01Weeks 1–2
Discovery
We sit with the people doing the work and watch how it happens today, including the spreadsheet that never shows up in meetings.
- You get
- process-map.pdf
- requirements.md
- constraints.md
Custom software studioTaking new work
Software built around how you work.
We build custom ERP systems and connect them to the tools you already use. If your team is copying data between screens, or your systems don’t agree with each other, that’s the problem we solve.
Fig. 00 — The studio where the work gets done
01Clients
Operations UI
Role-scoped web
Floor terminal
Touch, offline-safe
Mobile scan
Barcode and label
02Edge
API gateway
One entry point
Identity
SSO, roles, scopes
Audit trail
Every write logged
03Services
Orders
Quote to fulfillment
Inventory
Lots, bins, movements
Scheduling
Capacity and routing
Costing
Labor and material
04Events
Event log
Ordered, durable
Projections
Rebuilt from the log
Retries
Dead letters visible
05Data
Postgres
System of record
Warehouse
Reporting and history
Object store
Documents and scans
06Existing
CRM
Accounts and contacts
Ledger
Invoices and payments
WMS
Locations and picks
PLC / SCADA
Machine reads
Sample telemetry
OPC UA — 142 tags @ 2.1s poll
Read left to right. The first five lanes are built for your business, and you get the source when we finish. The sixth is what already runs in your building — we connect to it rather than replacing it on day one.
- Projects
- Fixed scope
- Team
- Senior engineers
- Source code
- Yours when we finish
- Hosting
- Your cloud
01What we build
The kinds of workwe take on
Most projects mix a few of these. The issue is rarely one system — it’s that they don’t work together.
01Custom ERP
A system built around how your business actually runs: orders, inventory, jobs, costing, and reporting. Not a generic product with your logo on the login screen.
- Data model
- Roles
- Audit trail
02Workflow automation
The steps someone still does by hand between two tools. Automating that saves time and stops the typing mistakes that come with it.
- Rules engine
- Queues
- Approvals
03Systems integration
Your accounting software, CRM, and warehouse tools should agree on what a customer and an order are. We connect them so they do.
- ETL
- Webhooks
- Reconciliation
04Machine and device data
We read from PLCs, scales, scanners, and sensors so production numbers come off the machines, not off a clipboard at the end of the shift.
- OPC UA
- Modbus
- MQTT
05Cloud and deployment
Infrastructure is defined in code and deployed into your own cloud accounts. You hold the logins and the billing, so you can move whenever you want.
- IaC
- CI/CD
- Observability
06Reporting and analysis
Numbers people can trust, because you can see where they came from. Every figure traces back to the row that produced it.
- Warehouse
- Dashboards
- Exports
07APIs and services
Documented interfaces your own team or your vendors can build against, with versioning and tests so they don’t break quietly.
- REST
- GraphQL
- Events
08Legacy modernization
Moving off software nobody wants to touch, in stages. The old system keeps running until the new one has earned the traffic.
- Strangler
- Backfill
- Cutover
02How we work
How a projectactually runs
Five stages. Each one ends with something real in your hands before the next one starts — and you can stop after any of them.
02Weeks 3–4
Architecture
The data model, the integrations, and the tech stack get written down before anyone starts coding.
- You get
- schema.sql
- contracts/openapi.yaml
- scope+price.pdf
03Week 5 onward
Build
Two-week cycles, each one ending in something you can log into. You catch a wrong assumption in week six, not month six.
- You get
- a login that works
- test-suite/
- cycle-notes.md
04Runs alongside build
Integration
Connecting to the systems and machines already in the building. This is usually where timelines slip, so we start it early instead of saving it for last.
- You get
- connectors/ (live)
- reconciliation.log
- migration-dry-run.md
05Final cycle
Handover
Cutover, then the code, runbooks, and logins move to you. Support after that is a separate agreement — you’re free to say no.
- You get
- repos → your org
- runbooks/
- recorded walkthrough
You can stop after architecture and take the documents to another team.
03Why us
What you canhold us to
01
Built from your process
We start with how your business actually records work, then design the software around that. Not the other way around.
02
You own the source
Code, docs, database migrations, and deploy scripts go into your repositories. If you replace us, nothing stops.
03
The people who scope it write it
The engineer on your first call is the one writing the last commit. We don’t quote the work and then hand it to someone else.
04
Fixed scope, priced up front
Milestones are agreed in writing, with a price attached. If we underestimate our own work, we cover the extra.
05
Built for the load you’ll have
Indexing, queues, and failure handling get decided during architecture, against the volume you tell us to expect. The first busy month shouldn’t be the one that finds the limits.
06
Handover is part of the build
Runbooks, architecture notes, and a walkthrough with your team ship with the software, whether or not you keep us on afterward.
If we fall short on any of this, we fix it at our cost.
Handoff04
What you keepwhen we leave
Every project ends with a transfer list. Below is everything that moves into your organization.
Transfer list08 items
- 01source/Every repository, full commit history, in your org
- 02infra/Terraform for the whole environment, applied from CI
- 03db/migrations/The schema, versioned from the first table
- 04runbooks/Deploy, restore, rotate, and what to do at 2am
- 05docs/decisions/Why it’s built this way, dated and signed
- 06credentialsMoved into your vault; ours stop working
- 07walkthroughRecorded session with the team that will run it
- 08license feesNone. It’s your software
Nothing owed to us after that0.00
Everything on this list transfers in the last cycle. You don’t have to renegotiate to get it.
We’d rather you keep us because the next project is worth doing, not because leaving would be painful. If your current vendor can’t produce a list like this, that’s worth a conversation on its own.
We don’t lock you in. When the project ends, you already have what you need to keep going without us.
Tools05
Tools your nextengineer already knows
We pick technology people already know how to hire for. A trendy stack is a cost you keep paying after we leave.
01
Languages
- TypeScript
- Python
- Go
- SQL
- C# / .NET
- Java
02
Application
- Next.js
- React
- Node.js
- FastAPI
- Django
- tRPC
03
Data
- PostgreSQL
- ClickHouse
- Redis
- Kafka
- dbt
- Airflow
04
Infrastructure
- AWS
- Azure
- GCP
- Kubernetes
- Terraform
- GitHub Actions
05
Interfaces
- REST
- GraphQL
- gRPC
- OPC UA
- Modbus TCP
- MQTT
06Industries
Different industries,same kind of problem
Most companies already have software. The expensive part is that those systems don’t agree, so people spend their days reconciling them by hand.
Production numbers that come off the machines, not a clipboard.
We build the software that runs the floor — work orders, machine counts, and material use captured as they happen — so the office schedule and the shop floor show the same numbers.
- Typical work
- Live production counts from machines and scales
- Work order scheduling against real capacity
- Lot traceability from raw material to shipped unit
- Downtime and maintenance tracking
07Questions
What people askon the first call
If yours isn’t here, that’s a good reason to get in touch. We answer the awkward ones the same way.
Each milestone is priced in writing before it starts, and the first one — architecture — is the smallest. You’ll know the cost of the whole build before committing to any of it. If we underestimate our own work, we cover the extra.
08Contact
Tell us what youneed help with
Write a few sentences about what’s going on. We’ll read it ourselves and email you back, usually the same day.
- We write back
- You’ll get an email with a few questions so we can understand how things work today.
- Then a call
- If it looks like something we can help with, we set up a 30-minute call to talk it through.
- If it isn’t a fit
- We’ll tell you. If there’s a simpler or cheaper way to solve it, we’ll say that too.
Prefer email?hello@builddrive.net
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