Understand
Start with the business problem, the current workflow and what actually needs to change.
Bespoke business software
Software that fits your business.
Practical bespoke software designed to solve the problems your current technology can’t.
Business software doesn’t always keep pace with a changing organisation. Graphite Pixels designs practical solutions around legacy applications, established data and working processes, without assuming that everything needs to be replaced.
Discuss a software problemBespoke software • Legacy systems • Integration • Automation
A practical approach
Sometimes a small piece of software can solve a very expensive problem.
Perhaps a legacy application can’t accommodate a new requirement. A change in legislation may require the business to report data in a prescribed way, or provide additional information that its software was never designed to hold. Staff may be spending hours on a process that ought to take minutes, or information may need to move between different platforms that were never designed to work together. Replacing proven business software isn’t always the answer.
Connect
Make better use of the software, processes and data already available.
Build
Design bespoke software where an off the shelf solution simply doesn’t fit.
Proportionate solutions
The right solution doesn’t have to be complicated.
Bespoke software isn’t always the answer.
Sometimes a product already in use does what’s needed. Sometimes a complicated spreadsheet simply needs a straightforward interface so that people can use it confidently without risking formulas or underlying data. A cumbersome workflow may need simplifying before any software is written. And sometimes a lightweight database or small utility is all that’s required.
The aim is to find the most appropriate solution to the business problem, without introducing unnecessary complexity.
The right tool for the job, not a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
Examples
Practical solutions to real business problems.
Different requirements call for different solutions. These examples show how established systems, data and working processes can often be adapted rather than replaced.
01Regulatory change
Responding to new DEFRA reporting requirements
A change in legislation introduced new waste-reporting requirements, including information that wasn’t held in the client’s legacy system. An intermediary application combined the established database records with the additional data and produced the required upload format — allowing the existing system to remain in place.
02Process adaptation
Adapting an established payment process
When circumstances made an established supplier invoice-review process impractical, the existing reporting system was adapted rather than replaced. Invoice references in PDF reports were linked directly to the corresponding online invoices, allowing reviewers to move immediately from the report to the supporting document and helping payments continue without a wholesale change of system.
03Legacy data
Unlocking years of historical invoices
A sales ledger could reproduce historical invoices, but only individually. Producing several years’ worth manually would have taken months. A bespoke utility extracted the information directly from the legacy data and generated the invoices as PDFs at the click of a button. The same process now creates a monthly PDF archive.
04Making Tax Digital
Meeting digital requirements without unnecessary disruption
Businesses newly falling within Making Tax Digital requirements don’t necessarily need to abandon familiar processes or take on a monthly accounting-software subscription. Existing data and working methods have been adapted to produce information in the required digital format while allowing clients to continue working in a way that suits their business.
05Workflow automation
Streamlining photographic workflows
Purpose-built scripts remove repetitive steps from photographic editing and file-management workflows, automating routine tasks while fitting around the photographer’s established way of working.
About Graphite Pixels
Business first.
Software second.
Graphite Pixels is run by Rachel Bennett, an experienced software designer and developer combining technical expertise, logical thinking and a strong understanding of the business processes behind the technology.
That combination means conversations start with the business requirement rather than a technical specification, with the focus on finding a clear, practical solution to the problem.
Start a conversation
What does your business put up with because “that’s just how the system works”?
If established software is creating unnecessary work, can’t accommodate a new requirement or no longer fits the way your business operates, there may be a simpler solution than replacing it.
Based in Northumberland and Oxfordshire, working with businesses across the UK.
Tell Graphite Pixels about the problem