It’s a complex issue, but I’ll try to explain.
I wanted to start a company and to do so, I needed a custom platform for various reasons. I spent a lot of time debating whether to go fully custom through boutiques or customizing existing off-the-shelf products. Through a detailed process, I found a company with a product that was 90% of what I needed with huge benefits - they hosted the product and had developers customize it to my needs.
Lately, their work has gone downhill, and they’ve dropped communication and missed multiple SLAs across all severity tiers. I finally was able to have a frank discussion with them, and only two options are now available.

1 I seek legal actions for their missed SLAs, poor quality work, and potential financial losses due to slower time to market based on their work
2 They’ve offered to give me full access and ownership of the code on my own server. (which usually has a fairly large fee attached to it but they are doing it for free given their poor quality of work)
The second option sounds cleaner and easier as I would rather not do legal battles that could be fairly expensive. However, a huge reason I went with them was they had developers and SLAs to fix things when they broke- I can’t code, nor do I have the money for a full-time developer.
Any suggestions?

  • alboley@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Agree with others. Clearly you need to take ownership of the code and find a way to make that work.

    Other agencies could take it on but there will be a big overhead/starting cost and they may feel they need to rewrite significant parts so don’t underestimate this. Many won’t take on code from others. It’s significantly more effort that you might imagine.

    In my opinion:

    1. Most important thing is to get a full, granular copy of all your (customers, usage, funnels etc) data. That’s the core of your business even if you had to rebuild.

    2. Take the code but get a specialist & lawyer to help with the terms and details.

    3. Brainstorm all the things you could need to ensure in the and agreement. Eg: you need a period of time where the outgoing supplier helps get things up and running; provides documentation & handovers; is sufficiently deleting any data/bespoke knowledge you’ve put in; etc.

    4. Don’t accept your Option 2 as a blanket dissolving of obligations from Option 1/the original contracts etc. Speak to a lawyer with tech knowledge. Consider no-compete clauses, warranty periods etc.

  • AnxiousAdz@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Sounds like every story I’ve heard from out-of-the-box saas solutions that are very close to what you need…directories and such. Legal actions will get you nothing, the end goal is to always use them as a crutch until you can make it yourself.

  • nmfisher@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Don’t sue them, it will probably take you three years to get to court, by which time they’ll be bankrupt and you’ll be $200k out of pocket.

    Take the code, spin up a server, forget about them.

  • TheRealNalaLockspur@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Go with 3.

    1. Endless money pit
    2. Endless money pit
    3. Use something off the shelf

    With 2, you’ll throw yourself into an endless money pit and now YOU’LL get to understand why their SLA’s are lacking. Without proper developer management understanding and planning, you’ll speed much much more money.

    Sadly, you’re just going to have to start all over :(

  • elDieguii@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Hi, im Diego and im launching my software development agency for small business and starters. Our goal is to give affordable prices according the capabilities of the business And we take care of development from scratch and maintaining and improving existing projects Feel free to reach out and discuss further, we might be your perfect fit