The Disciplines Plate II Custom Software Solutions
Custom Software
Solutions.
Made to measure, for when the off-the-shelf product doesn't fit how you work.
Web apps, internal tools, integrations and customer portals, designed around how your business runs. You own the code outright.
Return to the workshopMost software is built for an average business that doesn't exist, and the people using it end up bending their day around the tool. The workarounds pile up: a spreadsheet beside the system, a step everyone does by hand, a field used for something it was never meant for.
I build software around the way you work and hand it over as yours, with no subscription holding it hostage. The technology is chosen for how long it needs to last, which usually means something well established and slightly boring.
§ What I build
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I.
Web applications
Apps in React, Vue or plain JavaScript: customer portals, internal dashboards, marketing tools. They work on a phone in a van as well as on a desk.
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II.
Business process tools
Systems for stock, orders, client tracking or scheduling, shaped around the way your business already does them.
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III.
API integrations
Connecting the systems you already have, so figures from your accounting software reach the CRM without anyone retyping them.
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IV.
Customer portals
A place under your own branding where clients can check an order, change a booking, find a document or raise a request without phoning you.
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V.
Reporting & analytics
Dashboards that pull figures from several systems at once, and a weekly report that builds itself, so nobody is in Excel at 9pm on a Friday.
§ The process
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Step 1
Requirements discovery
I sit down with the people who do the work and find out how it is done now and where it hurts. What gets asked for at the start is often a symptom, and finding the cause here is cheaper than finding it halfway through the build.
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Step 2
Design & planning
Sketches of the screens and how people move between them, plus the technical plan. You see what I'm building before any code is written, and the quote is agreed at the end of this step, so the price is fixed before the build starts.
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Step 3
Iterative development
Work happens in blocks of one to two weeks, with something you can click through at the end of each. If it is heading the wrong way, you see it within a fortnight.
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Step 4
Testing & refinement
Tested on the phones and browsers your people use, with realistic data, for speed, security and accessibility.
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Step 5
Deployment & training
I set up the hosting, domain and certificates, show your team how to use the system, and leave written documentation behind. Support afterwards is there if you want it.
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Step 6
Evolution
When the business changes, the software can change with it, whether that means a new feature or years of maintenance. The code is yours, so you are never tied to me, but I'm here when you need me.
Questions, answered
How long does a custom system take?
Smaller internal tools tend to run in weeks; a system a whole team lives in runs in months. The first conversation is mostly about which of those you are asking for, because the answer usually surprises people in one direction or the other.
Can you work with the systems we already have?
That is normally the job. Most of the work is connecting the systems already in use, so nobody has to retype data from one into another.
What will it cost?
The prices on this page are starting points, so you can tell in a minute whether you are in the right range. Each job is then quoted after a conversation, because the price depends on the shape of the job and nobody knows that yet. The first half hour is free, and it usually settles whether this is a small piece of work or a large one before any money is discussed.
Who owns the code when it is finished?
You do, outright, including the source. It is handed over with the runbooks needed to keep it running, and there is no licence to renew and no seat to pay for. Commissions, not subscriptions, is meant literally.
What happens if you are unavailable?
Everything is built so somebody else could pick it up: common technologies, readable code, written runbooks and nothing proprietary. It is a fair question to ask of a one-person business, and the answer is in how the work is built.
Do you work outside Suffolk and Cambridgeshire?
Yes. Local work gets the option of somebody in the room, which is worth more than it sounds for the first conversation and the handover. Everything after that is done remotely for most clients anyway.