Custom software · Sunshine Coast & Brisbane
You can’t scale chaos.
Paper job sheets. Spreadsheets only one person understands. Customers ringing to chase orders. We build the operational backbone that lets an ambitious business grow without the wheels coming off.
Engineers from
Automattic
ThoughtWorks
Block · Cash App
The problem
It works. Right up until you try to grow.
Most growing businesses are running on a process that stopped working about two years ago — and everyone’s too busy to fix it.
✕
Staff make mistakes
The same errors, twice. Because the process lives in people’s heads and on paper.
☎
Customers chase you
Ringing to check where their order is. Every call costs an hour and a bit of reputation.
⚡
The office is chaos
Job sheets lost, statuses unknown, everything urgent, nothing visible.
◎
You’re flying blind
No clear view of which customers make you money — and which quietly cost you.
A business assembled out of parts needs one system to run on.
What we do
We replace the paper with one system.
The operational backbone
Software built around how your business actually works.
Not a product you bend your business around. Not another subscription that does 60% of the job. One system, made to fit.
01
One system, end to end
Orders, jobs, production, status — in one place. Everyone sees the same truth. Nothing gets lost between the desk and the floor.
02
Everything visible
Where every job is, right now, without asking anyone. Customers stop ringing because they already know.
03
Know your numbers
Which jobs made money and which quietly cost you. Real margins per customer, per product, per run — not a guess at the end of the quarter.
AI, done properly
Everyone wants AI. Few get it working.
Most “add AI to your business” projects fail because they bolt a chatbot onto a mess. AI works when it sits on a clean system with good data underneath it — which is exactly what we build first.
◆
AI that knows your business
We connect models to your own documents, policies and data using retrieval (RAG) — so answers are grounded in your reality, not the internet’s guesses.
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Automating the tedious
Data entry, triage, summarising, checking one document against another. The repetitive work that eats your team’s week, handled quietly in the background.
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Built to be trusted
The hard part isn’t the demo — it’s making AI reliable, safe, and auditable enough to run a real business on. That’s the part we’ve actually shipped.
Our team has built AI and data systems where reliability isn’t optional — including fraud and risk ML at Block / Cash App, and a RAG platform analysing risk-governance policies for the mining industry. We know the difference between an AI demo and AI you can depend on.
In build · 4 months
Crownpack: taking a factory off paper.
Crownpack manufactures plastic packaging. Joe, the CEO, brought investors together to acquire the business, then acquired a second manufacturer and merged them. He plans to keep going.
The problem: production ran on paper job sheets. Mistakes, chaos in the office, customers ringing to chase orders — and no view of which customers were actually profitable. You can’t roll up four factories on paper.
Over four months we’ve been replacing the paper with one system. Most orders now run through it. The goal: one operational backbone that works across every factory Joe acquires.
“Why did we build rather than buy? Because nothing off the shelf runs a factory the way we run ours.”
— Joe, CEO, Crownpack · [placeholder — capture on the day]
Full case study coming once the migration completes.
More of our work
Software we’ve shipped.
-
Reporto, the Allied Health Reporting Assistant.
When a child needs to get assistive technology such as a wheelchair on the NDIS, their therapist must complete a…
-
Kebudel, the platform for Early Childhood Educators.
Kebudel provides a simplified approach to planning for learning, communicating with families and team collaboration. Founded by current and former…
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Method Race Wheels Fitment Search
Results: Increased sales. Reduced refunds. Time saved. The brand has now gone international!
Why us
You work directly with the engineers building your software.
Most agencies sell you a star team, then swap in whoever’s free. You pay full price either way and never meet the people building your business.
We’re the opposite. A small, senior team who’ve shipped real systems at Automattic, ThoughtWorks and Block — at a scale most agencies only talk about. The people on the call are the people doing the work.
And we’re fast. Modern AI tooling lets us build in a fraction of the time this used to take — which is what makes proper custom software worth it for a business your size.
- Senior engineers who’ve shipped at real scale.
- Sunshine Coast & Brisbane. We come to you and work alongside your team.
- Real rigour: security, performance, quality — built to last.
- You own everything. No lock-in, no licensing games.
The team
Small team. Serious craft.
The senior engineers who’ll actually build your software — the same people you meet on day one. No account managers, no hand-offs to a junior team.
Eru
Founder · Software Engineer
13 years building software, including at Automattic (WordPress.com) and ThoughtWorks. Leads every build and stays hands-on from first call to launch.
Automattic
ThoughtWorks
13+ yrs
Johan Zietsman
Data & Infrastructure Engineer
20+ years in software. Builds and operates large-scale data pipelines at Block / Cash App — systems processing billions of events a day to power fraud and risk ML. Cares about reliability and systems you can reason about.
Block · Cash App
ThoughtWorks
20+ yrs
Serious engineering, at a scale most agencies only talk about.
Where to start
Two ways in.
Whether you’re running a business that’s outgrown its process, or proving an idea that doesn’t exist yet.
Most clients
Custom business software
For established businesses that have outgrown paper, spreadsheets, and off-the-shelf tools. We build the system your business actually runs on.
from $60k
Typically 3–6 months · scoped and staged
- Built around your real process, not a template
- Staged delivery — value early, not at the end
- Direct access to the engineers building it
- Yours to own, outright
Earlier stage
The Proof of Concept
For founders with an idea that lives or dies on one hard technical question. In six weeks we build working software that proves it — and a costed plan for the rest.
from $12,750
Two 3-week sprints · $25,500 for both
- Working demo of the hardest part
- Costed plan for the full build
- Fixed price, fixed timeline
Questions
What owners ask first.
Why build custom instead of buying off the shelf?
If a product fits your business, buy it — we’ll tell you so. But most growing businesses end up bending their process around software that does 60% of the job, then patching the rest with spreadsheets and phone calls. Custom software fits how you actually work, and it’s yours.
Isn’t custom software slow and expensive?
It used to be. Senior engineers with modern AI tooling build in a fraction of the time this took even two years ago. That’s precisely why custom is now worth it for a $3–20M business, not just an enterprise.
What do I own at the end?
Everything. The code, the system, the data. No lock-in, no per-seat licensing, no hostage situation.
How do you avoid the six-figure disaster I’ve heard about?
Staged delivery and a fixed scope per stage. You see working software early and often, and you decide whether to keep going at each step. You’re never handing over a cheque and waiting nine months.
I’ve already built a prototype with AI — can you take it further?
Often, yes — and it’s a great starting point. Tools like Lovable, v0 and Cursor are brilliant for proving an idea quickly. But they tend to hit a wall: the code gets fragile, security and data handling are an afterthought, and it becomes hard to extend without things breaking. We’ll take an honest look at what you’ve built. Sometimes we can build on it; sometimes the fastest path is to keep the idea and rebuild the foundation properly. Either way, the thinking you’ve already done isn’t wasted.
Can you add AI to my business?
Yes — but we’ll be honest about where it actually helps. AI works best sitting on top of a clean system with good data underneath, so sometimes the right first step is getting that foundation in place. When AI does fit, we’ve shipped the reliable, auditable kind — not just a demo. Bring the problem you’re trying to solve and we’ll tell you straight whether AI is the answer.
Where are you based, and do you travel?
We’re based on the Sunshine Coast and in Brisbane, and we come to you — sitting in your office, walking your factory floor, and working alongside your team. For the right project we’ll fly interstate too. Being there in person, seeing how your business actually runs, matters more than people expect — it’s the opposite of handing your work to a vendor you never meet.
Free · 45 minutes · no obligation
Book a Vision Session.
Bring the chaos, the idea, or the half-built prototype. In 45 minutes we’ll map what your software could actually do, whether AI has a place in it, and roughly what it would take to build. You leave with a clear picture — whether or not you work with us.
eru@identitysoftware.com.au · Sunshine Coast & Brisbane · across Australia