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Patterns, decisions, and lessons from hundreds of conversations with mid-sized business owners trying to figure out their software. Written for the people doing the figuring.
ERP and CRM solve different problems. Before you build either one custom, you need to know which problem you actually have.
Bespoke ERP means custom-built software designed around your business specifically. Here is what that involves and when it is worth it.
Most ERP platforms handle wholesale distribution basics well. Here is where they fall short and what to do about it.
Most legacy modernization projects are scoped wrong from the start. Here is what the right approach actually looks like.
Access was built for small workloads. If your business has outgrown it, here is what converting to a web application actually involves.
A custom ERP system is built around your workflows, not the other way around. Here is what that actually means and when it is worth it.
Not every company that markets as US-based actually is. Here is how to tell the difference before you hire.
Most distribution companies can get 80% of what they need from an off-the-shelf ERP. Here is what almost always falls through the cracks.
Configuration adjusts what your ERP already does. Customization builds what it cannot. Here is how to tell which one your business actually needs.
Microsoft ended Visual FoxPro support in 2015. If your business is still running on it, here is what the replacement path actually looks like.
Custom ERP gets thrown around as a buzzword. Here is what it actually means and how to know if your business needs one.
ERP implementation is one phrase that covers four completely different problems. Here is how to tell which one you actually have before you spend a dollar.
Your ERP probably works fine. The problem is that it does not talk to anything else. Here is what ERP integration services actually solve.
Most companies that convert their estimating Excel to an app end up rebuilding the same friction in a different form. Here's how to avoid that.
Before you buy a construction ERP, you need to answer one question: what problem are you actually solving for?
A consultation framework drawn from hundreds of calls with mid-sized owners trying to figure out their software.
Forty years of distribution business logic, encoded in a language Microsoft stopped supporting in 2015. We're rebuilding without taking the business offline.
An international 115K-member organization on a 1990s Visual Basic database. No backups in three years. One config setting from total data loss. How we rescued it, then rebuilt it.
Misty Ebersole spent fifteen years trying to replace a 1990s Visual Basic database. We rebuilt it in under a year, and shipped 30% of her team's day back to them in the first eighteen days.
Seven patterns developers use against business owners — scope creep, jargon smokescreens, vendor lock-in — and the practical defenses that prevent each.
Five warning signs your legacy software has become a business liability — manual workarounds, slow reports, broken integrations, missing developer, unsupported tech.
Cloud migration isn't always the answer. Diagnose the actual problem first. Plus the data-safety check that comes before any migration.
Most owners considering custom software don't actually need it. Here's the framework: find off-the-shelf for 80%, customize the rest via APIs, build custom only when you have proven ROI.
One question saves $100K on legacy rebuilds: where is the bottleneck in my business that my software causes? Real case: $150K project compressed to $40K and 8 weeks.
Amy Crowder's team was running fifteen different programs daily, copying data between them, auditing manually. We built a custom system from the ground up to eliminate the headaches.
Todd's scheduling system was aging out. We rebuilt it end-to-end (reservations, partner data, session tracking) and shipped it on time, in production from day one.
Dr. Ian needed a patient app for medication tracking, weight tracking, and inventory. We delivered the MVP in under three months with 35,000 lines of code and 25,000 lines of tests.