Web and mobile apps that talk to the systems your business already runs on.
Web and mobile app development is building the software a business actually operates in: full-stack web applications, iOS and Android apps for people working away from a desk, and consoles for suppliers or partners. Here they are built to sync with the systems that already hold your data rather than standing alone.
The interface is the part you see. Whether the app agrees with the rest of your business is decided in the layer underneath it.
- Modern Web Frameworks
- Cross-Platform Mobile
- Typed Frontend Stack
- Managed Cloud Database
Typical timeline: four to eight weeks to an end-to-end MVP launch.
The processes that outgrew a spreadsheet but never got a tool
Most custom applications exist because a real process had nowhere sensible to live, not because somebody wanted an app.
Software that does not know what the business knows
An app built in isolation becomes a second version of the truth within a month. These are built against the systems that already hold your data, so the app reads the business rather than copying it.
A process that runs on a spreadsheet and a phone call
Work that is coordinated manually because no tool fits it. That is usually a small application rather than a platform, and it is the most common thing we are asked to build.
Field work captured on paper
If an app fails without a signal, people go back to paper and type it up later. Offline tolerance is what determines whether a field app is actually used.
Off-the-shelf that almost fits
Configuring a product around a process it was not designed for costs more over time than building the part that does not fit. Knowing which part is which is the useful judgement.
Two apps, two teams, two roadmaps
Separate iOS and Android codebases double the cost of every change. Cross-platform mobile means one codebase and one place to fix something.
Suppliers and partners emailing for information
A console they can log into answers the recurring questions themselves, rather than someone in operations answering them one at a time.
How the application is put together
In this order, because each decision constrains the ones after it.
- 01
Decide what the app owns
Which records it is the source of truth for, and which it only reads from an existing system. Getting this wrong is what creates two versions of the same data.
- 02
Backend services first
An API layer sits between the app and your existing systems, so the app never reaches into a database directly and either side can change without breaking the other.
- 03
One typed stack, web and mobile
Modern web frameworks and cross-platform mobile sharing types with the backend, so a change to a field is caught at compile time rather than in production.
- 04
Data in a managed cloud database
Managed rather than self-run, because for an application this size the operational burden of running your own database outweighs the control it gives you.
- 05
Offline is designed, not added
For field apps, what happens without a connection — what queues, what reconciles, what a conflict resolves to — is decided during design rather than patched afterwards.
- 06
Responsiveness as a constraint
The application is built to stay responsive under real conditions rather than tuned for it later, because performance retrofitted into a finished app usually means rewriting it.
What we are usually asked to build
Where both a web app and a mobile app are needed, they share the same backend rather than being built twice.
Full-stack web applications
Internal tools and operational systems that run a process end to end, for people at a desk.
Field-worker iOS and Android apps
Apps for people working in vehicles, on sites or in warehouses, where connectivity is not guaranteed.
Supplier and partner consoles
A place for the people outside your company to see and submit what they need without going through your team.
Backend services
The API layer and data services behind any of the above, including where the front end already exists.
How we approach the build
One workflow working properly teaches you more than five half-built ones, and it is the only version of an MVP anybody actually uses.
- One complete workflow in the first release, not a partial version of every feature
- The data model and what the app owns agreed before any interface work
- Cross-platform unless something specifically requires native
- Offline behaviour specified during design for anything used in the field
- Typically four to eight weeks to an end-to-end MVP launch
Offline tolerance
Field apps keep working without a connection and reconcile when one returns.
One shared backend
Web and mobile read the same services, so they cannot disagree with each other.
Frequently asked questions
What is web and mobile app development?
Building the software a business actually operates in: full-stack web applications, iOS and Android apps for people working away from a desk, and consoles for suppliers or partners. The work covers the interface, the backend services behind it and the database underneath.
Should we build native apps or cross-platform?
Cross-platform for most business applications, because one codebase serving iOS and Android costs less to build and far less to keep current. Native is worth it when an app depends heavily on platform-specific hardware or system integration. We will say which case yours is.
Will the app work when there is no signal?
That is what offline tolerance is for. An app used by field teams is designed to keep working without a connection and to reconcile when one returns, because a form that fails in a basement or on a site is a form that gets filled in on paper instead.
How does the app stay in sync with our existing systems?
Through backend services rather than direct database access. The app talks to an API layer, and that layer connects to the systems already holding your data, so the app is a view onto the business rather than a separate copy of it that drifts.
Do we need a web app, a mobile app, or both?
It depends on where the work happens. Desk-based processes rarely need an app on a phone. Work done in a vehicle, on a site or in a warehouse usually does. Where both are needed, they share the same backend rather than being built twice.
How long does a first version take?
Typically four to eight weeks for an end-to-end MVP launch. That first release covers one complete workflow rather than a partial version of every feature, which is what makes it usable enough to learn from.
Describe the process, not the app
Twenty minutes, with an engineer rather than a salesperson. Tell us who does the work and where they do it, and we will tell you whether it needs a web app, a mobile app, both — or a change to something you already run.