01
Custom web applications
Applications that run in the browser for staff, customers or partners, designed around the task, fast on a poor connection and accessible to everyone.
06AI & transformation · Custom enterprise software
Custom enterprise software development.
Custom enterprise software is an application written for one company's way of working, which that company then owns.
We build it to order, around the way you work, or extend and connect the one you already have.
01What it is
In plain words.
Custom enterprise software is an application written for one company's way of working, which that company then owns.
Every business has something it does differently, and that difference is usually where it makes its money. Packaged software is built for what companies have in common, so the part that is different ends up in spreadsheets, emails and the heads of long-serving staff.
Custom software turns that part into a system: something people open every morning, which enforces the process, keeps the record and survives the person who invented it. It is the right choice less often than its sellers say and more often than its buyers fear.
02What it includes
Every part, explained.
8 parts. Each can be built by itself; together they are one system.
02
Enterprise applications
Large systems with many roles, heavy data, integrations and audit requirements, built for years of service: tested, documented, monitored and secure.
03
Internal business tools
The tool that replaces the shared spreadsheet: scheduling, tracking, approvals, calculators, registers. Small, quick to build, and often the best return of anything on this page.
04
SaaS platforms
A product you sell as a subscription: multi-tenant architecture, sign-up and billing, usage metering, admin console, and the reliability paying customers expect.
05
Management portals
One place for a manager, a customer, a supplier or a franchisee to see their information and act on it: orders, documents, performance, requests.
06
Operational dashboards
Live screens for a control room, a factory floor or a service team, showing what is happening now and what needs attention.
07
Mobile applications
Apps for phones and tablets, for customers or for staff in the field, working offline where the job requires it.
08
Legacy system modernisation
An old system that still runs the business, renewed in stages: a modern interface in front, data moved to a current database, one module replaced at a time, with the old and new running side by side until the switch is safe.
Buy, extend or build?
Buy when a product does most of what you need and you can live with its way of working. Build when the process is your advantage, when you would otherwise bend three products and glue them together, or when the per-user cost of renting exceeds the cost of owning. We will tell you which we think applies; a recommendation to buy costs us the project and is still the right advice when it is true.
Where intelligence fits
Software written now should be designed so intelligence can be added without a rewrite: clean data, a proper interface to every function, and events that record what happened. The same team builds enterprise AI, so that is planned from the first sketch and added when it will pay.
03What it works with
Never on an island.
A system is worth most when it shares its records with the ones beside it.
- API and systems integrationAn API is the doorway through which one piece of software asks another for something; systems integration is building and connecting those doorways.
- Enterprise AI and intelligenceEnterprise AI is software that reads, searches, reasons and acts on a company's own data and documents, inside the company's own walls.
- Enterprise digital transformationDigital transformation is replacing paper, spreadsheets and worn-out systems with ones that work together, without stopping the business while you do it.
- Enterprise data platformsA data platform is the place where data from every system in a company is collected, cleaned and kept ready for reporting, analysis and AI.
Part of a family
AI, custom software and transformation: Intelligence designed in, software that is yours alone, and the old estate made new.
04How we build it
Five steps, in the open.
- 01
Listen
You describe the work and where it hurts. We look at the systems and the data you have now.
- 02
Specify
A written specification: what the system does, what it does not, what it connects to and how we will know it works. A clear quote before any work starts.
- 03
Build in stages
A working piece at each stage, on real data, so you steer early. The part that matters most comes first.
- 04
Move the data
Existing records mapped, cleaned of duplicates and reconciled against the old system before anything is switched off.
- 05
Hand over
Training, documentation and the keys. Your team can run it, and we keep it working for as long as you want us to.
One set of records underneath
Customers, products, suppliers, people and stock are each defined once. A second system joins the first; it does not start a competing copy.
Runs where you decide
Your own servers, a private cloud or a cloud account that belongs to you. Customer, employee and financial data stays on infrastructure you control.
Yours to keep
You own the code, the data, the configuration and the documentation. There is no licence fee to us and nothing stopping another team from taking it on.
05Questions
Before you ask.
Questions about custom enterprise software
How do we decide between custom software and an off-the-shelf product?
List what the product would not do and what you would have to change about your own process to fit it. If the list is short, buy. If the list contains the thing that makes your business different, build that part.
How is the cost of a custom system agreed?
Against a written specification, stage by stage, with a clear quote before any work starts. The cost of running and maintaining it after hand-over is stated alongside.
Who owns the software?
You do: source code, designs, database, infrastructure configuration and documentation. There is no licence fee to us and nothing that stops another team taking it on.
Can you modernise a system we cannot switch off?
Yes. Modernisation is done in stages around the running system, with each replaced part proven alongside the old one before it takes over.
Guides
Plain-language guides on the problems this work solves.
- CRM, ERP, HRMS, CDP, PIM, WMS and the rest: thirty business systems explained in plain wordsBusiness systems · 8 min
- Custom software or off-the-shelf: how to decide whether to build, buy or extendBuild or buy · 3 min
- Custom CRM or off-the-shelf CRM: which does your sales team need?CRM · 3 min
- When does a company need a custom ERP?ERP · 3 min
- All 16 guides on this →
Rather talk it through? Tell us the problem in a few lines and a person will answer it.
Ask us →Tell us how the work runs today.
How the work runs today, what the system must do and what it has to connect to. A person reads it and replies honestly about whether to buy, extend or build.
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