Back Office 
& Workflow Systems.

Article by Andy Orton, Founder of DotPerformance

In 2007, we faced a curious problem: we were driving so many sales leads into our clients’ businesses that they couldn’t keep up. Leads were slipping through the cracks, not from a lack of effort, but because spreadsheets just weren’t cutting it. CRM systems were the obvious answer, but they were expensive, unwieldy, and often overkill for what was needed.

Instead, we had a better idea. We expanded the databases powering our landing pages so leads were instantly accessible to the sales and customer service teams. We added workflow tools—statuses, notes, pipelines, management reports, and more. The result? Higher sales, better conversion rates, fewer input errors, and happier teams (thanks in no small part to bonuses tied to their now-consistently improving sales numbers).

The Evolution into Workflow Systems

Before long, clients started asking if we could do more. One team was working with a system built by their in-house developer that was crashing daily—“vomitware,” hosted on a precarious PC in his office. It was time for something better.

We rolled up our sleeves, immersed ourselves in their workflows, and interviewed everyone from department heads to frontline workers. By the end, we knew their processes inside out and had a blueprint for a robust, scalable system.

Using our framework, we developed modular features that could be reused across different processes. Need to send SMS notifications for payments? Done. Generate PDFs for invoices? Just a click away. Each feature became part of a growing toolkit, streamlining both production and integration.

The Birth of a Low-Code Platform

After implementing workflow systems for numerous clients, we noticed a trend emerging. The term “low-code platform” started cropping up—systems designed to deliver functionality with minimal coding, making them faster to develop, cheaper to produce, and less risky to implement.

That’s when it hit us: we’d been building a low-code platform all along. Years of refining and reimagining client workflows had created something future-proof, flexible, and incredibly valuable. Today, this platform allows us to transform businesses drowning in inefficiency into streamlined, productive powerhouses—turning pain points into opportunities.

Custom Software: the investment

It's true, custom-built software has a larger upfront cost and this puts many people off, when compared to the short-term gains of an off the shelf subscription fee. But when you consider the software solution you choose is a long term decision (10+years), the efficiencies and results produced by highly effective, highly tailored custom-built software soon surpasses the perceived cost savings of an off-the-shelf solution. 

You have a solution that can grow and adapt with your business, has exactly the features you need and your growth is not shackled or dictated by the capabilities of your off the shelf software; your only limitation is your imagination (and/or budget!).

On top of that, the volatility of SaaS subscription fee hikes can catch you off guard, with costs doubling or tripling overnight as you move into the next pricing tier. And you can't find a product that ticks all boxes so you end up with 2 or 3 disparate systems that don't work nicely with each other. Before you know it, you’re paying subscription fees in excess of a monthly licence (/retainer) for developing your own system tailored exactly to your needs.

Sure, off-the-shelf is a cost-effective starting point, and if we felt that was the best fit we'd be the one telling you that. But when businesses get to a certain level of growth, it's a shrewd move to make the switch to a solution that is capable of accelerating growth.
  

The results?

• Fewer people required to run your business while still scaling effectively.
• Lower operational costs, improved efficiencies, and elevated service levels.
• Dramatic improvements to your team’s day-to-day workflows and morale.
• Systems that don't go down, suffer outages or have GDPR damage.

Custom software doesn’t just change how your business runs—it transforms how it feels to work within it.

What can we provide?

DotPerformance provides turnkey solutions including:

• business analysis and cost saving insights
• customer listening and specifications
• complete user interface design
• full front-end and back end development
• integration with all of your systems
• testing teams
• managed AWS hosting, upgrades
• security by design
• GDPR compliance.

You can see some of the work that we do amongst our case studies but here's a taster...

Payroll Systems
We build the software for several payroll companies offering hmrc approved integration and handling thousands of payments correctly every day.

Ship2Man
This logistics company is powered by our back-office software allowing them manage a very complex, high volume operation with thousands of transactions

The TT Marshals
The organisation uses our systems to register, train, qualify and roster thousands of marshals every year.

Garforth Gray
This estate agency uses our systems for their agents and support teams to manage a super high volume business.
 

Projects typically start from around 10 weeks set-up labour and have ongoing cost including managed AWS hosting from about £2400 per year. Please contact us to price your project.