Custom manufacturing web apps that do what your ERP cannot
Internal ops, customer portals, quote generators, shop-floor dashboards. Senior engineer on subscription, $3,499/mo. 2 to 4-day delivery cycles.
Who this is for
Ops director or owner at a $10M to $100M manufacturer running on an aging ERP plus spreadsheets for everything the ERP does not cover.
The pain today
- ERP does not cover actual shop-floor workflow
- Key processes live in Excel with no audit trail
- Sales team wants a customer portal for quotes and orders
- Production dashboards are manually updated end-of-day
- IT department is thin and cannot build custom
The outcome you get
- Custom manufacturing app on subscription at $3,499/mo
- Customer portal, quote generator, or production dashboard shipped in 8 to 14 weeks
- ERP and accounting integration (NetSuite, SAP, Infor, Epicor)
- Shop-floor-friendly interfaces tested on factory devices
- Clean handoff to internal IT when ready
Where manufacturing teams lose time
Three places repeat across mid-market manufacturers. Quote generation — every RFQ takes days because pricing logic lives in a senior estimator's head. Order status — customers call because the ERP has no customer-facing view. Shop-floor reporting — supervisors compile production data manually at end-of-day. Each of these is custom-app territory. An ERP module might exist but is usually too expensive or too rigid to fit the actual workflow. A focused custom app shipped in 8 to 12 weeks recovers dozens of hours per week across the operation.
Common apps I build
Customer portals (order status, quote visibility, document access, reorder). Quote generators (pricing logic as code, spec-sheet upload, PDF generation, approval workflow). Production dashboards (real-time or near-real-time data from ERP/MES, shop-floor KPIs, alerts). RFQ intake and triage (structured forms routed to estimators with SLA tracking). Internal tools (inventory adjustments, maintenance tickets, quality log). Distributor portals (pricing, availability, branded order placement). Each maps to a specific ops bottleneck.
ERP and accounting integrations
NetSuite, SAP, Infor, Epicor, Sage — each has an API or an official middleware (Celigo, Boomi, Jitterbit). For smaller manufacturers on QuickBooks Enterprise or Xero, direct API integration is straightforward. The pattern: custom app reads from and writes to ERP via integration layer. Sync patterns (real-time push, batch pull, event-driven) chosen based on data freshness needs. Testing runs against ERP sandbox where available. Budget 4 to 8 weeks for initial ERP integration; longer for legacy ERPs without modern APIs.
Pricing and engagement model
Standard $3,499/mo. Pro $4,500/mo. Both include 2 to 4-day delivery cycles, senior engineering, and direct communication. 14-day money-back guarantee. Cancel anytime. 100 percent code ownership under Work Made for Hire. For large ERP integration projects, Pro tier usually the right fit during the integration phase. For steady-state feature work, Standard is enough. Hosting on AWS or Azure, separate cost — typically $100 to $1,000/month depending on scale. You own the hosting account.
Case: LAK Embalagens — B2B digital showroom with manufacturing context
LAK Embalagens is a Brazilian B2B packaging manufacturer. I rebuilt their corporate site with a digital-showroom layout: clear product taxonomy, fast-loading catalog, spec-sheet templates, and a quote funnel wired to their sales team. Bounce dropped 45 percent, impressions 3x'd, rankings landed top three. Stack: React, Next.js, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS. The same structural discipline applies to deeper app work — a customer portal for LAK would extend the showroom pattern into transaction-level workflows with the same focus on clarity and speed.
When an ERP module is enough
Every major ERP has modules for customer portals, e-commerce, and dashboards. If the module does 80 percent of what you need and your IT team can configure it, that beats custom. Custom work pays back when the workflow is too specific for an off-the-shelf module — unique pricing logic, multi-facility coordination, specialty product configuration, non-standard quote approval chains. I help you evaluate in week one. Sometimes the honest answer is 'your ERP already does this, turn it on.' I tell you that up front.
Recent proof
A comparable engagement, delivered and documented.
Turned a B2B manufacturer into a digital showroom
Designed and developed a high-performance institutional website to showcase packaging solutions and generate qualified leads.
Frequently asked questions
The questions prospects ask before they book.
- Can you integrate with SAP or NetSuite?
- Yes. NetSuite through Celigo, SuiteTalk REST/SOAP, or direct OAuth. SAP through RFC, OData, or middleware (Boomi, MuleSoft). Epicor, Infor, Sage — each has an integration path. I have shipped integration work at bolttech against 40+ payment providers, so enterprise API work is familiar territory. Initial ERP integration typically 4 to 8 weeks. Ongoing sync extensions are smaller, a few days each.
- What about shop-floor device support?
- Shop-floor apps need to work on rugged tablets (Zebra, Panasonic Toughpad) and shared kiosk PCs. I build responsive web apps that work on those devices — no native app needed. Barcode scanning integrates through device cameras or USB scanners. Offline tolerance for brief network dropouts. For deeper IoT integration (machine telemetry, PLC data), usually a specialist OT/IT partner handles the device side; I integrate with their data stream.
- How do you handle SSO for staff?
- SSO through Azure AD, Google Workspace, Okta, or your existing identity provider. Most mid-market manufacturers run Microsoft 365 — Azure AD SSO is usually the right default. Role-based access matches your org structure (sales sees sales data, production sees production, finance sees all). Multi-factor authentication enforced for sensitive roles. Integration typically a week of work at the start of the engagement.
- Can the customer portal be multi-language?
- Yes. For manufacturers exporting to multiple regions (Latin America, Europe, Asia), multi-language is essential. Proper i18n with locale prefix in URL and per-language content. Translation is your team's responsibility or a translation service; I build the infrastructure so adding a language later is days, not a rebuild. Currency and number-format localisation handled alongside language.
- What about hosting for industrial clients?
- AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud — all offer robust infrastructure for industrial workloads. For manufacturers with on-premise requirements (air-gapped systems for defence or specific IT policies), Azure Stack or a Docker-on-premise deployment is possible but usually not necessary. Cloud hosting is the cheaper and more resilient default. You own the hosting account. Typical cost: $200 to $2,000/month depending on scale.
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