How we build
We don't start with “What technology should we use?” We start with “How does this business actually operate, and what should improve?” The eight steps below are how the answer becomes a system in production.
- Understand
- Design and deliver
- The result
Stage 01 of 08 · Understand
Your team shows us how the work runs today. Together we write down what the business needs to change, in your people's words, so everyone starts from the same picture.
Why it matters
Every later decision is checked against it, so it is in the words of the people who will use the system rather than the people who will build it.
In practice
The Agency Booking Portal was designed for agency staff as its primary users, not for internal operators: a front door of their own for registration, rates, balance, booking and voucher, with the staff who approve, prepare and fulfil notified by the system.
Agency Booking PortalStage 02 of 08 · Understand
You get a map of the operation: who does what, which rules apply, where information comes from, where it gets lost, and what is still done by hand.
What it produces
- Who does what, and which rules apply
- Where information gets lost
- What is still done by hand
Why it matters
Records, rules and handovers decide what the system must hold, and they show up only when the work is followed end to end.
In practice
In the Property Management System, property, unit, lease and tenant are one structure, and the operation's own records attach to it: post-dated cheques with their deposit dates, tenants with their households, annual maintenance contracts with their visits.
Property Management SystemStage 03 of 08 · Design and deliver
You get an agreed scope: together we decide what the system covers, who uses it, what it connects to and, just as clearly, what the first version leaves out.
What it produces
- What it covers, and who uses it
- What the first version leaves out
Why it matters
Who can see and do what, and what the system is built around, are the decisions most expensive to change later, so they are agreed first.
In practice
The Property Management System defines access as seven roles with per-user permission overrides, behind two-factor sign-in, with an audit log and login activity.
Property Management SystemStage 04 of 08 · Design and deliver
Your people review the screens early, in the browser and in the languages the product will ship in, while a change is still cheap.
What it produces
- Screens your people have reviewed
- Reviewed in the languages it ships in
Why it matters
The people who work in a system all day are the ones it has to suit, and a screen corrected in review is corrected before anything is built on it.
In practice
The Bilingual School Platform was built with Arabic and English as equals from the very start: every page exists in both languages at its own address, and Arabic reads right to left throughout rather than as an adjustment laid on top.
Bilingual School PlatformStage 05 of 08 · Design and deliver
You get a working piece to try at each step: one part of the work running from start to finish, tried with realistic data by the people who will use it.
What it produces
- One complete part of the work at a time
- Tried with realistic data
- Tried with the roles that will use it
Why it matters
Each increment can be tried by the people who will use it while a mistake is still cheap to correct.
In practice
In the Customer Operations CRM, bringing the existing history across was built to be repeated and checked against the original records, rather than copied once and trusted.
Customer Operations CRMStage 06 of 08 · Design and deliver
We connect it to the mailboxes, spreadsheets, payment providers and systems you already run, so you get one place where the work is recorded, not one more to check.
What it produces
- Connections to what already runs
- The system becomes the record
Why it matters
Until it is connected to what already runs, a new system is one more place to check; connected, it becomes the record.
In practice
The Client Reporting Platform starts from the client's Excel management accounts: staff upload them, the report's numbered sections are built from them in that client's own template, and a publisher approves before anything reaches the client.
Client Reporting PlatformStage 07 of 08 · The result
Your team starts working in it, with automatic checks that raise an alarm instead of waiting for a complaint.
What it produces
- Your team working in the system
- Automatic checks that raise an alarm
Why it matters
A live system can fail quietly: a supplier's file stops arriving, a routine job does not run. So the work that has to happen on time runs on its own, apart from the screens your people use.
In practice
In the Partner Fulfilment Terminal, collecting the supplier's booking files runs apart from the screens staff use: several times a day it reads the supplier's emails, works out the station and car group for each booking, and creates or updates it by its reservation code.
Partner Fulfilment TerminalStage 08 of 08 · The result
Together we check that it does what the business needed, its own output included, and agree the next improvement a piece at a time.
What it produces
- Checks against what was needed
- Further improvements
Why it matters
For a system that makes recommendations, that check is scheduled rather than hoped for.
In practice
An audit of the Pricing Intelligence Platform's own output found a rule wrongly leaving out valid comparisons; the fix followed four days later.
Pricing Intelligence PlatformWhat stays human
Approvals, judgement and exceptions stay human, and these published systems show where that line sits.
Nothing reaches a client unapproved
In the Client Reporting Platform a publisher approves, and nothing reaches a client before that step has happened.
Client Reporting PlatformRecommendations carry their evidence
The Pricing Intelligence Platform's lower and raise recommendations, per location and category, arrive with the comparison they came from.
Pricing Intelligence PlatformPeople decide who is told
In the Property Management System, the people running it decide, event by event, which roles are told and on which channel, with quiet hours that a critical event can be allowed to bypass.
Property Management System