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Sooner or later the day comes when Excel is no longer enough: the quotes file that opens read-only because a colleague already has it open, the off-the-shelf management software that won't do "that one thing" and a vendor who never will, the job list copied three times into three places. The line between this page and the next one is simple: if the tool already exists and only needs connecting or automating, that's a job for Automation and AI; if the tool doesn't exist, it gets built here.
The service covers the whole chain: analysis and feasibility study, web apps and lightweight back-office tools built around your workflow, APIs and integrations linking the new program to your website and the software you already use, import of your existing data (spreadsheets, exports, old archives), installation on your own server or on a VPS, then bug fixes and new features. Delivered software means something precise: a program running where we agreed together, with protected access, written documentation of how it works, and the credentials handed to you.
It starts with the analysis: a few hours on your workflow — who enters what, where, how often — charged as a one-off job, with the quote by email first. Out comes a written feasibility study: what to build, what to buy, what to leave alone. Then a fixed-price quote for the first version and only later, if needed, a maintenance contract. Our own back-office system, currently in testing, is further down, under "Done for real".
Before the code comes the feasibility study, and sometimes the honest answer is "don't build it". The analysis is done on the real workflow: who enters what, how many times a week, where the hours go missing. It closes with a written document with three outcomes — build, buy a program that already exists, leave things as they are — and for "build" it lines up the screens, the roles, the data to import and the systems to connect: that's where the fixed-price quote comes from. An example project: a project document and feasibility study, with a roadmap and a GDPR analysis, for a property-search tool built on land-registry data, proposed to an estate agency in Meda in two versions, each with its own costs and constraints. A project, not delivered software: the study exists to decide whether to build, and what.
"Lightweight" doesn't mean small: it means it does the things you do, and nothing else. Off-the-shelf management software has to suit lots of different companies, so it does a great deal and you use a fraction of it; a web app built around your workflow does your things, and opens in a browser on a PC, tablet or phone with nothing to install. Our own back-office system, currently in testing, is built around our workflow: it records the requests coming in from the website, the jobs and the contracts, produces quotes and invoices as PDFs, exposes an API integrated with the website, and the administrator signs in only with a password plus a one-time code (2FA). Underneath: Next.js and PostgreSQL in Docker containers on a Linux VPS, behind Nginx with HTTPS — proven tools, chosen to last. It's a private application, not a showcase: we can show it to you during the first assessment, without customer data, with your processes in front of us.
An API is the door one program uses to talk to another: without one, you carry the data across by hand. It's what bought software most often lacks. One example of our own. The contact form on electroniklab.com is more than an email: it records the request in our back-office system via its API, and the sender sees the case reference on screen straight away; if the system doesn't respond, a fallback internal email goes out, flagged for manual entry, so nothing gets lost. Third-party programs are no different: documented APIs if they exist; otherwise exports and imports, and we say so in the quote.
The data you already have is worth more than the new program: importing it is a chapter of the project, not a detail. Spreadsheets with ten years of customers, the old system's export, archives of PDFs: first we check what state they're in, then write the import procedure, test it on a copy against the original, and only then switch. Old and new can run side by side for a few weeks: you change over when the numbers match. Then there's where it runs. On your own server — the server and NAS chapter — the data never leaves your network; on a VPS the program is reachable from anywhere, and we can administer the server, as we do for our own back-office system. Costs, responsibilities and backups change — and backups remain a project of their own: backup and continuity. What gets chosen, and why, is written in the quote.
Software is as alive as whoever maintains it: handover is the beginning, not the end. Fixing means a bug found in use gets put right; enhancing means a new feature goes in without rebuilding everything; underneath, the language, the database and the operating system age on their own and need updating in good time. Job by job, or under a maintenance contract with the fee set in the quote. Who owns the code, and with what rights of use, is settled in the quote; the data, the credentials and the documentation stay with you regardless. The boundaries: we don't rewrite other vendors' off-the-shelf management software, and software for electronics production lines has an area of its own. If you need a website rather than an application, see business website; the ways to work with us and the request form are on the business services page.
| Workflow to cover | how many screens, how many roles, how many steps: the feasibility study lines them up and drops the ones you don't need before they turn into code you pay for |
|---|---|
| The program's connections | website, off-the-shelf management software, email, spreadsheets: every API of the new program is designed, documented and tested; if the other side has no API it goes through exports and imports, and the hours change |
| Data to import | how many years of archive and in what state: cleaning and importing them costs hours, sometimes more than the module that later displays them; tested on a copy before the switch |
| Where it runs | on a server at your premises or on a VPS: it changes the costs, who looks after the system underneath and who is responsible for backups; decided in the study |
| Access and roles | who gets in, what they see, who has admin rights behind a second factor: every permission level is designed and tested, and every extra role is extra work |
| After handover | who fixes bugs and who adds features: job by job or under a maintenance contract; who owns the code, and with what rights, is written into the quote |
What genuinely moves the quote for custom software: how many steps of the workflow it must cover, how many systems it must connect, how much data there is to import and where it runs. Agreed together in the feasibility study, before any code is written — and the fixed-price quote, numbers included, arrives by email.
ElectrONIK Lab is an independent workshop: it is not an authorised service centre and is not affiliated with the manufacturers. The trademarks and products named here belong to their respective owners and are used only to identify the technologies we work on. What each job includes is set out in the quote and in the report delivered at the end.
These are our own projects: that's why we name them. Client work is described without names.
A free first assessment, a clear quote up front and a written report after every job.