Custom Software Development
Operational systems built around how your business actually runs.
The problem
Off-the-shelf software forces your process into someone else's template, and the gaps get filled with spreadsheets.
How we solve it
We engineer ERP, CRM, inventory, POS and industry platforms with your workflow, roles and reporting modelled correctly from day one.
Business impact
One source of truth across operations, finance and the field team. Typical return: Payback in 8–14 months.
What is included
Custom Software Development solutions
What actually breaks
The packaged system handles most of the process, and the rest moves into spreadsheets. There is a master sheet one person maintains, a second sheet finance keeps because the first is missing a column, and a WhatsApp group where the actual decisions get made. Reports are assembled by exporting from three places and pasting into a fourth. Nobody trusts a number until they have asked the person who owns the sheet.
How we build it
The first artefact is a data model, not a screen. We model the entities your business actually argues about, an order, a job, a batch, a patient, a site, and decide early which are immutable records and which are mutable state, because getting that wrong is what makes audit trails impossible later. Schemas live in PostgreSQL with real constraints and foreign keys, not validation that exists only in application code. The API layer is TypeScript on Node.js, with Go where throughput justifies it. React front ends are built per role, so a warehouse supervisor and a finance controller do not share one overloaded screen.
What goes wrong on these projects
Scope is not the usual killer. Undocumented exceptions are. Every business has rules nobody writes down: the customer invoiced differently, the branch that closes stock a day early, the approval skipped when the director is travelling. These surface during rollout, not discovery. The other recurring problem is legacy data. Migrated records are never as clean as the team believes, and reconciliation before cutover regularly takes longer than building the feature that consumes it.
What changes after
One system holds the record, and reports come out of it instead of being assembled. Each role sees its own view. The audit trail exists because the schema was designed for it rather than bolted on. Operational systems of this kind typically pay back in 8–14 months.
Questions we get asked first
Do we own the code?
Yes, in full. Foxquart transfers intellectual property, source repositories and infrastructure to you, with documentation and a formal handover at the end of the build. You are not licensing your own operational system back from us, and that holds whether or not Foxquart keeps supporting it afterwards.
Can you take over an existing codebase?
Regularly, and it is one of the more common ways a Foxquart engagement starts. We begin with an architecture and risk audit of the existing codebase, then stabilise it before adding any features. Rushing new work onto an unstable base is how projects arrive late and miss the point.
How long does a custom software project take?
Custom software from Foxquart is measured in weeks. Delivery runs in two-week increments with working software at the end of each one, so progress stays visible. A single-site operational rollout typically takes 6–10 weeks, and a nine-warehouse management system for an FMCG distributor took 14 weeks.
What is the payback period on a custom system?
Operational systems built by Foxquart typically pay back in 8–14 months. There is no list price, because scope decides the cost: discovery is fixed price, and delivery is either fixed-scope per phase or a dedicated team retainer. Payback comes from one source of truth across operations, finance and the field team.
What technology do you build operational systems on?
Foxquart builds custom operational systems on TypeScript, React, Node.js, Go, PostgreSQL and Docker. That stack is deliberately mainstream, so the documented architecture can be picked up by any competent engineering team after handover. Obscure technology choices are how a system fails to survive the next growth stage.
How do you make sure the software matches how we work?
Foxquart models your workflow, roles and reporting from day one instead of fitting your process into someone else's template. Discovery maps the real process before code is written, and two-week delivery increments put working software in front of your team early, while corrections are still cheap to make.
How do you price projects?
Foxquart prices discovery as a fixed amount, then delivery as either fixed-scope phases or a dedicated team retainer. There is no list price for a build, because scope decides the number and discovery is what establishes the scope. You approve the cost of each phase before that phase begins.
What if requirements change?
They will change, and Foxquart plans for it rather than resisting it. Delivery runs in two-week increments with working software at the end of each, so a change is priced against the next increment instead of renegotiating a whole contract. Change found in week three is cheap; the same change at handover is not.
What do we get out of the discovery phase?
A fixed-scope plan that belongs to you. Foxquart discovery is fixed price and produces the mapped process, the architecture direction, and the scope and cost of delivery before you commit to building anything. If the honest conclusion is that a packaged product fits, discovery says so.
What happens if the project runs over?
Two-week increments are how Foxquart keeps that from becoming a surprise. Working software at the end of each increment makes slippage visible within a fortnight rather than at a deadline, and remaining scope is renegotiated against the remaining phases. An overrun becomes a scoping conversation instead of an unexplained invoice.
What support do we get after launch?
An ongoing support and improvement agreement, not ad-hoc favours. Foxquart continues improvements in the same two-week increments as the original build, and where infrastructure is included, cover extends to patching, monitoring, incident response and a monthly reliability report. Because it is contracted, support survives changes of staff on both sides.
How do we know you will not disappear after launch?
Because the handover is built so you could survive it. Foxquart transfers repositories, intellectual property and infrastructure with documented architecture, and most engagements run jointly with your engineers. If we stopped tomorrow, another team could pick the system up, which is the opposite of how vendor lock-in normally works.
