Why go bespoke?

WordPress is a very powerful platform for creating and managing websites. When clients come to us looking for help in setting up a website, for 90% of cases WordPress fits the bill (business website with contact forms, blog, online shop etc.). The remainder are in scope for a bespoke solution – their requirements can’t be satisfied with an off the shelf solution like WordPress.

Most web designers can’t facilitate this group as they don’t have the web development skills. See our article here on the differences between web designers and developers. We are both designers and developers which means that we can create something beautiful but has bespoke functionality around your requirements.

So who are the people that might need a bespoke application? We’ve identified 4 main categories.

1. People with big ideas
   These are the business pioneers who have identified a market opportunity that doesn’t currently exist. They’ve identified that they need technology to make their idea come to life and that there exists no frontend or backend solution off the shelf that they need.

   Over the years we’ve helped budding entrepreneurs bring their ideas to reality with bespoke solutions. We’ve worked on :-

   • multiple online classified ads systems
   • bespoke e-commerce solutions with complex checkout processes
   • bespoke booking system for santa train event company
   • numerous other bespoke ‘.com’ business ideas
2. Mature business looking to digitise existing manual processes
   These are typically medium/large type business that have been around for a while. They have manual processes in place that are not very efficient and can be error prone.

   We’ve worked with many clients in this area over the years. Some examples include :-

   • construction firm that was looking to create a portal for contractors to complete compliance documentation before gaining access to building site. This construction firm also leveraged that application to create a portal for homeowners to log on and download useful information like warranties for electrical goods etc.
   • storage firm who wanted to automate processes around crate management within their warehouses
   • events organisations who wanted bespoke booking systems and event management tools
   • Accounting firm who needed a tool to process direct debits from clients
3. Mobile apps
   There is no off the shelf solution in place for providing mobile apps – by their nature they have to be developed.

   Sample applications we’ve worked on:-

   • Real estate company looking to digitise the house valuation process with an app. They fill in some fields on the app, add their desired photos and the app generates a report automatically and emails this to the office. This makes use of offline data storage, camera functionality & GPS functionality on the mobile device.
   • Surveying firm looking to conduct building surveys who again needed an app to generate automated reports
4. Member based organisations
   These are typically larger organisations that have hundreds of registered members and their details are scattered around in multiple spreadsheets and documents. The organisation has outgrown these spreadsheets and member management is a real issue.

   We’ve helped a nationwide physiotherapist membership organisation rationalise and secure their members data into a single database that allows for easy management and report generation. We created functionality whereby the administrator could add and manage members and then these members could log onto a portal and update their own details. We were then able to help the organisation leverage this information by creating a search engine for physiotherapists that was open to the public.

Conclusion

Imagine having a great idea that you thought was going to be a game changer. You’ve spotted a business opportunity that you were sure would take off if only you had the technology to support it. This is where a bespoke solution comes into play and where companies like ClearSoft can help. Think of your business idea as a locked door and think of us the lock smiths who can create the custom key to unlock the opportunities.