Reporting automation results for UK businesses

Three client projects, each one a report or a spreadsheet that took too long and could not be trusted. Here is what we built and what changed.

What these had in common

None of them started as a software project. Each one started as somebody spending several hours a week on something a computer should have been doing, or a spreadsheet that one person understood and everybody else was frightened of. The software was the answer rather than the ambition.

How long they took

Most of these were live inside a fortnight from the first call. The build is rarely the slow part. What takes the time is agreeing what the thing actually needs to do, which is why we ask the awkward questions early rather than halfway through.

What they cost

Less than people expect, and always a fixed price agreed before anything starts rather than a day rate that grows. If you want a figure without speaking to anybody, thefree estimatorprices up an idea in a couple of minutes and produces a brief you can take to three other developers if you would rather.

Nobody paid before they saw it working

Every one of these was built, demonstrated on a video call with the client's own data in it, and used by them before any money changed hands. No deposit, nothing up front, no staged payments. If it had not done what they asked for, they would have lost nothing.

And they own them

The code, the hosting account, the documentation. Not a licence that stops working if we stop answering the phone. Every one of these could be handed to another developer tomorrow, which is worth more to a small business than it sounds until the day it matters.