Custom App Development

When the software you need does not exist yet.

Applications for web, desktop and mobile — and the integrations that make the systems you already own stop needing a person in the middle.

We are not describing this from the outside RetailWiz is our own software. It runs shop counters across Pakistan, it has done since 2001, and we still maintain it — which is a different discipline from building something and walking away.
See it for yourself RetailWiz POS · Zeemovil — real screens from software we wrote
Our own software

This is not a mock-up. It is our product.

Thirteen columns, three levels of discount, split payment and a fourteen-item action rail. A shop counter in Pakistan is billing on this screen today, and it has been our responsibility to keep it working since 2001.

Every other page on this website that shows you a screen is showing you something we wrote. That is the only claim on this page you do not have to take on trust.

This is a drawn screen, not the software. It shows a fraction of what the real one does — about 1% of the system. The working demo has real screens with real figures in them.Open the real demo →

RetailWiz POS — the sale invoice, rendered here in CSS rather than photographed. See the whole product →

First

Do you actually need one?

Custom software is the most expensive thing on this website. It is worth thirty seconds establishing that you need it.

1

Does anybody log in?

Accounts, passwords and people seeing only their own work. A website does not do this; an application is built around it.

2

Do two people see different things?

A manager who can approve and a clerk who cannot. The moment roles exist, so does an application.

3

Is something worked out?

Totals, balances, stock levels, commissions. Calculation that has to be right every time, not displayed text.

Three noes and you want a website, which is cheaper and faster — see web development. One yes and you are here. And if the honest answer turns out to be "a spreadsheet, organised properly", we have said that to people before and we will say it to you.

What we build

Six kinds of application work

Web applications

the common one

Software that lives in a browser, so there is nothing to install and it reaches whoever needs it. Staff log in, do a job, and leave a record behind that you can search afterwards.

  • Users, roles and permissions — who can see and do what
  • Records created, edited, approved and searched
  • Reports built from real data rather than typed up
  • Works on a laptop in the office and a phone in a van
  • One copy of the truth, not fifteen spreadsheets
  • Updated in one place, for everybody, at once

This is where most "we need an app" conversations should end up. No app store, no separate versions, one thing to maintain.

Mobile apps

read this before commissioning one

An app that installs on a phone from the App Store or Play Store. It is the thing businesses ask for most often and need least often, so here is the honest test rather than a sales pitch.

  • You need a real app if it must work with no signal at all
  • You need a real app if the camera, GPS or scanning is the point of it
  • You need a real app if push notifications are what makes it useful
  • You do not if staff will use it at a desk or in the shop
  • You do not if the goal is "customers should have our icon on their phone"
  • You do not if a mobile-friendly web application would do the same job

An app is two builds, two store approvals and two things to keep updated, forever. A web application that works properly on a phone is one. Start there unless the list on the left says otherwise.

Desktop applications

our own ground

Software installed on a Windows machine, running on your own server. It sounds old-fashioned until you are standing at a shop counter with the internet down and a queue in front of you.

This is what our own products are. RetailWiz runs the counter, the stock and the accounts in shops across Pakistan, and it has done since 2001. Everything we would tell you about building desktop software, we have learned by maintaining ours for twenty-five years.

  • No dependence on an internet connection to take money
  • Hardware that a browser cannot reach — scales, cash drawers, label printers
  • Speed on ordinary machines, with large amounts of data
  • Your data on your premises, if that matters to you
  • Multi-counter and multi-branch, syncing between them
  • Long life — installations we still support are older than some of our staff

Judge this claim by looking at it: RetailWiz POS and Zeemovil show real screens from software we wrote and still maintain.

APIs & integration

usually the cheapest win

Two systems you already own, not talking to each other, with somebody retyping between them every evening. An API is the doorway one piece of software uses to talk to another, and building that doorway is usually far cheaper than replacing either side.

  • Your existing system feeding another one automatically
  • Connecting to services you already pay for
  • Integration with our own RetailWiz products
  • Data moved on a schedule, or the moment it changes
  • Failures that are visible, not silent
  • Nothing replaced that does not need replacing

If a person spends an hour a day moving numbers between two screens, that hour is the whole business case and it is usually a small project.

SaaS products

when the software is the business

Not software for your business — software that is your business, sold to your own customers by subscription. A different kind of project, because it never really finishes.

  • Multiple customers, separated properly from each other
  • Sign-up, subscriptions and billing
  • Built to grow without being rewritten
  • Released in stages, so it earns while it grows
  • Maintained afterwards, because that is the actual job
  • We sell our own software, so we know what year three looks like

PHP · React · Next.js

what these words mean

You should not have to choose between these, and on a call with us you will not have to. But since they get used at you constantly, here is what they are and when each is the right answer.

  • PHP / Laravel — a long-established way of building software that lives on a server. Dependable, well understood, and easy to find people to maintain. Right when the job is steady record-keeping.
  • React — a way of building screens that change instantly without reloading the page. Right when a lot happens on one screen and people use it all day.
  • Next.js — React arranged so search engines can still read the pages. Used when something must be both interactive and findable. React with Next.js is our default for internal business applications.
  • Which one follows the job, never the fashion. We tell you the choice and the reason before you pay for it, and you are entitled to push back.

Working across several of these is what lets us recommend honestly. A shop that only knows one thing recommends that thing every time, and you would never know.

FAQ

Questions, answered

How do I know if I need an application rather than a website?

Three questions. Does anybody log in? Do two people need to see different things? Is anything being worked out rather than just displayed? One yes and you are looking at an application.

Do I need a mobile app, or a website that works on a phone?

Most businesses that ask for an app need a mobile-friendly web application instead — no app store, no separate versions, one thing to maintain. A real app earns its keep when it must work offline, use the camera or GPS heavily, or send notifications.

Why do you still build desktop software?

Because a shop counter is not a good place to depend on the internet. Our own RetailWiz products are desktop software for exactly that reason — the till keeps working when the connection does not.

Can you make my existing systems talk to each other?

Usually, through an API. This is often the cheapest project we quote and the one that saves the most hours, because nothing gets replaced — the systems you already own simply stop needing a person to retype between them.

PHP or React — which will you use?

React with Next.js is our default, because it covers both screens where a lot happens without reloading and pages search engines can still read. PHP and Laravel where the job is steady record-keeping and page-at-a-time suits it better. We explain the choice before you pay for it.

Not sure this is you?

The rest of what we do

Describe the job people are doing by hand

Fifteen minutes on a call, no charge. You will leave knowing whether it needs custom software or something far cheaper.

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