Software built around how you actually work
When a spreadsheet has become the thing the business runs on, and nobody except one person understands it, you have outgrown it.
We build web applications: booking and reservation systems, customer portals, quoting tools, internal dashboards, admin systems and multi-user platforms. Things with logins, permissions, data and rules.
This is the work we do most of. The public sites in our portfolio are the visible part; underneath most of them sit databases, user accounts, payment flows and automation.
Typical projects
- Booking and scheduling systems with availability and confirmations
- Customer or client portals with logins and document access
- Quoting and pricing tools that replace spreadsheets
- Internal dashboards that pull numbers together from several systems
- Multi-user platforms with roles and permissions
- Automation that removes repeated manual work
How we scope it
We start by mapping what happens now, step by step, including the awkward exceptions. Most of the value in custom software comes from getting those exceptions right, the general case is usually the easy part. You get a written scope and a fixed price before any code is written.
Built to be handed over
Your system is documented and the code is yours. We are not interested in building something only we can maintain: that is a liability for you and, honestly, a support burden for us.
When you should not build custom software
This is the most expensive category of work we sell, so it is worth saying plainly when it is the wrong answer.
If an off-the-shelf product does eighty per cent of what you need and the remaining twenty per cent is preference rather than necessity, buy the product. If the process you want to automate is still changing every month, wait until it settles, you will otherwise pay to build something twice. If only one person in the business wants it, it will not get adopted no matter how good it is.
Custom becomes the cheaper option when licence costs per user have overtaken a build, when the workaround has itself become a job, or when the thing you do differently from competitors is precisely the thing no product supports.
How we build it, in stages, not one delivery
A platform delivered in one lump at the end is how projects fail: you see it too late to change anything, and the first real user finds a problem the specification never considered.
- Discovery, we map the current process including the exceptions, and write it down
- Fixed scope and price, agreed before code, so the budget is knowable
- A working core first, the single most important flow, usable end to end
- Then the surrounding features, in priority order you set
- Real users on real data before launch, because that is where assumptions break
- Handover with documentation, and training for whoever will run it
You can stop after any stage with something that works. That is deliberate, it keeps the risk on us to keep earning the next stage.
What it costs to own over time
Custom software is not a one-off purchase, and a supplier who implies otherwise is setting you up for an unpleasant year two. Expect hosting and monitoring from £75 a month for anything with logins and a database; occasional dependency and security updates; and a budget for changes as the business changes. We would rather quote that honestly at the start than surprise you with it later.
Common questions
Can it connect to software we already use?
Usually yes. Accounting systems, payment providers, calendars, email tools and CRMs generally have integration points. If something has no way in, we will tell you before you commit rather than after.
What happens when we need changes later?
Changes are quoted as small pieces of work, or covered by a monthly plan if you expect a steady stream of them. You are never obliged to keep paying us to keep the system running.
How do you handle our data?
Data stays in your own database, under your control, hosted in the UK or EU by default. We use it to build and support the system and nothing else.
What happens to us if you stop trading?
A fair question to ask any small supplier, and you should ask it. The code is yours and sits in a repository you have access to, the hosting is in accounts that can be transferred to your name, and the system is documented well enough for another developer to pick up. We build on mainstream, widely-known technology specifically so that the pool of people who could take over is large.
Can you take over a system somebody else built?
Sometimes. We will read the code first and give you a straight assessment: maintainable, maintainable-with-work, or genuinely better rebuilt. That review is a small piece of paid work and you get the findings whether or not you go on to use us.
How long does a platform take?
A focused tool with one main flow is typically six to ten weeks. A multi-user platform with roles, payments and reporting is three to six months. Anyone quoting a full platform in two weeks is describing a prototype, which is a legitimate thing to build but is not the same as a system you can run a business on.
Who owns the intellectual property?
You own the code we write for you outright on final payment. Where we use open-source components, which is unavoidable and normal, those keep their own licences, and we stick to permissive ones that place no obligation on your business.
Related
Tell us what you need
Describe the project in a couple of sentences and we will come back with a fixed price and a realistic timescale. No obligation, and no sales sequence.
Start a build