When your software landscape no longer fits your business
Over the years, another tool arrives for every task. Each one was the right decision on its own. Together they form a landscape without a shared data store, where staff switch between systems, enter data more than once and nobody knows which version applies any more. Attek Solutions builds the software that brings together what has grown over the years — rented, without upfront investment, from €500 a month.
No single system is to blame
Accounting runs in one system, projects in a second, time tracking in a third. Add a tool for quotes, one for document storage, one for internal coordination — and a spreadsheet for everything that falls between them.
Each of these tools does what it was bought for. The problem does not arise inside the systems, but between them.
What that turns into day to day:
Off-the-shelf software offers too much and too little at once
Off-the-shelf software is built for a broad market and therefore contains everything that some customer somewhere needs. In your business that means too many fields and buttons for the one task — and at the same time the one function that matters to you is missing. As a rule, neither can be configured away.
Too much: what nobody needs cannot be removed
- A form shows forty fields, eight are needed. The rest cannot be hidden, because the standard provides for it.
- Buttons such as Cancel, Recalculate or Approve sit in the interface even though they have no place in this role.
- Permissions can usually only be granted per module, not per field and per button. Somebody who is not meant to see something sees it anyway.
Too little: what you need is not provided for
- The step that sets your business apart from others does not appear in the standard.
- It gets done alongside: in a spreadsheet, by email or verbally — and so falls out of the software.
- Retrofitting only goes as far as the vendor provided for. Everything else stays manual work.
Both hit the same people. Somebody who sees forty fields will eventually fill in the wrong one; somebody who sees a button will eventually press it. Onboarding therefore covers not the task but the exceptions — which field may stay empty, which button you do not press, which step happens outside the software.
Configuration moves that boundary, it does not remove it.
Staff work against the software instead of with it
The effort created by a landscape that has grown over time is rarely measured. It becomes visible elsewhere.
New staff need months instead of weeks
Not because the work is difficult, but because the tools are. Onboarding covers not the profession, but eight programs and their unwritten rules.
The right way is written down nowhere
Which system comes first, which field has to be filled in so that it is not missing later, what happens when an exception occurs — all of that sits in people's heads. Anyone who is new gets it wrong until somebody notices.
Mistakes surface late
A forgotten field, a wrongly set status, a change that was not passed on only shows up when the invoice is wrong or the customer calls.
Experienced staff become irreplaceable
Not because of their professional knowledge, but because they know where to look and what to do when something jams. When somebody like that is away, you notice how much process knowledge was documented nowhere.
This is not a staffing problem. When people regularly click the wrong thing, the user flow is usually the problem, and it sits in the software itself.
What happens as you grow
A landscape that has grown over time often works for years. It rarely tips slowly, but at a threshold.
What worked by word of mouth with five people no longer works with fifteen. Arrangements that were self-evident in the same room get lost.
The same application suddenly exists twice, with separate sets of data. There is no combined report.
What was possible by hand at twenty orders a month becomes impossible at two hundred. The limit is not a technical one — it is one person's working time.
A customer demands a portal, an authority a certificate, a marketplace an interface. The existing systems do not provide for that, and nobody can extend them.
The point at which businesses get in touch is usually not the worst state, but the moment when it becomes clear that the next stage of growth will not work this way.
What we build instead
Not everything gets replaced. That is expensive, risky and usually unnecessary.
We build the layer that is missing today — the system in which the process comes together, while the specialist systems stay where they are. Accounting stays in the accounting software. Inventory management stays inventory management.
What is newly created:
How it works
- 01Intro call, 30 minutes. You describe your problem. We tell you honestly whether custom software pays off for you or whether off-the-shelf software is the better choice.
- 02Personal demo. Instead of slides you get software: we take a problem you described in the intro call and show it to you as a working application. That way you judge from your own case whether the effort is worth it, before you sign anything.
- 03Requirements workshop. We go through your workflows until we have understood them completely. Free of charge.
- 04Signing the contract. After the requirements workshop you receive a fixed monthly price for your requirements, and we sign the contracts.
- 05First productive version after one to two months. This is when you start paying — not before.
- 06Operations and continued development. Your workflows now run automatically and your team gains time for the business. We take care of operations, maintenance and support.
The process in detail — including what you contribute yourself →
We expressly recommend starting with the process that creates the most manual work. It pays for the next ones.
The alternatives compared
| Option | Add more tools | Replace everything with a suite | Automation services Zapier, Make | Attek CSaaS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Effort | low | very high | medium | medium |
| Time to productive use | immediate | 6–18 months | weeks | 1–2 months |
| Shared data store | no | yes | no | yes |
| Processes across system boundaries | no | yes | limited | yes |
| Exceptions can be modelled | no | limited | limited | yes |
| Guidance through the process | no | partly | no | yes |
| Who maintains it | each vendor for itself | vendor | your staff | Attek |
| Risk | data chaos and tool sprawl | High time investment, feature set does not fit | Chains break unnoticed | limited, one process first |
| Upfront investment | licences | often four figures | low | €0 |
Zapier and Make solve individual connections well. Their limit shows when something goes wrong — if a chain breaks, often nobody notices, and there is no place where the case is visible as a whole. For simple handovers they are cheaper; for processes your business depends on, they are too fragile.
When not to change anything
If your systems cover the essentials, manual work is the exception and nobody regularly mediates between programs, leave it as it is. With a small budget and processes that follow the standard, a landscape that has grown over time is not a mistake as long as it holds.
Talk to us as soon as one of three points applies: you want to scale and the landscape foreseeably will not keep up with the next stage of growth. You want to cut costs — working time spent mediating between programs, or per-user subscriptions that get more expensive with every new hire. Or you want to reach the next level of automation and turn it into business that nobody serves today. A system of your own costs from €500 a month, and its price does not grow with the number of users.
Frequently asked questions
Our software does not match our processes. What are my options?
You have four options: add another tool, which usually makes the situation worse; replace everything with a suite, which is expensive and risky; connect systems via automation services, which works for simple handovers and is fragile when errors occur; or have the missing layer developed that brings the process together while the specialist systems stay in place. The last route is usually the fastest and, when something goes wrong, the most manageable.
We work with many tools in parallel. When is software of our own worth it?
When people regularly mediate between systems, when the same data is entered more than once, when onboarding new staff consists mostly of tool training — or when it is foreseeable that the landscape will not keep up with the next stage of growth. Economically there are three triggers: scaling, cutting costs on staff and per-user licences, and new sources of revenue. With a small budget and processes without exceptions, the off-the-shelf software you already have remains the cheaper choice.
Do we have to replace all our existing systems?
No, and that is rarely sensible. Accounting, inventory management and other specialist systems stay in use as a rule and get connected. What is new is the layer above them, in which the process comes together.
Can this not simply be configured in our off-the-shelf software?
In part. Views and mandatory fields can be adjusted in many systems; individual buttons and permissions per work step rarely can. And what the vendor did not provide for can neither be added nor removed. Custom software does not know that limit: every screen shows exactly the fields and actions that this step and this role need.
How much effort is it for us?
The workshop costs you time — depending on scope one to two days, spread out. After that come queries and approvals. The development itself runs without your involvement; you only pay once the first version is productive.
What about our staff, who are used to the old way?
In our experience the resistance is lower than expected when the new system needs fewer clicks than the old one. What matters is how exceptions are handled: when experienced staff see that their exceptions are provided for rather than rationalised away, they support the change. That is why those cases belong in the workshop.
Can software really shorten onboarding?
In part. When a case runs in one interface, mandatory details are asked for where they are needed and exceptions are provided for, a large part of what is passed on verbally today falls away. It does not replace professional onboarding.
What does it cost?
Between €1,000 and €1,500 a month, lower limit €500. No setup fee, no upfront investment, no hourly rates. First productive version after one to two months.
Why not simply Zapier or Make?
For individual handovers between two systems these services are cheaper and quicker to set up. Their limit lies with errors and exceptions: if a chain breaks, often nobody notices, and there is no place where the case is visible as a whole. For processes your business depends on, that is not enough.
Tell us the process that costs the most manual work.
In the intro call we follow it through your systems and estimate how much of it can be replaced. 30 minutes, free of charge.
GDPR-compliant · Hosting in Germany · Personal support