When off the shelf software no longer fits the business.
Generic software is built for the average version of your industry. The further your operation sits from that average, the more work your people do to bridge the gap. At some point it is cheaper to build the right thing.
Six signs the software is now the problem
The system is right, the fit is wrong
Your software does most of the job. The gaps are covered by spreadsheets, notes and habit.
Nobody can answer a simple question
How much is in production, where is that order, what did we ship last week. The answer takes a person and an export.
The process lives with one employee
It works because they know it. Holidays, illness or a resignation turns it into a risk.
Growth made it worse
What worked at ten orders a day quietly stopped working at eighty.
The old application is now a liability
It still runs, but changing anything feels dangerous and nobody supports it properly.
Nothing on the market matches how you work
Every product you review needs you to change the operation to suit the software.
Software shaped around the operation.
Not a platform we resell. Systems designed for how your business actually works, built to be used by the people doing the work.
Internal business systems
One place where the operation is recorded, instead of five places that half agree with each other.
Production and operations software
Planning, batches, traceability, dispatch and labelling built around how the floor actually runs.
Workflow and approvals
Work moves to the right person, with a record of what happened and what is waiting.
Customer and supplier portals
Let the people outside your business do the data entry that your staff currently do for them.
Reporting people trust
Numbers that come from the system rather than from somebody rebuilding a sheet every Friday.
Replacing legacy applications
Older internal software rebuilt carefully, with the knowledge inside it preserved rather than lost.
Not sure which of these is you?
Describe it in one sentence. A senior person reads every message and replies within one working day.
Understand first. Build second.
The discovery is the part that decides whether the project works. It is also the part most suppliers skip.
They didn't ask us for software.
Cashel Farmhouse Cheesemakers came to us with an operational problem, not a software specification. Order planning ran on an Excel workbook with macros and dispatch depended on people holding it together.
Read what changed- 01Order inCaptured once, with the retailer's own codes
- 02Weekly planWhat has to be made to meet what is committed
- 03BatchTraceability recorded as it is produced
- 04DispatchNotes, labels and quality documents generated
- 05AccountsFinance updated without a second entry
Questions we get asked
Is custom software not more expensive than buying a product?
Sometimes, and when it is we will say so. The comparison people forget is the cost of the workarounds. If several employees spend part of every day compensating for a system, that is a real annual cost that never appears on an invoice.
We are not sure whether we need new software at all.
Good. That is the right starting position. A large part of our work ends with connecting existing systems or simplifying a process rather than building something new.
How long before we see something working?
The aim is always a first useful release early rather than a long silent build. The exact timing depends on the operation, and we will give you a realistic view before you commit.
Will we be locked in to you?
No. You own the software and the data. We document what we build and we are happy for another team to review or take it on.
Do you work with our existing accounting or ERP system?
Yes. Most of what we build has to exchange information with finance, stock or ecommerce systems already in place. That is normal and expected.
Where are you based?
Thurles, Co. Tipperary. We work with businesses across Ireland, on site where the work needs it and remotely where it does not.
Show us the process.
Describe the part of the business that takes more work than it should. We will tell you honestly whether software is the answer.