Custom CRM development

A CRM system is a tool that holds the full history of each client: enquiry, conversations, quotes, contracts and payments. A custom CRM differs from an off-the-shelf one in that its stages, fields and rules mirror the company's real sales process rather than a generic template.

What a process-driven CRM means

In ready-made systems the process usually looks like this: contact, deal, stage, closed. In reality, between the enquiry and the payment there are supplier bookings, approvals from several people, deposits and documents. A custom CRM names those steps directly, so a sales manager does not have to keep half the process in their head or in a separate spreadsheet.

What it usually includes

• Enquiry capture: from the website form, email or phone, with no retyping.
• Quote preparation: templates, pricing logic, versions.
• Contracts and signing: generated from data, with electronic signatures.
• Payment tracking: deposits, balances, reminders.
• Management metrics: pipeline, conversion rates and margin in real time.

Integrations

A CRM is only worth as much as its connections to the rest of the company. The most common links are accounting software, email, calendar, online store and document signing services. More on this in integrations and automation.

Where CRM turns into business management

Once production, warehousing or resource planning enter the system, it is no longer CRM territory. In that case, see business management systems.

Migrating data from an old CRM or spreadsheets

A new CRM is only as good as the data moved into it. So we plan migration as a separate piece of work, not as the last day before launch:

1. Field mapping - which column of the old system or spreadsheet becomes which field in the new CRM.
2. Cleaning - duplicates, outdated contacts and inconsistently written company names are fixed before the migration, not after it.
3. Trial migration - part of the data is moved to a test environment and checked with the people who work with it.
4. Parallel running - the old system stays available for a while until the team is sure nothing is missing in the new one.

This avoids the situation where, after launch, the sales team goes back to the old file because something "is off with the customers" in the new system.

How long it takes

A CRM is launched in stages: first the sales process and the accounting link, then reports and automation.

• Discovery - 2-4 weeks, ending with a scope and an estimate.
• Prototype - 1-2 weeks for the main scenarios.
• Development - in two-week sprints; a first working version usually within 2-4 months.
• Launch - 1-2 weeks including data migration and training.

Every stage ends with a result you can assess before moving on. More on this on our process page.

Public sector

In public institutions CRM logic usually becomes a register of applicants, requests or customer service cases. Such a system falls under public sector requirements.

• A technical specification for the tender, based on the discovery results.
• WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility checks during testing.
• GDPR requirements and data retention rules from the start of the project.
• SLA-based support with an agreed response time and a monthly report.

How we work with public institutions is described on the public sector solutions page.

What drives the cost

• The complexity of sales stages, teams and permissions.
• Integrations with accounting, email and other systems.
• Migrating and cleaning existing customer data.
• How many reports are needed and how automated they must be.

It pays to start with the sales process and the accounting link; reports and automation are easier to add once the team already works in the system. We cover market data and how to calculate the total cost of ownership in our article on custom software development cost.