FINE · Business systems and software
FINE · Business systems
I work out whether that gap should be connected, replaced, or rebuilt properly, and then I build it. Ten years in software delivery, seven building directly, one accountable person from discovery through to launch.
I work out whether that gap should be connected, replaced, or rebuilt properly, and then I build it.
Systems review
A written assessment of what you have, where it is costing you, and what to do about it.
Systems review · $1,200 fixed
Book a systems reviewThings go wrong. Systems get messy. Businesses outgrow the way they used to work.
Fine.
I work out what is actually happening, decide what needs fixing, and build the systems to fix it. One person scopes it, one person builds it, one person answers for it.
01
Steady
Stay calm. See the bigger picture. Good decisions are hard to make while everyone is reacting to the immediate problem.
02
Proper
Do things properly. No unnecessary complexity, and no shortcut dressed up as innovation.
03
Sorted
Leave things better than I found them. The goal is not another report. The goal is that the problem is sorted.
04
Still here
The person who understood the problem is the person who built it, and is still available when it needs attention.
One person is a feature until they are unavailable. Every engagement leaves a written scope, a decision log, an architecture diagram and documented code, so the work is transferable if it ever needs to be. That is not a promise about my calendar, it is a property of how the work is recorded.
PROPER, in practice — [one real example: a rewrite or feature turned down, with the cost avoided and what shipped instead. Replace before launch.]
It'll be fine.
01
Discovery
How the business actually operates. Output is a written summary, not a proposal.
02
Specification
Scope, priorities and a fixed price. You approve before anything is built.
03
Build
Working software in visible increments, with regular check ins.
04
Rollout
Data migration, training and documentation. The part most projects underestimate.
05
Support
Ongoing development and maintenance, on retainer or ad hoc.
Over ten years in software delivery, seven of those building directly. I have worked as a project manager and business analyst on platforms delivered by large teams, including a world leading air quality monitoring system, an industry leading parcel tracking platform, national scale wholesale distribution, messaging and community funding, and I have designed and built my own products from scratch. The job has been the same every time. Understand how the business actually works, translate that into something buildable, and see it through to launch.
The limit on that role used to be execution. Planning, analysis and specification are one skill set, writing the code is another, and closing that gap meant hiring a team. It no longer does. Working with AI I take projects from discovery to a deployed product on my own, at a speed and cost that was not possible three years ago, while keeping the process that large project delivery taught me.
At a glance
Every engagement leaves documents behind. Three extracts from real projects, redacted.
Product specification — internal
Buqq
DOC-SPEC-01 / v1.0
03
Scope
03.1 In scope
03.2 Out of scope at launch
03.3 Assumptions
Why this is here
Anyone can list features. The document that decides what gets built, and the log of what was traded away to build it, is the part clients never see before they commit.
A systems review produces one of these for your business, in writing, in five working days.
How the review works →Decision log — internal
Buqq
DOC-LOG-01 / maintained from week one
Why it matters
Every scope trade gets written down when it happens, not reconstructed afterwards: what was proposed, what it would have cost, and why it was cut or kept.
You can point back to any decision, months later, and see the reasoning that produced it.
Read the full engagement →System architecture — internal
Buqq
DOC-ARCH-01 / approved before build start
REQUEST PATH
EXTERNAL SERVICES
CONTENT PIPELINE
MERCHANT ALERTS
What it's for
The system diagram that gets built from, not a marketing illustration after the fact — data flows, integrations and what depends on what.
It is what the build phase actually works from, and what gets handed over at the end.
How a platform gets built →"The systems are fine, the gap is not."
Automation and integrationConnecting the systems you are keeping and removing the manual work between them. Usually the cheapest fix available and usually the one nobody proposed."The tools themselves are the problem."
ERP and Odoo implementationScoping, configuration, custom modules and rollout for businesses outgrowing spreadsheets and disconnected systems."Nothing off the shelf fits how you work."
Custom platforms and softwareProducts built from a blank page, or systems that connect the ones you already run.
01 / BUQQ
Buqq
A B2B reservation platform for Southeast Asia, taken from idea to live product, including brand, legal framework and go to market.
Outcome
No agency, no handoff, no team. Just a reservation platform Southeast Asian venues can actually use.
02 / DOG PARK EXPLORER
Dog Park Explorer
A repeatable directory engine, populated at scale and monetised, that can be pointed at any listing market.
Outcome
Built once as an engine, not a single site, so it's the template for whatever listing market comes next.
03 / RIELSYNC
RielSync
Records the National Bank of Cambodia's daily official KHR/USD rate and writes it into a client's ERP or POS — Odoo, SambaPOS, QuickBooks Online, Zoho Books, SAP Business One — the day it publishes.
Outcome
A rate someone used to enter by hand now lands in the books the moment the central bank publishes it.
One to three hours from Australian business hours, live in their stand ups, and a cost base that is why the same delivery costs less than a Sydney agency.
Because you get the person who scoped it building it, rather than a salesperson followed by a junior.
Because the risk is not writing the code, it is knowing what to build, what to trade away, and how to migrate the data without stopping the business.
Every engagement leaves a written scope, a decision log, an architecture diagram and documented code, so the work is transferable if it ever needs to be. Not a promise about my calendar — a property of how the work is recorded.
Most clients start with a systems review. From there the work is either a defined project with a fixed price, or a monthly retainer where I act as your technical partner on an ongoing basis.
| Offer | Price | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Systems review | $1,200 fixed | Fixed price written assessment, five working days, deducted if you proceed. |
| Project | from $2,500 | Automation from $2,500, Odoo from $9,500, custom platforms from $12,000 — scoped after the review. |
| Retainer | from $900/mo | Support from $900/mo, or a development retainer from $2,200/mo. Three month minimum. |
Tell me what is not working and how you are running it now. I will tell you whether it is worth fixing and what it would take.