation for salespeople., API and other advanced technologies with significant challenges. A website, a dashboard as well as the development of a design and a visual identity.

What were your goals for this project?

The ambition is to exploit innovative concepts and technologies to facilitate the work of salespeople: 

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

After several interviews with various providers. I chose Venturex because the approach focused on support, kindness and transparency.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The answer I want to bring to the market is OVERMAP, a mobile application that responds to all of its trends.

My value proposition is simple:

• Facilitate the daily life of the salesperson
• Save him time to devote to business
• Provide him with a simple tool that will combine 4 functions:

1. An agenda linked to geolocation: To assign appointments to customers found on the map. We can thus identify markers with and without an appointment and their segmentation to detect opportunities and optimize the coverage rate.
2. Task management: To assign tasks to customers by classifying them by urgency and importance. It is based on the matrix of Eisenhower. A filter can be used to determine the desired priorities.
3. The search function: which, as its name suggests, makes it possible to search for a client. It also gives the possibility of using many filters "Excel-style" to detect opportunities, by crossing the filter data with that of the search.
4. Group: which allows you to manage the segmentation and edit the data from the application.

This is possible thanks to a process that aims to be as simple and quick as possible:

1. Via an Excel file that is imported from the application, Overmap takes care of sucking all the information to a secure server and then ordering it so that it can be used in the application.
2. API Technology: a programming interface that allows you to "plug in" to a CRM application to exchange data

What was the team composition?

I am alone in my business, but I am accompanied by a whole external team: - Venturex - Grand Nancy Innovation: a regional institute which helps start-ups to develop - Right Management: who supports me in the retraining project with the help of Johnson & Johnson, my former employer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The product launch is scheduled for September but several elements show that this project has potential:

• The bank lent € 110,000 to finance the first part
• The Lorraine region in France supports me in order to grow my company and allow it to employ employees and promote the dynamism of the region
• My former employer made available a 25,000 € business start-up aid

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The software requires a continuous improvement process and Venturex is listening and advising throughout the development process. I sent them my models, the specifications, followed by a multitude of meetings to define the design, the functions and the desired experience with well defined key steps.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I enormously appreciated their support and expertise. The team is wonderful, they are attentive and fully understand our needs.

They work fully on their project. They are passionate, they are focused on quality and efficiency at the same time. Excellent collaboration!

Are there any areas for improvement?

For my project nothing to report

Star Ratings

Overall rating: 5 – A key partner

Quality: 5 – Focused on quality and efficiency

Cost: 5 – Attractive through an efficient process

Schedule: 5 – Well structured with key steps

Willing to refer: 5 – Support and kindness