03 — Web app development
Custom web applications for the process you are running on spreadsheets
Almost every growing business reaches the same point: the spreadsheet that used to work now has eleven tabs, three people editing it, and one person who understands it. A web app is what that becomes when it grows up.
The problem
What usually goes wrong
It works until two people edit the same row, a formula breaks quietly, or the one person who understands the file goes on holiday. Nobody notices until a number is wrong in front of a customer.
The CRM, the accounting system, a shared drive and someone’s inbox all hold part of the truth. Reconciling them is a job in itself, and it never finishes.
You pay per seat for a tool that does 70% of what you need, and your team invents workarounds for the other 30%. The workarounds become the process.
“How many of those did we do last month?” takes an afternoon of exporting and cross-referencing, so it stops being asked.
How we solve it
Our approach
- 01We map the process before we build anything
Every step, every exception, every place a human makes a judgement call. The exceptions are what break naive software, so we find them first.
- 02We build the smallest thing that removes the manual work
Not a platform. The one screen and the one database table that take the daily copy-and-paste away. It goes live, it earns its place, and then we extend it.
- 03One source of truth, with an audit trail
Records live in one place, changes are logged, and you can see who did what and when. That is what makes people trust the system enough to abandon the spreadsheet.
- 04Built on infrastructure you own
Your database, your hosting account, your code. No per-seat licence that grows with your headcount and no vendor who can put the price up.
Every project runs through the same five steps — investigation, understanding the problem, development, testing, then launch and automation. See how we work.
What you get
Delivered at the end of the week
- A working web app your team can log into
- Your data in a database you control, exportable at any time
- The source code, handed over
- A clear list of what we deliberately left out and why
Scope is agreed in writing before we start. If the work will not fit in a week, we say so before you pay anything.
Questions
Frequently asked
Can it connect to the systems we already use?
Usually. Most accounting, CRM and e-commerce platforms have an API. We check that in the investigation step, before anything is promised.
What about users and permissions?
Log-in, roles and permissions are standard. We keep the roles as simple as your organisation actually needs — over-modelled permissions are a common source of pain.
Is a week really enough?
For a first version that removes one specific manual step, often yes. For a system that runs your whole operation, no — and we will say so before you pay.
Contact
Tell us what you are trying to fix
Describe the process you want to improve and we will tell you what fits a week. We reply from info@nileapps.co.uk, usually within one business day.