Case study · Custom development
A custom-built ERP instead of an off-the-shelf package.
The starting point
Operations were spread across a dozen tools that didn't communicate: stock management in one place, supplier purchasing in another, invoicing somewhere else again. Every useful piece of information existed somewhere, but nobody could see it all in one view.
The result showed up as three symptoms many SMEs will recognise: daily manual re-entry, errors that surfaced too late, and no consolidated view of the real margin per product.
Why build custom, not buy off the shelf
The usual reflex is to buy an off-the-shelf ERP. That's often the right call. Here it wasn't: the specifics of the business would have required so much configuration and workaround that the cost of adapting a package exceeded the cost of building something targeted.
The decision was made on a costed comparison, not a technical preference. Building only makes sense when the gap between the real need and what's on the market is wide enough to justify it.
What was built
A unified system that brings the core business processes together in one place: stock management, purchasing, margin tracking and invoicing, all running on a single database instead of exports shuttled between tools.
An AI layer was added on top of that business data, for information retrieval assistance and automating repetitive tasks. It's used where it delivers a measurable gain, not everywhere.
What the tool looks like
How Babykare was supported
Process mapping
Documenting what actually happens day to day, including the workarounds nobody had written down.
Data audit
Assessing the existing data and its quality, the precondition for knowing what can actually be automated.
Prioritised roadmap
Ranking each workstream by value and effort, to ship what relieves day-to-day pain first.
Build and rollout
Modular development, each module put into service as soon as it's useful, without waiting for the full system.
What it delivered
- A single system in production, replacing the back-and-forth between a dozen tools.
- The end of manual re-entry on the processes it covers, and the errors that came with it.
- A consolidated view of stock, purchasing and margin, available without exports or rework.
- An AI layer connected to the company's real data, not a generic dataset.
A similar project?
An off-the-shelf package that doesn't fit your business?
Custom-built isn't always the answer. We look together at whether the gap between your need and what's on the market justifies it, before a single line of code gets written.