ZenSavvy builds custom software
We build custom software and mobile apps around the way your business already works. Written scope up front, working software every two weeks, and the code is yours.
45%
average cost overrun on large software projects, which also deliver 56% less value than promised
McKinsey & Oxford University, 2012
31%
of software projects finish successfully; the rest slip, get cut back or get cancelled
The Standish Group, CHAOS Report 2020
22.6%
projected annual growth of the global custom software development market through 2030
Grand View Research, 2025
+17%
projected growth in U.S. software developer employment between 2023 and 2033
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2024
88%
of spreadsheets in active use contain at least one error, and almost nobody knows it
Raymond Panko, University of Hawaii, 2008
10-20%
of the technology budget meant for new product gets diverted to paying down technical debt
McKinsey, 2020
2 weeks
is our delivery cycle: every two weeks you get working software, not a percentage
ZenSavvy, our standard
Nobody buys software because they want software.
They buy it because someone has spent months doing by hand what a computer does in one second.
How many hours a month does your team spend copying and pasting?
The order arrives by text, gets written on a pad, moves to a spreadsheet and then someone types it again into the billing system. Every hop is a chance to get it wrong, and all of it depends on one person showing up. Custom software exists so that process stops being fragile.
We build the application around the process you already run: the same steps, the same names, the same rules, executed by the system instead of by hand. Data is captured once and travels on its own. It can be a web app, a mobile app, or both talking to the same server.
Your team stops typing and starts deciding, and you can see where anything stands without asking anyone. And the system is genuinely yours: the code, the database and the accounts are in your name, not rented from a platform that can raise its price.
The cost of not doing it
Someone spending two hours a day moving data from one place to another burns about 500 hours a year. You are already paying for that time, it just shows up as payroll instead of as a line item for software. And unlike the system, that expense repeats every year and grows as the business grows.
The first deliverable is not software. It is a scope document listing the modules, what each one does, the order they get built in and what each block costs. With that you decide whether you want all of it, part of it or none of it, and you know exactly what you are buying before you sign anything.
If an off-the-shelf product already solves your problem for a monthly subscription, we say so and help you set it up. Custom software is worth it when your process is your competitive advantage, not when it looks like everyone else’s.
| Module | Delivery | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Catalog and stock | Sprint 1 | 22 |
| Orders and quotes | Sprint 2 | 30 |
| Invoicing | Sprint 3 | 24 |
| Operations dashboard | Sprint 4 | 14 |
| Driver mobile app | Sprint 5 | 10 |
Free credited against the project if you move forward
Get my scope document →The modules and sprints shown are an example. Your document comes from your real operation.
Week 1
We sit with the people who do the work today, not only with the people who manage it. That is where the real process map comes from, exceptions and shortcuts included, and it almost never matches the manual.
Week 2
You get the scope document and clickable screens. You can walk the system and ask for changes while changing is still free, before a single line of code exists.
Every 2 weeks
Every two weeks we ship a working module to a staging environment you have access to. No percentage-complete reports: either the module runs or it does not.
At handoff
You get the code, the database, the documentation and the service accounts in your name, plus training for your team. Keeping us on for maintenance is your call, not a condition.
98% of our projects ship on time, and we answer any request in under 24 hours.
A generic system makes you change your process to fit inside it. Custom software does the opposite: it takes your process as it is and automates it, including the exceptions no product catalog accounts for.
We hand over the repository, the database and the accounts in your name. You can continue with us, with an in-house team or with another vendor. There is no technical hostage.
It is built in modules, so adding a new area does not mean rebuilding what is already there. And because you own the code, the cost of growing does not depend on anyone’s price list.
We write lean code and treat performance as part of the deliverable. An internal system that takes five seconds to open a screen is a system your team will route around.
Before any technical decision comes knowing which step stops everything today. If the system does not attack that step, it will look great and go unused.
A system the team routes around is money burned. We design screens around the task, with as few clicks as possible and the words your company already uses.
We measure response times and treat them as a requirement, not a bonus. A slow internal system gets abandoned exactly like a slow website.
Billing, accounting, messaging, payment gateways. Integrating what already works is cheaper than replacing it and makes adoption far less painful.
Readable, documented, tested code. The big bill on a system is not building it: it is changing it two years later, when whoever wrote it is gone.
Role-based access, encryption in transit and automatic backups. Your operational data is the most expensive asset in the system and gets treated that way from day one.
How long does it take? A mid-sized operations system usually lands between 8 and 16 weeks, split into two-week deliveries. A simple mobile app can ship in 6. The scope document gives you the number for your project before it starts.
Custom software pays off when the way you operate is different from your competitors, or when your volume no longer fits in a spreadsheet. If your process is standard and low-volume, there is almost always a subscription tool that works out better.
Businesses with a process of their own, several people entering the same data, or volume that already broke the spreadsheet.
When the process is identical to everyone else’s in the industry, a product already solves it for a fraction of the cost.
If your case sits on the right, we tell you and help you pick the tool that actually fits. We would rather not sell you a project than sell you one you were never going to use.
Pricing
There are no tiers because no two systems are alike. There is a floor, and the detail of what it is based on.
From $4,650 USD
six weeks of dedicated development, the minimum for a project
The cost is the time of a team working only on your project, plus the infrastructure and tooling that work requires. A month of dedicated development costs $3,100 USD. The minimum phases of a project add up to six weeks, and that is where the $4,650 USD starting point comes from. What raises the number is the number of modules and how tangled the process being automated is.
Six weeks is the floor, not the average. A mid sized operations system usually lands between 8 and 16 weeks.
Tell us which part of your operation is costing you the most time. We come back with a document listing the modules, the build order and the cost of each block, so you can decide with numbers instead of a hunch.
Get my scope document →We reply in under 24 hours.
What people always ask us
It depends on the number of modules and how tangled the process is, not on the size of the company. A mid-sized operations system usually falls between 8 and 16 weeks of work, and a simple mobile app can land in 6. At ZenSavvy the price is set in the scope document, in writing and broken into blocks, so you can see exactly what you are paying for and remove anything you do not need.
We work in two-week deliveries: every fortnight there is a working module in a staging environment you can access. A mid-sized operations system usually lands between 8 and 16 weeks. We never report progress as a percentage, because 70% of a system cannot be used.
Yes. At handoff we transfer the repository, the database, the documentation and the service accounts into your name. You can continue with us, with an in-house team or with another vendor without asking our permission or paying a ransom.
Yes. We build mobile apps for Android and iOS, and most often the app and the web system share the same server and the same database, so what a driver enters in the field shows up instantly on the office dashboard.
Yes, and it usually should. We integrate with billing, accounting, messaging, payment gateways and anything that exposes an API. Integrating what already works is cheaper than replacing it and gets your team onto the new system far faster.
The scope is written and split into blocks, so a new module is quoted as a new block instead of renegotiating the whole project. That is the reason to build in modules: adding an area does not force a rebuild of what came before.
Yes, and it is deliberately optional. We offer maintenance, support and ongoing development if you want it, but because the code and the accounts are in your name you are never obliged to stay with us for your system to keep running.
Yes. The entire process is remote and works the same wherever your business is. Discovery sessions, fortnightly reviews and training happen over video, and the staging environment is online so you can open it whenever you want.
