Custom SaaS

Software built around your workflow.

Off-the-shelf software works until your business operates differently - and then it works by everybody keeping a spreadsheet beside it. Custom SaaS is worth building when the difference is the point: when how you do it is the advantage, not an inconvenience to be normalised away.

01 / THE WORK

Software built around your workflow.

These are the parts that decide whether the result holds up. Open whichever matters to you.

ModellingThe data model is the product

States, owners, transitions and exceptions, worked out before any screen. Screens are cheap to change later; a wrong data model is not.

TenancyIsolation enforced where it cannot be bypassed

For multi-tenant products, separation lives in the database rather than being trusted to application code that a future endpoint might forget.

PermissionsRoles that mean something

Accounts, roles and permissions enforced server-side. Hiding a button is presentation, not security.

OperationsThe back office that runs it

Queues, approvals, exports and dashboards - so your team can operate the product without a developer on call.

ReportingAn empty chart is not good news

Reporting that distinguishes "no data" from "the query failed" instead of rendering the same blank panel for both.

BillingSubscriptions, if the product needs them

Plans, upgrades, failures and reconciliation, with prices owned by the server rather than hardcoded in a client.

02 / WHAT YOU GET

What is actually delivered.

This fits when: Generic software covers most of your operation and the remainder lives in spreadsheets, group chats and one person who knows how it really works.

  • Data modelling first - the workflow, its states, its owners and its exceptions, before any screen
  • Accounts, roles and permissions enforced in the database, not hidden in the interface
  • An admin console your team can actually operate the product from
  • Reporting that tells "no data" apart from "the query failed" instead of showing an empty chart for both

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