Website design
A website that represents the business properly and can be updated without a developer.
OpenIT service
Mobile app development
An app your customers or staff will keep on their phone rather than delete in a week.
What we do
What the engagement includes
iOS and Android applications, built natively or cross-platform depending on what the app has to do — not on what is fashionable.
- Platform choice argued from the requirement
- Behaviour defined for slow networks and no network
- Push notifications and the device integrations the app needs
- App Store and Google Play submission handled
- A release and update process that survives after launch
Who this is for
Who this is for
The situations this service was set up for. If none of them is yours it does not mean no — it means ask.
- Businesses whose customers are on a phone, not a desktop
- Field, delivery and sales teams working away from an office
- Companies extending a system they already run to mobile
How we work
How work on this starts
The first three stages. The full six run the same way whichever service you come in through.
First conversation
You describe what is going wrong today. We say whether this is work we should be doing, and whether software is even the right answer to it.
- You give
- The problem in your own words
- You get
- A straight answer about fit, including no
Scope
We look at how the work is done now, with the people who actually do it, and write down what the software has to do — and what it explicitly will not.
- You give
- Time with the people doing the work
- You get
- A written scope, including what is out of it
Plan and estimate
Cost and sequence against that scope, with the assumptions written beside them. If an assumption turns out to be wrong, you can see which number moves.
- You give
- Your decision on the scope
- You get
- A phased plan, a price, and the assumptions behind both
Questions
Questions we are asked before the first meeting
You are an agricultural company. Why are you writing software?
Because we needed it ourselves. Traceability, specifications, scheduling and stock are software problems before they are agricultural ones, and the team that builds for our own operations is the team that builds for clients. Agriculture remains our main business; this is a second one, run properly rather than as a side line.
Do you work with businesses outside agriculture?
Yes. Nothing in the list of services is specific to agriculture, and most of it — websites, internal applications, mobile apps, resourcing — is the same work in any industry. Where our own sector does help is when a client is moving physical goods, because we have had to solve those problems for ourselves.
Who owns the code when the work is finished?
You do. Source code and intellectual property transfer to you, and the handover includes the documentation needed to run it. There is no component we keep hold of, and nothing in the system that only we can change.
How is the work priced?
Two ways, depending on how firm the scope is. A fixed price against a written scope where the requirement is settled, or an agreed monthly rate for a dedicated team where it is still moving. We will tell you which one fits and why. We do not quote before the scope is written down, because a number given earlier than that is chosen to win the conversation rather than to be met.
Other IT services
Software consulting and implementation
A decision about what to build, buy or change that you can defend — and the implementation that follows it.
OpenWeb application development
An internal or customer-facing application that fits how the business actually works.
Open
Next step
Mobile app development
Describe what is in place today and what is going wrong with it. You will get a straight answer about whether this is the right service, and what it would take.
We reply to every enquiry within one working day.