The story
It had to work before it was sold
Christone Solid Surfaces make acrylic worktops. Like most businesses their size,
they ran on a quotation template, a couple of spreadsheets, an accounting package
that knew nothing about their pipeline, and a chat group where things got agreed and
then lost. Every quotation was retyped from a lead. Every invoice was retyped from a
quotation. Stock was a number somebody remembered.
We built them one system instead. Enquiries arrive on a pipeline. A quotation is one
action from a lead, an order is one action from the quotation, and the invoice comes
out of the order with the tax already right. Stock moves when the work moves. It is
what they use today, on their phones, with their own logo on it.
Once it was working, the interesting part became obvious. Almost nothing in it was
about acrylic. A paint supplier, a joiner, a machinery dealer and a printer all have
the same shape of problem and the same five disconnected apps. So we took the parts
that were specific to one trade and made them things you choose at signup, and Psalm
became a product.
That is why it is finished in the places that usually are not. The tax is right
because a real company files with it. The documents are laid out properly because a
real owner sends them to real customers. Nothing here was built to demo well.