Custom ERP for SMEs: production, warehouse and sales in one system, built around how you work
For manufacturing SMEs and companies with several sites or stores. Accounting stays in the system you have: the custom ERP holds everything else together.
A custom ERP brings into one system the departments that today work on separate programs and spreadsheets: orders, bills of materials, production, warehouse, sales. It does not replace accounting: it passes it the data created elsewhere. It is built one department at a time, so the company does not stop.
Custom ERP or an off-the-shelf ERP to customise?
If an off-the-shelf ERP covers almost everything and little customisation is needed, take it. A custom ERP pays off when:
- customising an off-the-shelf ERP costs more than the program, and must be redone at every update;
- the office system is there, but nobody on the shop floor opens it;
- you produce or sell in a way a standard program does not follow;
- you pay a per-user fee that grows with every new person.
What can it hold together?
- Orders and scheduling: production orders with phases, machines and shifts, and "what if" simulation when an urgent order arrives.
- Bills of materials and batches per job.
- Production and quality: see custom MES.
- Warehouse: see custom warehouse software.
- Sales and stores: price lists, documents and stock per site and store.
- Hours and jobs: hours per activity and per job, compared with clock-ins.
Where have I done it?
- A chain of fashion stores with a head office and affiliated stores: one system for head office and stores, with real-time stock, till, invoices, delivery notes, returns, price lists per store, loyalty cards and profit and loss per store and per day. In use from 2012 until the chain was sold.
- A sheet-metal manufacturer: production orders with phases and bills of materials, scheduling that respects shifts and downtime, simulation of urgent orders and demand forecasting. Prototype for a European proposal.
- A wood company: bills of materials, production orders and batches per job, which used to sit on separate spreadsheets. In development.
- A CNC machine shop: hours per job and per activity from a tablet, machine queue and analysis of hours per job and operator, on top of the database they had.
More examples in the portfolio.
What does it cost and how long does it take?
- Free assessment: you tell me about your request and I reply in writing with a proposal and a quote.
- On-site analysis, when needed: a paid consulting step, written in the quote (business process analysis).
- Clickable mockup in 15-20 days: €600 to €1,500, fully deducted from the total if you go ahead.
- Fixed-price development with a written quote, paid in stages with a working demo every two weeks; the first module usually goes live within 5-12 weeks of the mockup.
No per-user fees. Details on the pricing page and in the custom business software guide.
The next step
If you like, write me a few lines about how you work today. I will reply in writing with a proposal and a quote, with no obligation. On site across the Veneto region, remotely in the rest of Italy and Europe.