Mobile and business applications

Software shaped by the work it supports

Talk to us about an application

The focus is practical software: mobile and business applications that connect people, systems and data, often as an extension of ERP and operational processes.

A clay render of application surfaces docked to one base.
On the floor

A screen for the job, not the whole system

An operator scanning a pallet needs four fields and a big button, not a desktop form with sixty. Role-specific interfaces put the work in front of the person doing it.

Connected application surfaces.
One source

Built onto the ERP, not beside it

Shared data, shared users and shared transactions. An application that keeps its own copy of the truth becomes the second system somebody has to reconcile.

A clay render of a connected system.
When the line drops

Work continues, and reconciles after

Yards, basements and vehicles lose signal. Offline workflows keep the frontline moving and settle what happened once the connection returns.

A clay render of balanced stock.
Outside the walls

Access for the people who are not staff

Customers, vendors and partners get a controlled door into the records that concern them — and nothing else, which is the part that takes the design.

A clay render of an intelligence layer.
Solution layers

Five layers, top to bottom

An application is five decisions stacked on each other. Named top to bottom, because that is the order a reader meets them and the reverse of the order they are built.

The layers an application is built across, and what each one holds.
Layer What it holds
Analytics and delivery Dashboards, notifications, releases and optimization
APIs and connectors Payments, partners, devices and third-party systems
ERP and data Odoo, business records and system-of-record integration
Workflow logic Approvals, tasks, alerts and operational rules
User experience Mobile, tablet and role-specific interfaces
The join

The application does not own the record

ERP and business operations

It reads and writes the system of record through defined interfaces, so a stock figure changed on a phone is the same figure the order desk and the ledger read. The alternative is two truths and a reconciliation meeting.

A clay render of slabs docked flush to one core.
Typical application scope

Where applications usually land

Eight places this work usually lands. Which of them applies is a question about the operation, not about the software.

Mobile warehouse

Scanning, approvals and field operations.

Portals

Customer, vendor or partner access.

Offline / sync

Workflows for intermittent connectivity.

Dashboards

Role-based visibility and alerts.

iOS and Android

Native or cross-platform delivery.

Business apps

Tools built for internal workflows.

ERP integration

Shared data, users and transactions.

Lifecycle support

Deployment, updates and optimization.

How it is built

What decides whether it gets used

An application that is technically correct and ignored has failed. These are the things that decide the difference.

The person holding it

Gloves, cold, noise, one hand free. The interface is designed for the conditions it will actually be used in.

One job per screen

A screen that does one thing well beats a screen that does six things a supervisor has to explain.

Permissions that match roles

What a person can see and change follows the role they hold, not the app they happen to have installed.

Behaviour when it fails

No signal, a dead battery, a rejected scan. What the app does then is designed, not discovered.

One deployment path

How a new version reaches a hundred devices, and how it is rolled back if it should not have.

Something to measure

Usage, failures and where people stop. An application nobody measures is an application nobody improves.

What changes

Four things the work stops doing

Rekeying into the system

What happened on the floor is already in the record.

Waiting for a desk

The job is done where it happens, on the device to hand.

Stopping without signal

Work continues and reconciles when the line returns.

Sharing a login

People see what their role allows, on their own account.