Softwaredevelopment.
Software built around how you actually work.
Discovery models how the job actually gets done, the build turns that into something usable, and running it keeps the system alive afterwards. Building is worth it when no product fits, or when the one that exists would mean bending the business around it.
Start a projectWhat we offer
When off-the-shelf would fight youDiscovery and modelling
How the work really happens, including the parts living in a spreadsheet and in somebody's head. Also runs on its own, as a build-or-buy assessment before anyone commits to anything.
- Process mapping
- Data modelling
- Requirements and specification
- Build or buy assessments
- Technical due diligence
Application build
The application itself: web apps, client portals, internal tools, admin and reporting. On a well-supported stack, structured so somebody other than us can pick it up.
- Web applications
- Client portals and dashboards
- Internal tools
- Auth and permissions
- Admin interfaces
- Reporting and exports
Integration
Making the systems you already pay for talk to each other. Often delivers more than a new build would, for a fraction of the cost.
- Third-party API integration
- Data synchronisation
- Workflow automation
- Legacy system migration
AI features
Summarising, drafting, classifying and search, where they genuinely help. Scoped so a wrong answer is caught before anyone acts on it.
- Use case assessment
- Retrieval and semantic search
- Drafting and summarising
- Human review steps
Running it
Hosting, monitoring, backups and the changes a live system needs. Includes taking over a codebase somebody else wrote.
- Hosting and deployment
- Monitoring and alerts
- Backups and recovery
- Ongoing development
- Codebase takeover
Clients we've helped
4 clients for this service
Systems we've built
Four you can open and tryMost software we build sits behind a login. These four you can open in a browser.
Trivium
One system for a school, from the first enquiry to the last report card.
Schools were running on a student database, a spreadsheet for fees, and email for everything else. None of it agreed. We built one system covering admissions through to alumni, with tuition and student records in the same database, so a withdrawal in March updates the ledger and the class list together.
- Admissions, records, attendance and grading
- Stripe tuition billing on an auditable ledger
- Report cards and signed agreements as PDFs
- Row-level security per school
- iOS and Android on the same API as the web
Ezra Media
Twenty years of teaching, in one library.
The archive was spread across YouTube, a few podcast hosts and an old WordPress site. Nothing was searchable in one place and nothing could be sold. We built a single library for the video, audio and books, with subscriptions and gifting on top. Start a lecture on a phone and finish it on a laptop. The ebook reader keeps your place the same way.
- Video, audio and full ebooks in one place
- A full ebook reader that picks up where you left off, on any device
- Picture-in-picture video, so it plays on while you browse
- Search across speakers, shows and topics
- Subscriptions, gifting and podcast feeds
Smarty Pants
A trivia night that runs itself.
Hosting a night used to mean a laptop, a projector, paper slips and somebody adding up scores by hand. We put the whole evening in one place. Players join with a code on the phone in their pocket, the host runs the room from a console, and the big screen keeps up on its own. Typed answers accept the near-misses, so nobody loses a point to a spelling.
- Join by code or QR, no app and no account
- Host console, projected screen and player phones
- Nine question types, with audio, video and pictures
- Teams, streaks, wagers and power-ups
- Question bank, ready-made packs and CSV export
Shelfwise
Library software a small library can afford to run.
Church and school libraries track loans in a notebook. The proper systems cost more than the collection is worth, and want a scanner and a server behind them. We built one that runs in a browser. Every library gets its own address and its own look, and members check themselves out with a QR code on whatever tablet sits by the door.
- Its own branded address per library
- Self-checkout by QR, on any device
- Holds, waitlists and renewals
- Catalogue search with covers pulled in automatically
- Family accounts and borrowing history
How a build runs
Fewer hand-offs, faster buildsCustom software fails for one of two reasons. It was built for a process nobody had written down, or it should have been bought instead of built. Both get settled early.
Model the work
A working session on how the job gets done end to end, written up and agreed before anything is built.
Decide build or buy
If something off the shelf will do, we say so. Building is the bigger job for us, and it is still the wrong answer sometimes.
Ship in slices
Usable pieces as we go, in your repository from the first commit, so you can change your mind while it is still cheap to.
Run it
A standing arrangement for hosting and for the changes that arrive after launch, so the system does not quietly decay.
Where this comes up most
Sectors we have real work inAlso from us
The rest of what we doQuestions we get
Tell us what you're building.
Send a paragraph. You’ll get a reply from the person who would do the work, not a sales rep.