Guides
How long bespoke software takes, and what decides it
A first system is usually weeks rather than months. What follows is where that time goes, what stretches it, and what you can do to keep it short without cutting corners.
The short answer
A first system that covers one job well, a job tracker for one team, a skip board for one yard, a register of what you own and when it is next due, is usually live in a few weeks. Something that runs a whole department takes longer, and that kind of system goes live in pieces so the useful part arrives early.
Anyone who gives you a firm date before they understand how your work moves is guessing. A sensible supplier gives you a shape on the first call, small or larger, and puts dates in writing once the scope is agreed.
Where the time actually goes
Writing the code is only part of it. The weeks are usually spent on these, roughly in this order:
- Understanding the work. How a job moves through your place, what the stages are called, who touches it and what they need to see.
- Building. Screens and records in your words, with regular updates so you see it taking shape rather than waiting for a reveal.
- Review with real data. The people who will use it every day try it with their own jobs and say what is wrong.
- Bringing the data across. Live jobs, customers and records moved in from wherever they sit now.
- Training and go-live. The team taken through it, then a first week running alongside the old way so the switch is calm.
There is more on each of those stages on our how we work page.
What makes it take longer
Most delays have little to do with the building. The usual causes are ordinary and mostly avoidable:
- Scope that grows mid-build. Every good idea added halfway through moves the date. Write it down for the next piece instead.
- Decisions waiting on people. A question that sits for a week costs a week.
- Data that needs untangling. Years of a spreadsheet often hold the same customer under three spellings. Cleaning it is worth doing, and it takes time.
- Other systems. Joining up with accounts software or a weighbridge depends on what that system offers. Some have a clean interface, some only export a file.
- More of everything. Several sites, several kinds of user, and different permissions for each all add work.
How to keep it short
You have more control over the timescale than you might think. The projects that go quickest tend to have these in common:
- One person who can make decisions, and who is reachable.
- A first version that does one job properly rather than every job partly.
- Examples ready on day one: the spreadsheet, the paper forms, a photo of the whiteboard.
- The people who will use it set aside an hour now and then to try it.
- New ideas kept on a list for later rather than squeezed into the first release.
None of that needs technical knowledge. It needs somebody who knows how the work runs and has the authority to say "yes, that is how we do it".
Going live in pieces
Bigger systems should not arrive all at once. Take a skip hire firm. The board showing every container out and its days on site might go live first, because that is the screen everybody opens in the morning. Highway permits might follow, then transfer notes against each load, then the month end reporting. Each piece is in use before the next one starts.
That has three advantages. You get value early. The team learns the system a part at a time. And what you learn from using the first piece shapes the second, which is far cheaper than finding out at the end. Our skip hire page shows what those pieces look like on screen.
Dates you can hold us to
Scope, price and dates are agreed in writing before anything starts, with what is not included written as plainly as what is. If we think something will take longer than you hoped, we will say so before you have committed to anything, not after.
What this means for you
Expect weeks for a first system and longer for something that runs a department, delivered in pieces. The biggest things you can do to keep it short are to start with one job, have one decision maker, and keep a list for later.
If you want a sense of size for your own system, tell us what it needs to do. You can also browse the kinds of system we build first.
Questions people ask
We need it ready by a particular date. Can that work?
Tell us the date at the start. If the whole system cannot be done well by then, we will say so before you commit, and suggest which piece could be live by then with the rest following.
Why run the old way alongside for the first week?
So nobody is forced into it overnight. Running both for a week lets the team check the new system against what they trust, and anything that does not match gets found while the old way is still there.
How much of our time does a build need?
Most at the start, explaining how the work runs, then an hour here and there for the people who will use it to try it with real jobs. One person who can make decisions quickly saves more time than anything else.
Talk to us
Tell us what the system needs to do and whether there is a date you are working to. That is usually enough for us to give you a shape.
Ring, 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday and Saturday mornings, or use the form below. Pick what you'd like to keep track of, add a line if you want to, and leave a name and a way to reach you.