Custom applications across Canada · Manufacturers
At a manufacturer, an order travels from sales to the customer, then to the shop floor. When those steps live in Excel, in email and in the memory of a few people, every handoff can create a mistake. We build a web application that connects proposals, orders and production around your products and your rules. You own the code and the data.
Where information gets lost
Accounting software or an ERP handles invoices, inventory and purchasing well. It knows your rules less well: which options go together, prices by quantity, the details a customer has to confirm before the first piece is cut. Those rules often end up in an Excel file kept by one or two people.
The trouble shows up at the handoffs. Sales prepares a proposal, the customer replies by email, someone retypes their choices into the work order. A colour copied wrong is discovered at delivery, when fixing it costs the most.
A custom application doesn’t necessarily replace your software. It takes over the steps your software doesn’t cover and connects to it. Information is entered once, then follows the order all the way to production.
An order’s path through the application
What we build
We start from your real work: your files, your forms, the path an order takes. Every project is different; here is what we most often build for a manufacturer.
Your products, their options and the allowed combinations in a single database. Prices are calculated according to your rules, with no formula hidden in a cell.
Products · Options · PricesYour team prepares the proposal from the catalogue. The customer opens it from a link, requests a change or approves it.
Proposal · Customer link · ApprovalEvery choice is tied to the right product: fabric, finish, dimensions, quantities. The shop floor reads the order without having to interpret it.
Spec sheets · Attachments · ValidationEvery order has a status, an owner and a next step. Sales knows where an order stands without calling the plant.
Statuses · Steps · DeadlinesAccounting, CRM, email: the application connects to them through an API, an import or an export, depending on what each system allows. Considering an ERP? Our guide ERP or custom software compares the options.
Integrations · SyncOnce delivered and paid for, the application belongs to you: the code, the data and the access. Documentation and hosting are planned in the engagement, so it can keep evolving with or without us.
Case study · Pavar
Pavar builds chairs and banquettes for restaurants across North America. Its proposals were prepared in Excel, with hundreds of possible choices. The application we built now connects the catalogue, the customer’s decisions and the team’s work, from the proposal all the way to production.
Follow a Pavar order all the way to productionPreparing a proposal used to mean working in Excel. Now our products, the client’s choices and the details of their order all live in the application. We save time, and we move forward with far less risk of error.
Maria IermieriVP Sales and Marketing and Co-owner, PavarBefore you start
If off-the-shelf software does the job, we will tell you from the start: it is often faster and cheaper. To find new buyers, also see our Google Ads campaigns for industrial B2B companies.
But most manufacturers we meet have built themselves an edge: a way of working their competitors don’t have. Off-the-shelf software imposes the same method on all its customers. To adopt it, you pour your way of working into its mould, and that edge fades. A custom application follows your method: it adapts to you, not the other way around.
It often replaces an Excel file or an Access database, and, where needed, the paper documents printed at the office for the shop floor.
Frequently asked questions
The price depends on the number of screens, the rules to program and the integrations with your tools. We first define a useful first version; the proposal sets its scope and price before work begins. Also check whether government support for digital transformation is available to your business: programs change often. Our guide to the cost of a custom application explains what makes the price vary.
A first working version is usually ready in about eight weeks. Your users try it before launch, then the application evolves with your priorities. The exact timeline is set in the proposal.
No, not necessarily. The application connects to your systems through an API, an import or an export and handles the steps they don’t cover. What works stays in place. Our guide ERP or custom software for a small manufacturer compares the options and helps you decide.
Yes, but a tool built for them. Shop floor staff try the application at key stages of the project, and their screens show what they need to build the product. We train the team at launch and support the rollout.
You do. Once delivered and paid for, the application belongs to you, with its code, its data and its access, with no licence to renew. Documentation and hosting are planned in the engagement.
Let’s talk about your shop floor
An Excel file, a work order, a step that gets stuck: that is enough for a first conversation with François. Together, we will see what is worth building and what can stay as it is. The first conversation comes with no commitment.
