We already pay for a CRM. Is that money wasted?

Not necessarily. Sometimes the answer is to keep it for what it does well and build only the part it cannot handle. We will tell you if that is cheaper.

Can it send email and reminders?

Yes. Contact that currently depends on someone remembering is usually the first thing worth handing over.

What about the people who liked the old way?

They are often right about something. We would rather understand why a workaround exists than remove it and find out afterwards.

All services

Custom CRM Development

For teams whose relationships do not fit somebody else’s sales pipeline.

Custom CRM development means building the record of your relationships around the way you actually work, rather than accepting the stages and fields a software company chose for a different kind of business. Off-the-shelf tools assume a sales pipeline: a lead arrives, moves through stages, and closes. Plenty of organisations do not work that way. Members renew, patients return, grants report on a schedule, and clients come back after two quiet years. A custom build follows those rhythms instead of fighting them.

We work with small teams that do not have an IT department. You bring deep knowledge of your work. We handle the technical side, so you never have to become a software expert to run your own business.

Who needs a custom CRM rather than a standard one?

Organisations whose relationships are not sales. Associations tracking members through lapses and renewals, clinics following patients over years, nonprofits reporting to funders on fixed schedules, specialist practices carrying a client relationship through work that arrives every few years rather than every quarter.

These are markets the large software companies pass over, because the total number of buyers is small and the requirements are particular. What gets sold to them instead is a general purpose tool with the wrong words on the buttons.

Almost none of these teams have technical staff. They have people who understand the work exceptionally well and no interest in learning how software is put together, which is the right way round.

When do you outgrow an off-the-shelf CRM?

The clearest sign is a spreadsheet living beside it. When the real information has moved somewhere else because the official system will not hold it, you are already paying for something you have stopped using.

The other sign is a field renamed to mean something it was never meant to mean. Every team has one. A status called "Closed Won" that quietly tracks whether the paperwork came back. It works until the person who invented the convention leaves.

What can a custom CRM hold that a standard one cannot?

Whatever your work is actually about. Households rather than individuals. Members with a lapsed year in the middle. Cases with several people attached and different rules for each. Renewal dates that vary by agreement rather than by anniversary.

None of this is exotic. It is only unusual to software designed for selling, which is what most CRMs are.

Can we keep the history we already have?

Yes, and you should insist on it with anyone you hire. Your history is most of what makes the system valuable. Bringing it across, including the parts that are messy or inconsistent, is normal work rather than an obstacle.

How does this stay usable as the team changes?

By being obvious. If someone new needs a week of training to enter a record correctly, the system is wrong, not the person.

We build the screens around the task in front of the user rather than around the shape of the data underneath, so the right way to do something is also the easy way.

“Growing fast is a good problem to have, but it's a problem nonetheless. The one-size-fits-all CRM didn't fully address our needs.”

Brad Sattin, Partner & Executive Producer, Focus Media Services

Common questions

We already pay for a CRM. Is that money wasted?: Not necessarily. Sometimes the answer is to keep it for what it does well and build only the part it cannot handle. We will tell you if that is cheaper.
Can it send email and reminders?: Yes. Contact that currently depends on someone remembering is usually the first thing worth handing over.
What about the people who liked the old way?: They are often right about something. We would rather understand why a workaround exists than remove it and find out afterwards.

Other things we build

Custom Database DevelopmentFor teams who know their work inside out and do not have an IT department.
Business Workflow AutomationFor teams doing valuable work by hand because nobody has had time to fix it.
Database Integration ServicesFor teams typing the same information into two places every day.
Internal Tools DevelopmentFor the work that is specific to you, and that no product is sold for.

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