Bespoke Software | Helping businesses to succeed – how Achorda helps organisations maximise efficiency through bespoke software solutions

What software projects has Achorda delivered for clients?

Among many exciting projects we have been lucky enough to help the following clients to identify and overcome some major challenges.

Workflow / task automation software for The Institute of the Motor Industry

We’ve been working with IMI for a few years now and one of several challenges we have helped them with is the problem they faced in managing numerous undocumented processes which involved the use of data held in different silos in different departments. There were too many opportunities for mistakes to be made and tasks were taking too long to complete.

After talking the issue through with Achorda and exploring various options, IMI agreed that they needed a workflow automation system to control and monitor each task as it was passed through each department. Because of the Achorda software framework already in place for IMI handling other business processes, Achorda was able to build in the new functionality, keeping everything in one place within the IMI portal.

The result is IMI can now enter a new task, allocate it to a staff member and monitor the whole process through to completion. The system includes email alerts for new task allocations or overdue tasks and has dramatically increased the efficiency of IMI’s membership management processes.

You can read more about this project on our Case Study pages.

Document management software for Wood Group Kenny

WGK is a global organisation in the oil and gas industry. They needed an intranet to help them overcome several challenges including how to safely archive thousands of valuable project documents and use them as a valuable resource for future projects. By talking to WGK Achorda learned that these documents contained vital data about lessons learned during each project, but it was impossible to share this information with skilled staff scattered all around the globe.

Achorda developed a bespoke document management solution for WGK, as part of their intranet, that enabled staff all over the world to search for documents by specific industry criteria and access information about related documents, related projects and the skills required from team members to complete the projects.

This facility has enabled WGK to build a priceless database of information about each project they undertake and has eradicated the issue of skilled staff wasting weeks trying to solve engineering problems that another team member had already solved on a different project.

You can read more about this project on our Case Study pages.

Procurement and part tracking portal for RAL Space

RAL Space is part of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory here at Harwell Oxford. RAL Space spoke to Achorda about the challenge they had in logging the location of thousands of extremely valuable scientific component parts needed to construct spacecraft. Added to this, they had laborious methods in place to procure these components or new components from suppliers in order to build space products. We learned all about their current processes and identified where the issues were, enabling us to recommend a bespoke software solution which would solve RAL Space’s problems.

Achorda developed a bespoke procurement and part tracking portal which imports a bill of materials from RAL Space’s design software and matches the components required to those already in stock or to components available to order form suppliers.

RAL Space are now able to pinpoint the location of any parts down to individual serial numbers and can track the history of every project from procurement to final assembly for auditing purposes. The risk of losing components has been eradicated and processing time for projects has been dramatically reduced.

You can read more about this project on our Case Study pages.

What’s the best way to approach a bespoke software project?

At Achorda we like to talk to our clients. We find it’s best to get all stake-holders involved in the early stages to make sure the project starts off in the right direction. A bespoke software project can seem overwhelming to clients at the start with so many possibilities to consider. But this is where our expertise and experience are so valuable as our team members quickly identify problems areas within an organisation and help clients to visualise the best approach to fix them, often pointing out ideas that our clients hadn’t even considered.

Some examples of problem areas we’ve identified are:

• Data stored in multiple silos leading to errors, duplication and possible non-compliance
• Duplication of tasks due to insufficient communication or task management
• Complex tasks involving too many processes leading to errors
• Important or sensitive documents stored in multiple places with no storage system for locating or protecting them
• Reliance on individual staff members for important processes

Achorda is an experienced team with a range of skills to deliver a beautiful, engaging user interface and unify it with a powerful back-end system. We pride ourselves on listening to what our client really needs and delivering the best possible solution to meet those needs and grow with their business.

We want our clients to succeed, and we know how to help them.

How can Achorda help you with your software project?

If you'd like to find out how we can help your organisation, please get in touch.