[ Guides ]

Straight answers to the questions suppliers dodge.

What it costs. How long it takes. Whether you should build at all. We publish the answers because a buyer who understands the trade offs is a better client than one who does not.

8 August 2026 · 6 min read

How Much Does Custom Software Cost

Custom software for a UK small business typically costs £8,000 to £30,000 for a first working system. A single automated process sits near the bottom of that range, a multi user platform with mobile apps near the top. Fixed price against a written scope is normal and preferable to a day rate.

8 August 2026 · 5 min read

Off the Shelf or Custom Software

Most businesses should buy software rather than build it. Custom pays back in three situations: when the process is how you compete, when you would otherwise pay for several products and rekey between them, or when licence costs across your headcount exceed ownership within two to three years.

8 August 2026 · 6 min read

What an AI Feature Costs to Run

AI running costs scale with usage rather than headcount, so the meaningful figure is cost per active user per month rather than a monthly total. Making it predictable takes three things: attribution per request, routing work to appropriately sized models, and hard spending ceilings that have been tested in production.

8 August 2026 · 5 min read

Automate Client Onboarding for Accountants

Automating client onboarding in an accountancy practice means collecting engagement details, identity checks and documents through one guided flow, then chasing whatever is missing automatically. The chasing is the part that pays, because it consumes senior time daily and is entirely rules based.

8 August 2026 · 5 min read

How to Reduce No-Shows in a Private Clinic

Reducing no-shows in a private clinic depends on three things: reminders timed to when people can act on them, making it effortless to rebook rather than simply cancel, and automatically offering a released slot to a waiting list before it is lost.

8 August 2026 · 5 min read

Why Job Applicants Go Cold

High volume hiring loses most applicants in the first day, because they apply outside office hours and are contacted days later after accepting something else. Hiring more recruiters does not fix it, since the constraint is available hours rather than effort. Automating first contact is what changes the numbers.

8 August 2026 · 4 min read

Fixed Price or Day Rate for Software Projects

A day rate pays a supplier for taking longer and penalises them for being fast, and it transfers estimating risk to the buyer, who is least able to judge it. Fixed price forces the scope conversation before money is committed, which is the conversation that determines whether a project succeeds.

8 August 2026 · 5 min read

Questions to Ask a Software Partner

The questions that matter before signing with a software supplier are about ownership, exclusions, handover and running costs, not about technology. A supplier who cannot answer what is not included, who owns the accounts, and what it costs to run per month has not scoped the work properly.

8 August 2026 · 5 min read

Care Rota Scheduling: Buy or Build

Most care providers should use a product for rota scheduling rather than build one, because the problem is well understood and well served. Bespoke earns its place when the constraint is continuity of carer, complex travel geography, or generating compliance evidence automatically rather than assembling it later.

8 August 2026 · 5 min read

Data Protection With a Software Supplier

When a supplier builds or runs software for you, you remain the data controller and they act as your processor. UK GDPR requires a written data processing agreement covering purpose, security, sub-processors, breach notification and what happens to the data when the relationship ends.

8 August 2026 · 4 min read

How Long a Business App Takes to Build

A focused business application takes two to six weeks to a working system, depending on how many user types it has and how many existing systems it must talk to. Most overruns are not engineering time, they are decisions waiting on somebody at the client.

8 August 2026 · 5 min read

Why Most AI Pilots Never Reach Production

AI pilots stall because the prototype is the easy fifth of the work. What stops them reaching production is integration with the systems people actually use, cost that scales unpredictably, no owner once enthusiasm fades, and no agreed definition of good enough to ship.