The studio
The system you need does not exist. So we build it.
AMS started as a system a company needed and could not buy. Most of our work still starts that way — with an operation running on spreadsheets, held together by somebody who remembers how.
What we do
Four kinds of work
Internal business systems
The system a company actually runs on and cannot buy off the shelf — attendance, dispatch, reconciliation, approvals, whatever the shape of the work is. Built as software, not as a spreadsheet with ambitions.
Products, operated
AMS is ours: designed, built, hosted and supported by the same hands. A product we run ourselves is the only honest proof that we can run yours.
Data & reporting
Reports that reconcile. Most reporting work is not charting — it is agreeing on what a number means and then computing it the same way every time.
Integrations
Two systems that each hold half the truth, made to agree. Imports, exports, scheduled syncs, and the error handling that decides whether anyone trusts the result.
How it goes
Four steps, in this order
Nothing unusual. It is followed properly, which turns out to be the unusual part.
We learn the work before the software
The first conversation is about how the job is done today, including the parts done in a notebook and the parts done by one person who remembers. Software that does not match the work gets abandoned, however good it looks.
We write down what it will and will not do
Scope in plain language, with the deliberate exclusions listed as prominently as the inclusions. If something is out, you will know before we start, not when you ask for it.
We build in complete pieces
One module finished and in your hands beats five at eighty per cent. You use each piece as it lands, which is also how we find out what the next piece should be.
We run it
Hosting, backups, monitoring and the phone call when something is wrong. A system nobody operates is a system that quietly stops being true.
A good fit
Bring us this
- An operation run on spreadsheets that four people now maintain by hand
- Two systems that each hold half the truth and disagree about the other half
- A report that takes two days a month to assemble and is argued about anyway
- Approvals happening over WhatsApp with no record of who agreed to what
- Software you bought that fits eighty per cent of how you work, and fights the rest
Not our work
We will point you elsewhere
- A marketing website (we made ours; it is not the work)
- A mobile game, a social app, or anything whose value is its audience
- A rewrite for its own sake, where the current system works and is merely unfashionable
- A fixed-price bid on a specification nobody has read carefully
Questions
Before you enquire
Do you take on small projects?
Yes, if the problem is real and well-bounded. A two-week integration that removes a recurring manual job is a good project. A three-month build with no clear owner on your side is not, regardless of budget.
Who owns the code?
You do, for work we build for you. That is written into the agreement rather than implied. AMS itself is our product and stays ours; what we build on top of it for your company is yours.
Do you work fixed-price or time and materials?
Fixed price on a scope we have both read and understood, which is most engagements. Where the shape genuinely is not knowable up front we say so and work in paid, bounded discovery first, rather than pricing a guess and arguing about it later.
Can you take over software somebody else built?
Sometimes. It depends on what is there. We will read it first and tell you honestly whether it is worth continuing or whether you are better served by a rebuild — including when the answer is inconvenient for us.
What is your stack?
Python and FastAPI on the server, PostgreSQL for data, Next.js and TypeScript on the front end, Docker in production. Boring, well-understood tools, chosen because somebody else has to be able to maintain them.
How do we start?
A call where you describe the problem and we ask questions. If it is a fit, you get a written scope and a price. If it is not, we will say so and, where we can, point you at what would actually help.
Start here
Tell us what is breaking
A call, a description of the problem, and honest questions. If we are not the right people we will say so — that costs us one conversation and saves you a project.