What is a Web System?

How could a web system benefit you?

There are many ways in which a web system could be beneficial for your business. Here at Studio44, we specialise in building bespoke web systems. Where we can really help and add value to a business is if there is a specific process that a business uses which can either not be delivered by an off the shelf platform, or is delivered inadequately by an off the shelf platform with workarounds used or processes changed to fit the platform.

We work the opposite way round to off the shelf software. With a pre-existing platform, businesses will often need to change their processes to fit the software, we build the web system around their processes meaning it fits their exact requirements. Here are some examples of where a bespoke web system could benefit a business:

Bespoke CRM system

Depending on the needs and requirements of a business, building a bespoke CRM system using web technology can often be the best solution. We cover when a bespoke CRM system is more appropriate than an off the shelf platform in a previous article.

In our experience, the key benefits a bespoke CRM system offer include:

• Functionality & scalability – Building a CRM system bespoke affords the greatest flexibility and control over future development. Features are built to match your exact requirements, allowing the platform to scale and grow no matter how your business changes.
• Ownership – By having a bespoke CRM system built, you are in control of your own destiny. You don’t risk a software being discontinued or a new update removing a key feature and you will not have to pay licensing fees which can become expensive as you start adding more team members. Given how much time you are likely to invest in your CRM, the fact you own it is in our mind a huge benefit.
• Efficiencies – Because of the level of control with functionality when building a bespoke CRM system, there can be many efficiencies built in with processes optimised and admin time saved

Team management software

We are seeing more and more businesses who have a reasonably large team having a web system built that allows them to manage internal operations. This could be called team management software or perhaps an intranet. There are a number of ways you could use this system to help internal operations. These include:

• Timesheets – Timesheets are of course a popular way of recording how much time staff are working and is sometimes necessary to work out how much an employee needs to be paid, or that they are completing their ‘allotted’ hours. Although there is off the shelf timesheet software available, by recording this information in a bespoke web system, you can relate the data to other aspects of the system to give granular reporting.
• Personal information – You can use the information to store any relevant information for your team. Documents such as their employment contracts, start dates and crucial information such as emergency contacts can all be in one place.
• Record incidents – If you are in a business where health & safety for your team is a real concern then you can record incidents within your system as well. Not only does this mean a record is kept and easy to find but you can relate to other areas of the system, so you can create a report on how many incidents an individual was involved over the course of the last year for example.
• Manage projects – Although not necessarily a replacement for a project management tool like Trello, an internal intranet system could allow you to keep track of certain actions on projects, set task lists and time track against individual projects to produce reports on profitability.

The beauty of having all these different modules within a single system is the detailed level of reporting you are able to get as all data and information stored against your team can be used to provide as detailed reports as you need.

Producing formatted reports

One of the biggest admin headaches we see with clients is when they have to enter data multiple times into multiple systems. If your business produces reports for your clients and uses any more than a 1 step process for completing this then the chances you are wasting administrative time and adding the potential for human error.

We have a number of clients who produce bespoke reports for their clients, whether in the form of a survey, risk assessment, business analysis and more. By building a bespoke web based system, we can give them control to enter text and images into pre-set fields and produce a fully formatted report at the touch of a button. This can be done on the go so even if a team member is ‘on site’ at a client’s premises, they can fill in their report on the spot.

The beauty of building this type of system bespoke is that we have total control over the fields and formatting in the system and on the final report that is produced. We can even produce formatted graphs and stats to complement the rest of the report.

Handling claims

Any business that handles claims (such as an insurer or warranty company) needs some kind of system to manage and store the details for these claims. Within a web system you can store these claims against your clients and relate them to other aspects of the system to produce relevant and useful data on your business.

Where building this sort of system bespoke has a big advantage is in the level of automation that can be included within the platform that will enable you to build the platform around your individual processes so you can send out automated updates to clients at any point of the process – this could be by email or SMS and you could include attachments or links within the message directing your client to what they need to do next

You also get a searchable database of all claims and can easily and quickly find the claim history of a particular customer.

Web Application

As web systems become more and more sophisticated, web applications are becoming increasingly popular over their native counterparts. There are times where a native mobile application is essential (a native mobile app is one which is built and launched through popular app stores – usually iOS and Android) such as when in-built functionality on the phone is required but in many cases an application using web based technology would be the better option. Here are some examples of where a web application can give you all the functionality you need where traditionally a mobile app may have been required:

• Booking system – Many booking systems now used web based technology as opposed to native apps as with the advance of web technology for mobile it is possible to get a fast, efficient booking platform without the costs and difficulties that come with a native app. Assuming an internet connection, live data can be accessed to update the booking system in real time.
• Directory – Web directories have been around for many years and many have been made into a native mobile app. With modern web technology and high performing mobile versions of websites, this is often unnecessary unless there are particular native features on a user’s phone you want to use as part of the app.
• Member’s club – Many member’s clubs will have had a native app over the years to keep their members informed on news and events as well as potentially allowing them to process memberships. All of these features would be achieved comfortably by a modern web application.

And you may say that nothing beats being an icon on someone’s phone for brand awareness, but you can do this with a web application as well by encouraging the user to add the icon to their home screen, or launching the app as a ‘wrapper app’ which is where you upload to the app stores but aside from probably the home page, the mobile version of the website is loaded to serve content for the rest of the app.

A bespoke web system may not cost as much as you think…

So you have seen some examples of web systems and may now be thinking that it sounds great, but that a custom web system will also cost an awful lot of money. Not quite – and here is why a bespoke web system likely does not cost as much as you would think:

Admin time saved

Even the most efficient administrator is going to be more expensive than an automated process and when building a bespoke web system, one of the requirements is often to reduce administrative time as much as possible by automating processes (this also removes the possibility of human error but my point here is more about cost saving).

By working closely with your team we can often pinpoint the tasks where they are wasting unnecessary administrative time and plugging these gaps by removing the admin overhead can free them up to do what you employed them for!

Business efficiencies

Cost vs. investment is an interesting terminology and I have been in many meetings before where when talking about a client ‘investing’ they look at me, scoff and ask me to talk in ‘real terms’ by calling it cost as opposed to saying investment to frame it differently. When it comes to your processes however, the efficiencies created by a custom web system will often be a very wise investment even with an up-front cost. You will enjoy a return from admin time saved, a happier, more efficient workforce with less recruitment cost and potentially improved communication with your customer base leading to better customer satisfaction, more cross-selling opportunities and a higher likelihood they will look to refer you.

We hope this has given a comprehensive overview on what a web system is, how it could benefit your business and why it might not cost as much as you think!

Studio44 have been developing bespoke web systems and web applications for many years and have worked on many successful projects in that time. If you are looking at a new bespoke web system or web application for your business and don’t quite know where to start then get in touch, we would love to talk through options with you and see if we can help!