Platforms & Portals
Customer, trade and staff portals for businesses whose digital requirement stopped being a website some time ago.
The situation
Some businesses need a website. Others need software with a website in front of it — a place where customers, distributors, franchisees or staff log in and do something that used to happen over email.
The tell is usually a spreadsheet doing a job it was never meant to do, and one person who is the only reason it still works.
How we do it
- 01
Map who does what
Roles, permissions and the decisions each one needs to make. Most portal projects fail here.
- 02
Model the data
What the entities really are, before anyone draws a screen.
- 03
Prototype the hard part
The riskiest workflow gets built first, not last.
- 04
Engineer
Authentication, roles, integrations, payments and audit trail.
- 05
Prove under real conditions
Real volumes, real edge cases, deliberate failures.
- 06
Hand over properly
Documentation, training and access under your control.
What you get
- Customer, distributor, franchisee or staff portals
- Role-based access and approval workflows
- CRM, ERP and third-party integrations
- Payments, quoting and ordering flows
- Reporting that assembles itself
- Audit logging and documented handover
Where this was the substance
Contemporary handcrafted furniture with a trade programme for interior designers and hospitality specifiers.
Design · eCommerce · Trade portalOur own venture — which is why we can publish how it is built, in detail no client NDA would allow.
AI & automation · Platform · DesignA two-sided marine platform we built and operate ourselves — crew profiles, employer credits, verified unlocks.
Platform · Automation · MarineAn interactive 3D model of a working mine, showing exactly where a wireless mesh network lives and why it holds — the kind of thing that previously needed an engineer, a whiteboard and an hour.
Motion & 3D · Design · Development · Complex B2B · Digital identityA contract manufacturer rebranded and rebuilt around its process — discovery, formulation, prototyping, manufacture, QA — so brands can see how a product actually gets made.
Digital identity · Design · Development · Brand storytelling · Complex B2BAn independently owned freight operation, explained clearly enough that a procurement team can shortlist it.
Design · Development · Complex B2BAn internal ordering portal so every branch buys on-brand merchandise, fulfilled through our reseller network.
eCommerce · Trade portal · AutomationBranded merchandise ordering for a national network — clothing, gifting and display, controlled centrally.
eCommerce · Trade portal · AutomationStore and staff ordering for a national restaurant franchise, on one approved catalogue.
eCommerce · Trade portal · AutomationAn OEM and turnkey engineering business made sellable through search — complex process equipment translated into the language buyers actually type.
Paid media · Growth · Complex B2B · Brand storytellingQuestions we get asked
When is a portal the right answer instead of a website?
When people need to log in and do something rather than read something — place an order against account terms, check availability, submit a claim, download what they have paid for. If the current process runs on email and a spreadsheet, that is usually the signal.
Can it connect to systems we already run?
That is normally the point. Most engagements integrate an existing CRM, ERP or fulfilment system rather than replacing it — replacing a working system is expensive and rarely the actual problem.
Do you build franchise and multi-branch ordering?
Yes. Internal ordering portals with gated pricing, approval routing and fulfilment integration are a substantial part of what we do, including for national franchise networks.
Tell us what is changing in the business.
If we are not the right partner for it, we will say so in the first conversation.