ZCO website development, apps, digital, Nashua New Hampshire

I Samuel Wahnon, nor my associate Sam Burton are experts in software development. The company we hired Zco, a self-proclaimed developer of “enterprise level software solutions” has drastically overcharged us for the development of a simple digital tool and delivered us a complete lemon. The product simply doesn’t work on any level. Frankly, Zco has been dishonest in their description of their capabilities and has cost our company roughly $90,000.00, nine months of work, and significant opportunities in marketing due to a delayed product release that may never happen for budgetary reasons.

They charged us $90,000.00 for a project that they had no business undertaking. At the end of the project, we had to hire an independent developer to analyze the source code delivered by Zco.  They were embarrassed to tell me what they found. Their report was as follows:

The product is built without any standards or framework. This means that the code is VERY difficult to improve and subsequently more expensive to improve.  Zco was hired to build us a foundation for our product that can be built upon. Instead they have built something that will get worse as we try to improve it, and will cost more to improve, the more complex it becomes.

The product is not properly built for automated testing.  Automated testing is a standard in software development.  It’s how developers ensure that the code they write doesn’t conflict with previously written code in a given program.  Our product CANNOT be tested this way, and as such suffers from a problem known as “regression”, in which when one problem is fixed, several more arise.  Regression is fought by automated testing which is not possible on our product although I was repeatedly assured that automated testing was being performed on the code.

The problem of regression will only get worse as we build upon our product. Ultimately, the product will have so many conflicting issues and bugs that it will simply crash. Zco either knows this and plans to fleece clients like us, or they are extremely negligent in their responsibilities to understand the technologies they claim to specialize in.

Zco promised us that the product would work across various digital platforms.  It doesn’t.  It doesn’t work on any platform, but is especially problematic on smartphone and tablet. Modern web tools are no longer built for individual platforms.  They are created with what is known as “responsive design”.  We were told that this would be prohibitively expensive for us and discouraged from pursuing it.  In fact, the framework that makes this possible costs about $30, and is easily customizable by any actual software professional. Did they know this and lie to make more money, or are they simply not professional developers as they say they are.

3rd party plugins are a common practice for software developers. They make it possible to avoid ‘reinventing the wheel’ so to speak. All plugins chosen by Zco (3rd party image galleries, etc..) are non-functional and outdated.  As the developer, they have a responsibility to their clients to research and choose proper plugins that will be easily integrated and work according to modern standards. The tools Zco chose on our behalf and without consulting us have no place in the toolbox of a professional development company. 

The list of technical problems with the product we were delivered is exhaustive. The more troubling aspect of our project with Zco is the price.  After inspection by a professional, it seems that Zco makes its money by charging customers to have something built from scratch when it is readily available for a much lower cost and simply requires configuring.  We are not able to salvage any of the work that Zco performed, so we must develop our product from the ground up with new developers.  Our new developers have quoted the project at $4800.00 as opposed to Zco’s $90,000.00.  I was personally sickened by the gap in quoted prices.