Metalworks and engineering company
Hertfordshire
Before
The company relied on an old DOS-based database that had been written many years earlier. It still did an important job: carrying out manufacturing calculations, producing a customer summary and creating a worksheet for the workshop.
It was clunky but useful. The worry was that it was becoming harder to run on modern PCs, harder to support, and more risky if the office computer failed.
What changed
AlphaFirst rebuilt the key calculation, summary and worksheet functions as a cloud-based system. The new version kept the important parts of the old system, added some improvements that had been wanted for years, and made the work available from more than one place.
It was also brought into a looked-after hosting setup with regular backups.
What this proves
A focused build can replace a small but important legacy system without turning it into a huge software project.
Specialist industrial cleaning company
West Yorkshire
Before
When we first worked with them, they were a tiny company with just a few staff. They were growing, but the way the work was being managed was starting to hold them back.
Jobs were tracked in Excel. Documents were printed, filled out by hand, then re-keyed. Invoice details were copied between sheets and then entered again into accounts software.
The opportunities were there. The systems were not keeping up.
What changed
AlphaFirst adapted a system based on Marvin, our own internal app, to give them a clearer way to manage enquiries, jobs, service stages, customer details, documents and invoicing.
Documents could be created and emailed from the system, and customer and invoice information could sync with QuickBooks.
What this proves
A focused system can help a small business handle more work without simply adding more admin.
They have since grown significantly and moved into larger premises. We would not claim the system was the only reason for that growth, but it gave them a stronger way to manage the work as the business became busier.
Departmental reporting team
Bedfordshire
Before
A small team inside a much larger organisation had started delivering a new service through a well-known ecommerce platform.
The platform handled the selling side, but the reporting did not give the team the detail, format or regular updates they needed. They wanted to pull the data into their own systems, query it properly, and send out useful reports without doing the same manual work again and again.
What changed
AlphaFirst built a focused reporting solution that pulled data from the ecommerce platform, reshaped it into usable reporting data, made it available for Excel queries, and sent standard reports by email on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.
What this proves
Day-1 Build is not only for business owners replacing spreadsheets.
It can also help department heads and small teams inside larger organisations who need a practical fix for one reporting, admin or data problem the standard tools do not handle well.
Kitchen and bathroom showroom
Essex
Before
The showroom relied on a Microsoft Access system that had been built many years earlier and supported by the original developer, who had since passed away.
The system still did an important job, but it was slow, unsupported, not consistently backed up, and becoming harder to maintain on ageing showroom PCs.
They looked at off-the-shelf and industry-specific systems, but none of them quite matched the way the business actually worked.
What changed
AlphaFirst built a cloud-based app that kept the core custom functions the showroom relied on: customers, suppliers, orders, and the specific way customer items needed to be linked to supplier purchase orders.
The result was a system that preserved the important parts of the old setup, while removing much of the worry around support, backups and ageing equipment.
What this proves
A focused build can keep the parts of an old system that genuinely matter, without forcing the business to change how it works just to fit somebody else’s software.
Kitchen gadget influencer and recipe blogger
Cambridgeshire
Before
Years of recipe ideas, videos, images and notes had built up across different phones, tablets, iCloud, Dropbox, handwritten notes and apps.
There was no simple way to see which recipes were ready, which were stuck, what still needed doing, or where the right files were.
What changed
AlphaFirst built a cloud app with a simple colour-coded card view showing where each recipe was in the process and what needed to happen next.
Files were organised into Dropbox and linked from the app, giving her and her team one clearer place to manage each recipe from idea through to publishing.
What this proves
A useful business system does not always look like accounts, stock control or order processing.
Sometimes the value is simply giving people a clearer way to manage creative work that has outgrown memory, notes and scattered files.
