APG Software Solution

The problem

APG was running a software business across five tools that refused to talk to each other. Project status lived in one place, internal conversation in another, timesheets in a spreadsheet, meetings in a calendar nobody else could see, and leads in whichever inbox they happened to land in.

Every one of those tools worked. The problem was the gaps between them. Answering a question as basic as how much did this project actually cost us meant opening four tabs and doing arithmetic by hand.

What we built

One custom CRM covering the whole operating surface of the business:

• Project management — work, stages, and ownership in one board
• Internal messaging — conversation attached to the project it is about
• Timesheets — hours logged against real work, not reconstructed on a Friday
• Meeting scheduling — availability and bookings inside the same system
• Leads and pipeline — enquiries tracked from first contact through to won

Building custom rather than configuring an off-the-shelf CRM was the right call here because the workflow is the product. A generic tool would have forced APG to work the way the tool wanted. This one works the way the company already does, only without the copy-paste between tabs.

The outcome

The tabs are gone. Project cost, team capacity, and pipeline are answerable from one screen, which means they get asked more often. This is the deepest platform in our portfolio and it runs a real company’s day, every day.