Pretoria · Gauteng
Custom business systems, built in Pretoria
I build the software a business runs on when a spreadsheet or an off-the-shelf package has stopped fitting: quoting, bookings, stock, client records, compliance. I am John Montgomery, a developer of twenty years, working from Willow Park Manor in Pretoria and with clients across South Africa.
What counts as a custom business system?
A custom business system is software written for one company’s actual process, rather than a product you bend your process around. In practice it is usually one of four things: an internal tool that replaces a spreadsheet several people are editing at once, a quoting or booking flow that customers use themselves, an integration layer that makes systems you already pay for talk to each other, or a compliance workflow that has to be auditable.
The tell is almost always the same. Someone is retyping data from one screen into another, and everybody has stopped noticing.
When a spreadsheet has stopped being enough
Custom is not automatically the right answer. It is the right answer when the cost of the workaround has quietly passed the cost of the build, and that is worth being honest about before anyone quotes you.
| The spreadsheet | Off-the-shelf | Built for you | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Costs you | Nothing up front, then hours a week and the errors nobody catches | A monthly fee per seat, forever | A one-off build, then hosting |
| Breaks when | Two people edit at once, or the person who built it leaves | Your process does not match the product’s assumptions | Nobody maintains it and the documentation was never written |
| Right answer when | The process is genuinely simple and one person owns it | Your process is standard and you are happy to adopt theirs | The process is the business, and the workaround has a real cost |
What that has looked like
These are systems, not websites. Each one is written up in full, including what went wrong.
- WECOZA, adult education and training
An operations platform for a training provider. WordPress runs the admin screens and a 43-table Postgres schema holds everything that has to still be true if WordPress goes away. Four years in, still being extended.
- OPL, digital lending infrastructure
One loan application, fanned out to seven lender APIs that disagree about almost everything, normalised and returned as a ranked list of real offers in about four seconds.
- SA Wills Database, estate-readiness platform
A POPIA-resident platform for drafting and registering wills, where the legally binding text comes from deterministic rules and an approved clause library rather than from a language model.
- Woolworths
A gift-card system for a campaign with a date that could not move. Every issuance request carries a key, so a retried or duplicated request returns the original card instead of minting a second one.
How the work actually runs
You send a few lines about what you are trying to build or fix. I reply within the business hour, honestly, including whether I am the right person for it. Then twenty minutes on a call to make sure I have understood the problem, and scope, price and a delivery date in writing within 48 hours.
The price is fixed. Fixed means fixed: if I have estimated badly that is my problem, not a variation order. There is no account manager, no weekly status meeting billed to you, and no internal handoff between the person who understood the brief and the person writing the code. You deal with the developer throughout, because there is only one.
When I am not the right call
I am a developer. I do not do branding, logo design or copywriting, and I will say so rather than subcontract it quietly. I work extremely well from a designer’s files, which is most of what agencies bring me in for, and I can recommend people for the rest.
I am also not the cheapest option, and if price is the deciding factor you will find someone cheaper within an afternoon. What a fixed price buys you is that the number does not move, which is a different thing from the number being low.
POPIA is a build decision, not a policy page
Most POPIA conversations end at a privacy policy and a cookie banner. The parts that actually matter are decided while the system is being built: where personal information is stored, who can reach it, what is logged, how long it is kept, and whether you can answer a subject access request without a developer writing a query.
The SA Wills Database is the clearest example. It is a platform for drafting and registering South African wills, so the data is about as sensitive as it gets. It is POPIA-resident in AWS af-south-1, the binding text comes from deterministic rules and an approved clause library rather than a language model, and the privacy boundary was designed before the features were.
If your system will hold customer records, that thinking belongs in the build. It is considerably cheaper than retrofitting it.
Working with someone who is actually here
I work from Co.Space Entrepreneur Village on Havelock Road, in Willow Park Manor. That matters less than it used to, and I would rather be straight about it: most of this work happens over a call and a shared screen, and I have clients in Johannesburg, Cape Town and the Garden Route who I see rarely.
What it does mean is that a meeting is possible when one is genuinely useful, usually at the start of something complicated, and that I am in your time zone and your working week. If you would rather begin with coffee than a video call, that is easy to arrange.
Pretoria, Gauteng 0184
Questions worth asking first
Do you only work with Pretoria businesses?
No. I am based in Pretoria and I work with clients across South Africa, the UK and Europe. Being in Gauteng makes an in-person meeting straightforward when one is useful, which is usually at the start of something complicated rather than throughout.
How long does a custom business system take?
Integration work is typically two to five weeks. Custom applications are four to ten. That is real elapsed time on a scoped build, not a best case. Anything quoted at twelve weeks in that range is usually carrying an account layer you do not need.
What happens to the system we already have?
It keeps running. I build on staging, you approve on staging, and we cut over when it is genuinely ready. I have never taken a client offline to build a replacement and I would not start now.
Who owns the code?
You do, completely, from the first commit. That includes the repository, the documentation and every credential. I do not hold hosting, domains or source code as leverage, and if you move to another developer afterwards I will help with the handover.
What if you are unavailable, or get hit by a bus?
A fair question to ask any one-person supplier. The code is in your repository, the documentation is written for a developer who has never met me, and I do not use proprietary tooling only I can operate. The Will Management System I built ran for four years and was then sold to another company, which is the only real test of this.
Tell me what’s broken.
A few lines about what you’re trying to build or fix is enough. It lands in my inbox and I reply within the business hour, honestly, including whether I’m the right person. If I’m not, I’ll say so and point you at someone who is.
I reply to every enquiry within one business hour.
Prefer email? support@yourdesign.co.za· (+27) 079 177 1970