Custom app building
Internal systems built around the process that costs you the most time or money.
Custom app building means we design and build software around your process instead of asking your team to change how they work to fit a product. That is worth doing when your process is genuinely a competitive part of your business, or when no product on the market fits it — and it is a bad idea when a ₦20,000-a-year tool would have done the job.
We will tell you which of those two you are in during the first conversation, and we have told people not to build before.
What we build is usually unglamorous: an operations system, an internal register, an approvals flow, a dashboard, a records system that replaces a shared spreadsheet. The measure of success is that people use it without being chased.
This is for you if
- —One person holds a critical process in their head and everyone knows that is a risk.
- —The spreadsheet works, but only because a specific person maintains it every day.
- —Records live in three places and none of them agree.
- —You have outgrown an off-the-shelf tool but nothing on the market matches how you work.
- —Staff have quietly built workarounds because the official system is too slow to use.
How the work runs
PHASE 01
Discovery
We write down how the process actually runs today — including the exceptions, the workarounds and the bits nobody admits to. Most failed systems fail here, because they were built for the tidy version of the process that only exists in the manual.
You get: A written process map, a list of the exceptions, and an agreed scope for phase one.
PHASE 02
Design the smallest useful version
We cut the wish list down to what would genuinely change your week if it existed. Everything else goes on a later list, with dates left open.
You get: Screen-by-screen scope for phase one, and a clear written list of what is deliberately excluded.
PHASE 03
Build in visible increments
You see working software during the build, not at the end. Feedback in week two is cheap; feedback in week eight is expensive.
You get: A running system you can log into and try while it is being built.
PHASE 04
Real data and a pilot
We load your real records, not sample data, and put the system in front of a small group of actual users. Real data is where the assumptions break, and it is much better to find that out with five users than fifty.
You get: A pilot group using it for real work, plus a fix list from what they hit.
PHASE 05
Rollout and handover
Everyone moves across, staff are trained on their part of the system, and you receive the accounts, the code and your data. Ownership is not held hostage.
You get: A live system, trained users, and full ownership of code, hosting and data.
What's included
- ✓ Discovery and a written process map before any screen is designed
- ✓ User roles and permissions designed in from the start, not bolted on
- ✓ Mobile-first interfaces that work on mid-range phones and mobile data
- ✓ Your data in a database you own, exportable at any time
- ✓ Staff training on the parts of the system each role uses
- ✓ A defined support window after launch while real use shakes out the edges
What's not included
- — Data entry of historic paper records (we can quote it separately)
- — Ongoing daily administration of the system on your behalf
- — Third-party licence or subscription fees for services you choose to connect
- — Hardware, devices or on-site network work
- — Unbounded change requests during a phase — new ideas are scoped into the next one
Timelines
A focused phase one is typically weeks rather than months, and the honest variable is not our speed — it is how quickly decisions and content come back from your side. We agree a schedule during discovery instead of promising a fixed turnaround before we know what we are building.
What it costs
Pricing is per phase, quoted after discovery, so you are never asked to approve a number before anyone knows the scope behind it.
Discovery can be bought on its own. If you then take the written output elsewhere, that is legitimate and we will not argue with it.
Anything outside the agreed phase is quoted in writing and built only after you approve it.
Real outcomes
Calisonic
A multi-branch business with no single view of revenue, stock or branch performance now runs on one executive dashboard with a shared data model across branches.
Onyii Nwa Imo
Dual retail and wholesale pricing moved out of one person's memory into system rules, alongside a catalogue and order tracking.
Questions we get asked
How do I know whether to build or buy?
Buy when your process is ordinary and a product exists that fits it — accounting, payroll and email are almost always buy. Build when the process is specific to how you operate, when you would have to distort the business to fit a product, or when the products that fit cost more at your size than building once. We work through this in the first conversation and say plainly which way it points.
What if my process is messy and undocumented?
That is the normal starting point. Documenting it is the first phase of the work, and it is often the most valuable part on its own — several clients have found problems in discovery that had nothing to do with software.
Who owns the code and the data?
You do. Code and data live in accounts in your name and you can export everything at any point. We do not hold your business hostage as a retention strategy.
Will it work when the network is bad?
It is designed to. Screens are light, forms do not silently discard half-entered work when the connection drops, and we test on mid-range phones rather than only on a laptop with fibre.
What happens if we want to stop after phase one?
You stop. That is exactly why the work is phased. You will have a working system for the scope delivered, plus your code and data.
Can you take over a project someone else started?
Sometimes. We start with a paid review of what exists, and we will tell you honestly whether continuing or restarting is cheaper. Both answers happen.
Do you train our staff?
Yes, by role, on the parts of the system each group actually uses. Training everyone on everything is the fastest way to have nobody remember anything.
Start with a conversation
No obligation and no pitch deck. Bring the problem; we will tell you what it would take and what you could skip.
Book a free consultationOther services
- Website development — Fast, findable sites that turn visitors into real enquiries.
- Technology advisory — Scoping, second opinions, and reviews of projects already underway.