Capabilities
Custom software: where your own rules run
Every business has rules that make it different: what each town's building department wants, who approves a large quote, which truck carries which parts. Today they live in a binder, a spreadsheet or someone's head. Bought software can't hold them, because it was built for everyone. Custom software is where they're written down once and followed every time. These ten capabilities are how.
A rule written down is a rule followed
In someone's headIn custom software
Who knows itOne person, or whoever finds the binderThe software, and everyone it shows
When it's followedWhen someone remembersEvery time, or the step doesn't go on
When it changesBy word of mouthOne edit, with who made it and when
When someone asks whyAsk aroundThe record shows which rule applied
Not every rule deserves software. A rule that's broken once a year can stay in the binder. The ones worth building are followed many times a week, cost money when they're missed, and are yours alone.
The ten capabilities, from the inside out
Who uses the software decides most of how it's built. Some is used by your team all day; some meets customers and partners; some is a product, or a kind of software, of its own.
01Your teamUsed all day by the people who do the work.
- Internal ToolsIn-depth pageScreens laid out by how often each thing is done.
- Workflow ApplicationsIn-depth pageA process with states, where every move has a rule.
- Operations PlatformsIn-depth pageOne model of the operation, updated by every event.
- Custom CRM ApplicationsIn-depth pageRelationships as they really are, with every conversation filed.
- Admin SystemsIn-depth pageWhere the rules are changed, safely, with a history.
02Customers and partnersUsed by people and software outside the business.
03New products and new groundSoftware you sell, or software that behaves in new ways.
Start with what's breaking
Workflow Applications
“Every job is done a different way”
Write down the states and the rules, then let the application keep them.
Operations Platforms
“We type the same thing into three systems”
Model the operation once, so one event updates every record that needs it.
Internal Tools
“The spreadsheet runs the job”
Count what's done most, and build the screen around it.