Real example · in progress
When market-leading SaaS becomes the bottleneck
During the founding phase, several cloud services enabled a fast start. As the business grew, distributed data and costly custom workflows increasingly became a problem.
01
01Custom software for companies
Software that fits your business. Not the other way around.
When standard software slows down your workflows, locks away your data or lacks a crucial capability, I build the solution that fits — aligned with your processes, connected to your existing systems and controlled from a bounded pilot through to production.
Connect existing systems
A clear basis for your decision
A bounded pilot instead of a major project
The individual advantage
Where standard software ends, your process should not have to.
The individual advantage
Where standard software ends, your process should not have to.
Custom software is not an end in itself. It creates value where an important difference for your business emerges:
Your workflows require too many workarounds
Employees compensate for what existing software cannot represent — with spreadsheets, duplicate entry and manual work.
Your data exists, but it is not ready for decisions
Despite existing systems, status, KPIs and forecasts are rebuilt manually in spreadsheets — often with formulas that are difficult to verify.
Your idea does not exist off the shelf
A new service, internal tool or digital product needs to fit your specific business model.
Project ownership for
25+ years of experienceSMB to enterpriseOwnership through operations
02Does this sound familiar?
In most companies, time is lost every day in places nobody questions anymore:
Data is entered more than once
Employees type the same information into multiple systems — from the email into the spreadsheet, from the spreadsheet into the order system.
Information is scattered
Part of it sits in inboxes, part in spreadsheets, part in individual colleagues' heads. Whoever needs something asks around.
Recurring emails eat up time
The same requests, the same answers — every day, written by hand.
Knowledge is locked in documents
What your company knows lives in PDFs, folders, and manuals — instead of where the work actually happens.
What you might not see yet
The most expensive problems never appear in any statistic:
Onboarding takes months
New employees need weeks to figure out how things work — because processes only exist in heads and scattered folders. You become productive by asking around long enough.
Typical signal“You'll pick it up over time.”
The company's status lives in spreadsheets
Revenue, delivery volumes, utilisation or other KPIA key metric used to measure performance, progress or target achievement in a business area. are assembled in manually maintained spreadsheets. Formulas and definitions change, results are difficult to verify, and often only one person understands how the displayed status was produced.
Typical signal“Which number is actually correct?”
The inquiries you never see
Whoever asks in the evening and hears nothing by noon buys from your competitor. These lost orders never show up anywhere — customers don't call to say goodbye.
Typical signalInquiry at 9:14 pm — first reply the next day
Data nobody asks
Which products perform? Which customers churn? Where does the process jam? The answers are already in your systems — yet decisions are made by gut feeling.
Typical signal“We go by feel.”
More software does not solve this automatically. What matters is where the workflow actually loses time, money or reliability — only then does a targeted solution pay off.
03Tailored solutions
What I can build specifically for your business.
The starting point is not a product catalogue but a business bottleneck. These examples show the outcome and the capabilities I can implement to achieve it — tailored to your workflows, systems, data and responsibilities.
Your workflows become software that fits
Business applications, portals and digital products
Tailored to your business
Interfaces, roles, rules and exceptions follow the way your business actually works. The result is not another generic package, but a tool built for your operation.
What I can implement
- Internal business applications and workflows
- Customer, service and self-service portals
- Web, mobile and desktop applications
- Roles, approvals and traceable processes
- New digital services and SaaSReady-to-use software that is usually licensed continuously and operated in the provider's infrastructure. products
- Cloud, self-hostedThe solution runs under your own control or in infrastructure you choose rather than exclusively with the provider. or your own infrastructure
When standard software cannot represent an important workflow cleanly
Your existing systems work together
Integration and process automation
Tailored to your business
Existing applications stay in place where they work. I connect the gaps between them and automate recurring handovers, including checks, approvals and exceptions.
What I can implement
- Interfaces to CRMThe system for customer relationships: contacts, history, quotes and sales ownership., ERPThe central system for commercial operations — orders, stock, pricing, invoices. Usually the authoritative source for numbers in the business. and specialist software
- Email classification and routing
- Document processing and data transfer
- Automated reports and notifications
- Appointment, order and approval workflows
- Controlled escalation to employees
When employees currently act as the interface between applications
You gain control over data and decisions
Data platforms, dashboards and gradual SaaS replacement
Tailored to your business
Distributed operational data becomes a shared basis for decisions. KPIA key metric used to measure performance, progress or target achievement in a business area. are calculated centrally according to agreed rules, visualised for the business and complemented by visible data-quality indicators.
What I can implement
- A consolidated view of distributed business data
- Role-specific dashboards for status and KPIA key metric used to measure performance, progress or target achievement in a business area.
- Traceable calculation logic and data-quality checks
- Location, period and target comparisons
- Capacity planning and reliable forecasts
- APIA clearly defined interface through which systems exchange data and securely call functions. and gradual migration without a big bangA complete system switch at one point in time instead of a controlled introduction in stages.
When the data exists but decisions still depend on manually maintained spreadsheet reports
AI supports where it delivers reliable relief
Secure AI integration and assistance systems
Tailored to your business
Knowledge sources, permissions, conversations and handovers are configured around your business. AI receives clearly bounded responsibilities instead of uncontrolled authority.
What I can implement
- Knowledge assistants with traceable sources
- Digital call handling based on your rules
- Document processing and classification
- AI agentAn AI-powered software component that independently handles clearly bounded tasks using approved data and tools. with bounded system permissions
- Handover to the right human contact
- self-hostedThe solution runs under your own control or in infrastructure you choose rather than exclusively with the provider. or controlled cloud use
When AI should create clear value without sacrificing security and control
Anonymised example from practice
From spreadsheets to a decision cockpit.
Which of your customers ends up costing you money? Does the large order still pay off once overtime and a temporary hire are part of it?
One view
status, targets and capacity in one place
Warned early
signals while there is still time to turn them
Separate what you control
controllable losses, told apart from the rest
Based on a real project pattern · anonymised · figures shown are fictional
Three files, three versions — and every Monday a fourth one is built from them.
Utilisation_W34_final_v3_CORRECTED.xlsx
| A | B | C | D | E | F | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Montage | 1.240 | 1.180 | 96% | ||
| 2 | Service | 860 | 742 | 86% | – | |
| 3 | Vertrieb | 1.020 | 806 | 79% | ||
| 4 | ||||||
| 5 | Summe | 3.120 | 2.728 | |||
| 6 | ||||||
| 7 | Stand | 14.08. |
Revenue_Q3_copy.xlsx
| A | B | C | D | E | F | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Montage | 1.240 | 1.180 | 96% | ||
| 2 | Service | 860 | 742 | 86% | – | |
| 3 | Vertrieb | 1.020 | 806 | 79% | ||
| 4 | ||||||
| 5 | Summe | 3.120 | 2.728 | |||
| 6 | ||||||
| 7 | Stand | 14.08. |
Costing_old.xlsx
fx=VLOOKUP(B7,'Revenue Q3'!A:F,4,0)
| A | B | C | D | E | F | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Montage | 1.240 | 1.180 | 96% | ||
| 2 | Service | 860 | 742 | 86% | – | |
| 3 | Vertrieb | 1.020 | #REF! | 79% | ||
| 4 | ||||||
| 5 | Summe | 3.120 | 2.728 | |||
| 6 | ||||||
| 7 | Stand | 14.08. |
Sheet1Sheet2Analysis
Sent 22:41 · followed by "use the other one instead"
Three files, from which a fourth is built every Monday.
Key figures · Sample Company Ltd
45 employees · three sources · as of 06:12 today
- Time tracking
- Accounting export
- Order list
Shortfall since May · gap widening monthly
Plan and actual across the year
PlanActual
| Month | Plan | Actual | Variance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 52 | 54 | 2 |
| Feb | 56 | 58 | 2 |
| Mar | 60 | 61 | 1 |
| Apr | 64 | 64 | 0 |
| May | 68 | 62 | -6 |
| Jun | 72 | 58 | -14 |
| Jul | 76 | 53 | -23 |
| Aug | 80 | 48 | -32 |
April was the last month on plan.
Monthly figures · contribution margin, thousands · time tracking + accounting
Where it comes from
Assemblyon plan
Servicewatch
Salesbelow plan
Two orders are waiting for an unambiguous assignment. The calculation stays usable, and the note stays visible.
What needs a decision now
- Gap to target86 hoursFour orders sit below their calculated margin.
- Capacitytight from week 38The dates promised exceed the crew that is planned.
- Controllable loss€22,800The avoidable share, told apart from external causes.
Once the figures sit in one place, what gut feeling answers today becomes calculable — that an additional position lowers the result in its first year, for instance, while five per cent on the price list raises it by a third.
Something like this grows out of the sources a company already has.
04Why a better fit now pays off
Your business no longer has to bend around the software.
Standard software makes sense while it supports the way your business works. It becomes expensive when employees create workarounds, maintain data several times or need another module for every necessary change. Proven components and AI-assisted development now make it possible to close these gaps selectively — without automatically turning the work into a multi-year programme.
Off-the-shelf software
- Your processes have to adapt to the software — not the other way around
- License and monthly fees, permanent and per user
- A hundred features nobody needs — the one that's missing never comes
- Dependent on the vendor's roadmap and pricing
Tailored to your processes
- The software adapts to your established workflows — with a noticeable speed boost
- No per-user licence fees for your custom solution
- Exactly the features your business needs. No more, no less
- It's yours: source code, data, and every decision
A real-world example
A business runs the software of an established industry vendor. But to analyze its own customer data — or connect it to other systems — it has to buy expensive add-on modules, or pay extra for every APIA clearly defined interface through which systems exchange data and securely call functions. call. The data belongs to the business; access to it belongs to the vendor. A tailored solution flips that around: your data, interfaces, and decisions stay with you — with no surcharge to reach what's already yours.
Investment framework
Understand the process first. Then set a reliable price.
The effort depends on interfaces, rules and the operating model — not on the name of the solution. After the free introductory call, you receive a concrete proposal with a clearly defined scope instead of a low entry price that grows through add-on modules later.
- Defined scope, timeline and cost framework before the project starts
- No per-user licence: source code, data and decisions remain yours
- Transparent operating costs based on the infrastructure and external services actually required
- Start with a clearly bounded pilot before committing a larger budget
Tailored does not mean reinventing everything: proven open-source components and AI-assisted development keep effort and time-to-value manageable.
05From bottleneck to improvement
First we establish the value. Then we build exactly the solution that delivers it in day-to-day work:
01
Define the bottleneck and goal
You show me where time is lost, errors occur or customers wait today. I put the workflow into context and define a concrete goal with you — clear and measurable.
02
Validate value and effort
You receive an honest assessment of what improvement is realistic, what it will cost and where implementation is not worthwhile — before a larger budget is committed.
03
Build to fit and launch safely
I develop the solution, connect it to your existing applications and support the rollout. Automation and AI are used where they reliably deliver the agreed value.
06What you gain from working together
Clear accountability
You speak with the person who understands the workflow, designs the solution and implements it. Decisions do not get lost between sales, project management and development.
Quality that lasts
More than 25 years of international enterprise and mid-market experience also shape smaller solutions — so they can be operated, extended and handed over safely.
More delivery, less coordination
Modern development tools shorten the path from a decision to a usable result. Your budget goes into the solution rather than internal handovers and large project structures.
You stay independent
The solution is documented and built transparently. Your team or another provider can operate and extend it — without creating a new dependency on me.
A point of contact who stays
Knowledge about your workflows and decisions is retained. After launch, you still speak with the same contact instead of onboarding a new team every time.
Specialists only when needed
I handle software and automation myself. For infrastructure or other specialist areas, I work with your existing partner or a vetted expert such as Matthias Simon — targeted support instead of a permanent large team.
m-simon.com07Further typical situations
Where a better fit makes a difference as well.
Not every problem starts with spreadsheets. Custom software also creates value where standard products slow down important workflows, limit data sovereignty or make necessary changes disproportionately expensive.
Typical bottleneck
When data is moved between systems by hand
Orders, customer data or appointments are copied from emails into spreadsheets, calendars and specialist software. The applications work — but the workflow between them remains manual, error-prone and dependent on individual employees.
02
Delivery model
When custom software sounds like a major programme
The concern is understandable: high initial effort, months of development and an outcome that can only be assessed very late.
03
08Voices from projects
Responsibility requires trust.
Commissioning custom software means handing over more than requirements: it means entrusting someone with important operations. Clear communication, sound decisions and reliable delivery therefore matter just as much as the technology.
Herr Daniel zeichnet sich dadurch aus aktiv auf Problemstellungen oder Lücken in Konzepten hinzuweisen und im Team eine optimale Lösung für solche Fälle zu erarbeiten. Ich bin Herr Daniel persönlich sehr dankbar für die stets offene, zielführende und angenehme Zusammenarbeit. Er ist kommunikationsstark, verlässlich, hat hohe Ansprüche an guten Code und die Zusammenarbeit mit ihm hat wirklich Spaß gemacht.
Dorothea Schwarz
Digital Product Owner Data Hubs · Hoffmann Group
... outstanding mind with excellent skills in development; great software architect. Highly recommended if you need to find a professional fast and scalable solution. We've been working together on a project that was rated by Microsoft professionals as "not possible". Together with Christian our team managed to deliver a great working solution/product!
Oscar Angress
Cyber Security Consultant · Bosch Engineering GmbH
Ich bin Logistiker, kein IT-Mensch. Bei den meisten IT-Leuten habe ich nach zwei Sätzen keine Ahnung mehr, worüber sie reden. Bei Chris nicht. Deshalb haben wir ihn schon mehrfach beauftragt. Er hat unsere Website neu gemacht. Als Fremde mit unseren Firmendaten Phishing-Mails verschickt haben, habe ich ihn angerufen. Problem gelöst.
Holger Becker
Geschäftsführer · Becker Logistik GmbH
Übertragene Aufgaben wurden stets hervorragend, mit Weitsicht und Hinblick auf optimale Skalierbarkeit erledigt. Die Zusammenarbeit war spitze!
Alexander Müller
.NET Softwareentwickler · Sartorius Stedim Systems
Ich kann Christian nur Empfehlen. Wir hatten ein tolles Projekt bei einem Technologie Konzern. Christian ist für mich der perfekte Freiberufler: flexibel, spezialisiert, clever und sympathisch. Ich hoffe wir arbeiten bald mal wieder zusammen!
Marcel Theunissen
IT-Vermittler & Berater · Finance, HR und Engineering
09The next step
Is custom software the right path for your project?
Tell me what is not working today or what you want to create. You will receive an honest assessment of the sensible path forward and what to expect.