Questions about bespoke software, answered plainly

Every project has a fixed price, agreed in writing before work starts. We look at what you need first rather than quoting from a description, so the price fits the job. We won't come back asking for more because something turned out harder than expected. After a free 20-minute intro call we'll give you a clear sense of whether it's a small project or a larger one, so you can decide before anyone spends time on a detailed quote. Ongoing hosting and support is a fixed monthly fee, agreed at the same time.

A first system is usually a few weeks rather than months. If we think something will take longer, we'll tell you before you've committed to anything.

That's a good place to start. A single system that does one job well goes live quickly, and can grow from there.

Less than people expect. Usually the intro call, an hour or two to walk us through how the work moves, a review session with your own data, and training before go-live. We do the rest.

No. We host the system for you in the UK, so there is no server in your office and nothing to renew. Your team logs in from the computers, phones and tablets they already have. The hosting is part of the monthly fee rather than a separate bill from somebody else.

Tell us, because it happens and it is better said early. The review with your own data is there for exactly this, while there's still time to adjust how it works. If a change takes the job outside the scope we agreed, we'll say so before we do it, not after, and agree it with you in writing. The fixed price stays fixed for everything that was in it.

Off-the-shelf software is built for the average business, so your team adapts to it. Bespoke software is built around how your business already works, with only the screens and steps you need. It tends to make sense when your work has a shape packaged software doesn't quite fit, or when several tools need to become one.

Usually, yes. Much of what we build connects to software a business already relies on, such as accounts and payroll, so figures are entered once rather than twice.

Yes. Messages go out from the job or case record, with the details filled in from it, and replies land back on the same record where the whole team can see them. Consent and opt-outs are recorded and respected. The detail is on customer messaging.

Usually. If your accounts package has an interface or an export, a finished job can raise its invoice there with the customer, the lines and the references already filled in, so nobody types the same figures twice. We check what your package allows before the price is fixed rather than after. The detail is on joining up what you already run.

Almost certainly. The office system is web based, so it runs in a modern browser on the computers, laptops and tablets you already have, with nothing to install on them. If a machine is too old to run a current browser, we'll find that out during the review and tell you, rather than on the day you go live.

Yes, where it saves time. We build AI features into the systems we make for the routine parts of the work: answering website chats and phone calls, drafting quotes, letters and reports from the data already held, reading emails and documents into the right record, and checking paperwork against the job. If we built your system, it's an addition rather than a rebuild. The detail is on AI and automation.

Only where you want it to. Routine steps, such as filing a document against a job, can run by themselves. Anything that goes to a customer, sets a price or changes something important is drafted for a person to approve, and every step is recorded.

Yes. We build apps for iPhone and Android, published to the App Store and Google Play and connected to the same system your office uses. Where a mobile web app will do the job just as well, we'll recommend it.

It can be built to. What gets entered is held on the phone and sent once the signal comes back, and the app shows it's waiting rather than pretending it has gone. How long it needs to cope without a connection is agreed at the start, because it changes the size of the build.

No. The app runs on the iPhone or Android phone they already carry. Some firms would rather issue company phones to keep work and personal apart, and that works just as well.