An operations portal for a language services company
Clients, suppliers, projects and quotes, pricing by tasks and languages, workspaces, permissions by role, client review, alerts and a link to the editor.
Opening
VLN–009 / REV 01The work grew. The systems do not hold it.
We map the process, build the system that fits it and put it to work.
A system built around how the company actually works: from process mapping and specification, through build and integrations, to a rollout the team actually uses. AI is a capability inside it, not the service.
Sound familiar?
VLN–009 / REV 02- You copy the same information between a system, Excel, email and WhatsApp.
- Only one person really knows what is going on.
- You find out at the end of the month what happened in the field.
- The existing system does a lot, but not your flow.
- You want to see where there is money, delay or risk, without chasing seven people.
Who it fits
VLN–009 / REV 03- Who
- Owners, CEOs or operations managers of a company with a lot of work repeating itself across several people and departments.
- Size
- About 10 to 150 people, or a smaller company with an especially complex operational process. A working range, not a threshold.
- Sectors
- Services, production, translation, construction, contracting, operations and B2B: anywhere with projects, suppliers, clients, approvals, documents, materials or field work.
- Already have software
- It is heavy, inflexible, does not fit the different roles, or is not connected to what actually happens.
- Information is scattered
- Across Excel, WhatsApp, Gmail or Outlook, Google Drive, the accounting system, an ERP and internal tools.
- The sign of a fit
- You do not need a PRD or an answer to "which app do we want". A clear operational pain is enough, and someone in the company feeling that the work depends on one person's memory, on manual copying or on chasing information.
The pains, as heard in the field
VLN–009 / REV 04No picture of the situation
The data exists, but nobody sees in real time what is moving, what is stuck, what was sold, what was done and what is about to break. At one company the information on execution, prices, technicians and collection was not connected; at another, field progress was updated only at month end; and a manager of a company too big to run "from the head" needed a KPI dashboard to understand where the business is going.
"where is the business going?"The same work passes by hand between people and systems
A request arrives by email or WhatsApp, someone copies it into Excel or a system, another prepares a document, a third checks, a fourth sends. Every hand-off brings duplication, mistakes, lost context and no clear ownership.
"every hand-off brings duplication"The existing system does not hold the process
The system can be expensive, heavy or built around a model that does not fit the company. It covers part of the work, but not the real flow; the staff manage the exceptions outside it and go back to Excel and WhatsApp.
"back to Excel and WhatsApp"Information is scattered across roles and people
The owner holds the context in their head, the project manager holds the update, the finance person holds collection, and the supplier or the field worker hold the photos and the real state. There is no one place where everyone sees the right version, the one relevant to them.
"no one place"Field work does not come back to the office
Photos and videos are sent on WhatsApp and saved by hand to Drive; project managers report late; stock is counted by hand; progress is documented after the fact. It needs a simple interface from the phone, not another system staff have to learn like tech people.
"not another system to learn"Money gets lost between the process and the execution
Collection runs on spreadsheets, emails and phone calls. Quotes are delayed. It is hard to know whether a full day of work was profitable. Quantity calculations and pricing take hours of manual work, and sometimes one experienced person is the bottleneck.
"whether a full day was profitable"The product grows faster than the spec
Live systems have many roles, permissions, statuses, entities, clients and suppliers. Without someone holding the model and the flow, you get missing screens, undefined exceptions, UX that does not match the spec, and development moving without a shared picture.
"without a shared picture"01 / 07
What I build
VLN–009 / REV 05We do not start from "let's build a system". We start from one or two processes where real value can be seen, then expand.
Examples from the projectsHover a capability to see where it was built
A management and data layer for a company of about 100 people
Data collected from Excel, WhatsApp, work logs and existing systems; KPIs by role; execution, pricing, technicians and collection connected; alerts and a picture of the situation for management.
The examples are directions, not a catalogue of ready products. Every system starts from the company's work and the decisions it needs to make.
How we start
VLN–009 / REV 0601
Mapping
We sit with the people who do the work; when needed, we come to the office or the field and watch the process happen.
02
Choosing a pilot
One to three processes with pain, volume and a measurable change.
03
Specification and build
Flows, data, permissions and UX defined; building and fixing in parallel, not waiting for a perfect document.
04
Rollout
Testing with the team, fixing, training, and expanding only once the system is useful.
Projects go live within six weeks to six months, depending on requirements, scope and complexity.
Case study
VLN–009 / REV 07A language services company
Operations portal · clients, suppliers and quotes · anonymous
What brought it
The work had outgrown the systems. Clients, suppliers, projects and quotes were run across several tools at once, and the same information was copied between them by hand.
What was decided
The first question was not what to build but whether to build at all. After mapping the process the decision was to build, in stages, around the team's real workflow rather than around a general model.
In buildDetails and screens go up here at launch.
How the work is framed
VLN–009 / REV 08- Who builds
- I lead the product and the design, with a senior dev team joining when needed.
- Scope and price
- A fixed custom project, priced after a scoping call.
- Your ownership
- The code, the design files and the IP transfer to you at the end.
What this is notNot a subscription the business has to bend around, and not development without a discovery stage.
Book a scoping callA product review or product partnership can lead here. Product management →
Reading · Questions
VLN–009 / REV 09BLOG · AIAI for product management: from Excel to the AI stackBLOG · AI6 lightweight AI tools for product managersBLOG · SPECHow to write a PRD the team actually builds from
All posts →What is the difference between a custom system and an ERP or a SaaS tool, and do we have to replace the existing system?+
An ERP and off-the-shelf tools are built around a general model, and the company adapts to it. A custom system is built around your flow, exceptions included, and connects to what you already have. You do not have to replace anything: usually we start beside the existing system, build the flow it does not hold and connect to it. It gets replaced only when it is itself the problem, and then in stages. When an off-the-shelf product covers the process, buying it is the better choice.
Can we start with a single process, and how long until a first pilot?+
Yes, that is how it always starts: one to three processes with pain, volume and a measurable change. We build and fix in parallel, without waiting for a perfect document, so a first pilot is measured in weeks rather than months, depending on the process chosen and on your availability for questions. Expansion comes only once it works in practice.
Can we keep working with WhatsApp, Excel and Google Drive?+
Yes. They stay where they work, and the system connects to them: takes from them, organises, and gives back one place where the situation can be seen. The same goes for the accounting system, the ERP and internal tools.
What if the staff are not technical, and is there mobile?+
That is the working assumption, not a problem: a simple interface from the phone, one screen per role, and no screens that are not needed. Where the work happens in the field there is mobile, for execution updates, photos and videos inside the project and stock counts, with no app to install. If the team does not use it, the system is not finished.
Can AI read documents, photos and plans?+
Yes, as a step inside a defined process: reading a contract, extracting quantities from a PDF plan, classifying a photo from the field, flagging an exception. AI is a layer inside the system rather than a separate service, and always with a person responsible for the result.
Who decides the KPIs, and what happens after the system goes live?+
You, together with me, during mapping: what management needs to see in order to decide and what each role needs in order to work, not a generic list of metrics. After going live comes rollout: testing with the team, fixing, training, and expanding to the next process only once the system is useful. Then ongoing maintenance, or your team carries on alone.
Ending
VLN–009 / REV 10If the work has outgrown the systems, let us map one process in 30 minutes.