//custom-software
Custom enterprise software & cloud backend development
Line-of-business systems and the backends behind them: domain models, APIs, data platforms and deployment automation, built for organisations that have outgrown spreadsheets and off-the-shelf tools.
Custom software is worth building when the process it supports is the thing your business actually competes on, or when no product on the market fits without changing how you work. It is not worth building when a licensed product would do the job. Part of what we are paid for is telling you which case you are in, before either of us has committed to a build.
When a build is the right answer, the risk is rarely the code. It is the data model that turns out to be wrong in month six, the integration nobody could test, and the deployment that only one person knows how to do. Our engagements front-load exactly those three.
Capabilities
What we build and review
Domain modelling and data platforms
The schema outlives every framework choice made around it, so it is designed first.
- Domain and relational schema design with your subject-matter experts
- PostgreSQL and MySQL platforms, indexing and query performance work
- Versioned, reversible migration tooling
- Reporting and analytics data paths separated from transactional load
APIs and integration
The contract between your systems, designed to survive changes on both sides.
- REST and GraphQL API design with an explicit versioning strategy
- OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect and service-to-service authentication
- ERP, CRM, payment, identity and logistics integrations
- Webhooks, message queues and scheduled jobs with retry semantics
Web application engineering
Internal tools and customer portals, built to the same standard as the backend.
- React and TypeScript front ends
- Role-based access control and audit trails
- PHP, Node.js and .NET server applications
- Accessible interfaces that meet WCAG 2.2 AA
Deployment and operations
A system nobody can deploy safely is not finished.
- Containerised deployment and infrastructure as code
- Environment parity between development, staging and production
- Logging, metrics, alerting and error tracking
- Backup, restore and disaster-recovery procedures that are actually tested
How an engagement runs
A build that stays reversible for as long as possible
Each stage produces something you could act on even if you stopped there.
- 01
Discovery
We map the process as it really runs, not as the procedure says. The deliverable is a written model of the domain and a list of what the software must not break.
- 02
Architecture
Data model, service boundaries, integration contracts and a deployment topology, written down and reviewed with your team before the first feature.
- 03
Incremental build
Working software every two weeks, deployed to a staging environment your people can use, with the migration path from the current system built alongside it.
- 04
Handover
Runbooks, architecture documentation and a working session with whoever will own the system. Handover is a deliverable, not an afterthought.
Engagement models
How custom builds are contracted
- Discovery engagement
- A short fixed-price piece of work producing a domain model, architecture and costed roadmap. It stands on its own, and you are free to build it with anyone.
- Fixed-scope delivery
- A defined system with written acceptance criteria and a fixed price, suitable once discovery has removed the large unknowns.
- Long-run product team
- A standing team for systems that keep evolving, with a quarterly roadmap and monthly billing against an agreed capacity.
We do not publish a rate card, because the honest answer depends on scope, duration and the team shape a project needs. Every engagement is priced in a written proposal after a scoping session.
Common questions
- Will we be locked into you?
- No, and the contract is written to make that true rather than to promise it. Your repository, standard technologies, documented architecture and tested runbooks mean another team can take the system over.
- Can you integrate with our ERP?
- Usually. What decides it is whether the ERP exposes a supported interface and whether we can get a test environment. Both are checked during discovery, before anything depends on the answer.
- Do you host the system for us?
- We can deploy to infrastructure that you own and pay for directly, which keeps your data and your billing relationship in your hands. We are not a hosting reseller.
- What happens to personal data in the system?
- Where we process personal data on your behalf we sign a GDPR Article 28 processing agreement, and the data-flow map is part of the architecture deliverable rather than something reconstructed later.
Scope of our services
We are a business-to-business engineering company. Here is what we do not do.
We work only with companies and public-sector organisations, under a written contract signed before any work begins. We do not advertise or provide services to private individuals, and we are not affiliated with, and do not act on behalf of, Apple, Google, Microsoft or any other platform vendor.
- Consumer remote technical support, helpdesk or PC / phone "tune-up" services
- Device repair, unlocking, data recovery or password / account recovery
- Resale of third-party software licences, subscriptions or mobile applications
- Any unsolicited contact about a problem detected on your device — we never do this
- Services to private individuals; every engagement is a business-to-business contract
Tell us what you need built.
Send a project brief and a member of the engineering team will reply with questions, an approach and a written proposal.