Before
A workflow that never fit Salesforce, a spreadsheet, or any vendor demo. Three people babysit it.
After
A web app built around how you actually operate. The screens, the rules, the handoffs you already have.
Custom web app
A web app for the workflow that never fit Salesforce or a spreadsheet
A workflow that never fit Salesforce, a spreadsheet, or any vendor demo. Three people babysit it. A web app built around how you actually operate. The screens, the rules, the handoffs you already have.
In short
A workflow that never fit Salesforce, a spreadsheet or any product, kept alive by three people. We build a web app around the screens, rules and handoffs your team already uses, connected to the systems you keep. Ordinary software, not AI. A custom web app, from $40,000, scoped after the evaluation. First deliverable running within 30 days.
- Free evaluation
- Fixed quote before work begins
- First deliverable running in 14 days, guaranteed
- Small tasks welcome
What this costs you today
The workflow is real and it works, but no product ever fit it. So it lives in a spreadsheet with too many tabs, or in a CRM bent out of shape, or in three people's heads. Those three people spend their time keeping it alive: fixing the sheet, chasing the handoff, explaining it to whoever is new.
Every workaround adds a step. Every new hire takes weeks to learn it. When one of the three is out, the workflow slows down.
Call a fully loaded employee $45,000 a year, as an illustration. When three people each spend part of their week babysitting a workflow, the cost adds up fast. The calculator below is set to three people at 10 hours a week each.
- Typical time
- 30 hrs / week
- That is
- 3 people, part time
- At an illustrative $45,000 a year
- $33,750 / year
Typical figures, using $45,000 as an illustrative fully loaded cost. Your numbers go in the calculator below. If your version is a couple of hours a week, that still counts. Or open these figures in the calculator and change them.
How it works
- 1
Step 1
We sit with the workflow as it actually happens and write down the screens, the rules and the handoffs.
- 2
Step 2
We pick the part of the workflow that hurts most and scope that first.
- 3
Step 3
We build it with the fields you need and none you do not, and connect it to the systems you keep.
- 4
Step 4
The first piece goes into use within 30 days. The rest of the workflow follows in the order you choose.
What CBIT builds instead
We sit with the workflow as it actually happens and write down the screens, the rules and the handoffs your team already uses. Then we build a web app around them. Not a product you adapt to. Software shaped like your operation.
It has the fields you need and none you do not. It moves work from one person to the next the way you already do, and it keeps the history. The rules that were in someone's head are in the app, so a new person can do the work on day one.
This is ordinary software, not AI. Plain automation and plain apps handle most of what companies need. We use newer tools only where they clearly earn their place, and we tell you when we do.
What the three people get back is their week. The workflow runs in the app, and they run the business.
Plain automation or AI?
This is a custom web app, not an automation. Ordinary software with the right screens, built around your workflow. It is not AI unless a specific part clearly needs it, and we tell you if it does.
Custom app vs. forcing Salesforce or a spreadsheet to fitOne example, names left out
Real work from real clients, with the names left out. What matters is the shape of the problem, and how often we see it.
Price band and timeline
- Usually
- Custom web app
- Band
- From $40,000
- First deliverable running
- Within 30 days
This kind of project
Scoped and quoted separately
A web app is bigger work than a single automation: screens, rules, handoffs and the connections to the systems you keep. We scope it after the evaluation, often starting with the part of the workflow that hurts most, and the quote is fixed before we start.
- Small tasks and larger workflows are both welcome. We look at what needs to happen and give you a fixed quote before work begins. No hourly meter.
- First deliverable running in 14 days, guaranteed.
- Changes to outside systems (a portal redesign, a vendor's API change) may require separately quoted repair work. We tell you when that happens.
All prices and the guaranteeWhat business automation actually costs
Run your own numbers.
Set to the typical figures for this task. Change them to match your team, however small the number.
What this task costs you in time
Hours a week, times the people doing it, at whatever a person costs you. $45,000 a year is an illustration; set it to your own figure.
People doing this work
3
Hours each, per week
Half an hour counts. 40 is a full week.
10
Fully loaded cost per person, per year
Salary, benefits, taxes, overhead. $45,000 is an illustration; set it to yours.
$45,000
Time spent on this task
30 hrs / week
About 1,560 hours a year of a person's time.
- Labor value of that time
- $33,750 / year
- Your project price
- Fixed quote after a free evaluation
These figures show the value of time spent on the task, not a project quote or guaranteed cash savings. We will help estimate what can realistically be automated.
Questions about this task.
How is a web app different from an automation?
An automation does a task for you. A web app is where people do their work: screens, records, handoffs, history. Many workflows need both, and an app often starts as an automation that outgrew a spreadsheet. We say which you need after seeing the workflow.
Does it replace our other software?
Usually not. It sits alongside the accounting package, the file store and the products that do fit, and connects to them so nothing is re-keyed. It replaces the spreadsheet with too many tabs and the workarounds around it.
Who owns it?
You do. The code and the documentation are yours. It can run on your own resources or be hosted by us, and the managed plan is optional either way.
How is this priced?
A custom web app starts from $40,000 and is scoped after the evaluation, often beginning with the part of the workflow that hurts most. The quote is fixed before we start. It overlaps the larger-workflow band on purpose, because many apps begin as one.
How long until we can use it?
The first deliverable is in use within 30 days: one real piece of the workflow, with real records. The clock starts when we have access and sample data. The rest is delivered in the order you set.
What happens after it is built?
It keeps running. Fixes are quoted as they come up, or covered under the managed plan along with monitoring, small changes each month and a review with one new candidate task.
Tell us about the task your team keeps doing by hand.
Every morning, every Friday, or every time an order comes in. Small tasks and larger workflows are both welcome. The evaluation is free, and if we take it on, the first deliverable is running in your operation within 14 days, guaranteed.
Free evaluation. Fixed quote before work begins.
Related tasks
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Type it once. The second system is updated for you, every time.
Guide
Custom app vs. forcing Salesforce or a spreadsheet to fit
When a product is the right call, when it is not, and what a purpose-built app looks like.
Everything we automate, with what goes into each one.