At nuclai, a bespoke application is an internal application built around the way a team actually uses a licensed software product. It replaces that software when the licence is expensive and the team uses only a small part of it. A diagnostic first checks that the replacement pays off over three years.
Paying for software you barely use
Many companies pay for a full software licence and use a single feature. The product can do everything, the team uses it for one specific task, and the rest sits idle. Often a spreadsheet kept on the side covers what the tool doesn’t do the way the team works. The annual invoice still covers the whole product.
An application scoped to what your team uses
nuclai builds an internal application that covers only the real use of the under-used software, then puts it into service in its place. The application follows your team’s process rather than forcing a new one, and it absorbs the side spreadsheet. It costs less to run than the licence it replaces, and your company owns it.
What you own at the end
At the end of a bespoke application project, your company owns four things.
- A costed diagnostic: how the software is really used, the three-year total cost of both options and the break-even point.
- A specification: the application’s scope, agreed with your team before any development starts.
- The internal application, in service and owned by your company.
- Training for the people who use it every day.
How a project runs
A bespoke application project has five stages, and the diagnostic decides whether the other four happen.
- Diagnostic: we measure what the team really uses and calculate the three-year total cost.
- Specification: we define the application with the people who will use it.
- Development: we build to the agreed scope and nothing more.
- Handover and training: the team takes over the tool and the old licence can be cancelled.
- Operation and maintenance: the application is looked after and adjusted as the process changes.
When it’s worth doing
A bespoke application makes sense when a software licence costs more than it delivers.
- The team uses only a small part of it, and always the same part.
- A spreadsheet on the side makes up for what the software does badly.
- The licence is above the break-even point. In nuclai’s two business cases, that point sits between CHF 6,780 and CHF 7,860 a year.
Below that point, nuclai recommends keeping the software. That recommendation is a diagnostic outcome in its own right.
What changes
Replacing an under-used licence with an internal application cuts the three-year total cost and fits the tool to the process. In the BlackLine case, the three-year total cost drops by 89%. In the press monitoring case, the projection shows a 63% drop. One case is in finance, the other in communications, so the mechanism does not depend on the field.
Two business cases
Two costed business cases, one in finance and one in communications:
Case: replacing an under-used BlackLine licence with a close tracker built for the finance team
An accounting department was paying around USD 78,000 a year for BlackLine and using less than 10% of it, to track balance sheet reconciliations. The Month-End Closing Tracker replaced it and the BlackLine licence was cancelled. In this case, savings reach CHF 172,524 over three years, with payback in about two months.
Case: replacing a media monitoring platform with a press monitoring tool built for the client
A Swiss watch brand pays for a media monitoring platform to produce a weekly press review and follow a few target journalists. nuclai proposes replacing that subscription. In this case, projected savings reach CHF 40,212 over three years, with payback in about four months.
Frequently asked questions
A bespoke application built by nuclai belongs to the client company. Instead of renting a software licence every year, the company owns a tool built around its process.
The internal application belongs to the client company, so it is not tied to a nuclai subscription. Handover and training are part of every project, so the team can use the tool on its own.
Hosting for a nuclai bespoke application is decided during the specification stage, together with the client’s team. In the BlackLine case, the application uses the Google Workspace infrastructure the client was already paying for.
In the two business cases published by nuclai, the application stops paying off over three years when the licence it replaces costs less than CHF 6,780 to 7,860 a year. Below that, nuclai recommends keeping the software. The diagnostic recalculates that threshold for your situation, before any development.
Yes. Every nuclai engagement starts with a paid diagnostic. The diagnostic measures how the software is really used, compares the three-year total cost of both options and sets the break-even point. If it concludes that keeping the software is the better choice, nuclai says so.
Yes. The first conversation with nuclai takes place remotely and costs nothing. It defines the scope (which software, which use, which team) and leads to a fixed-price proposal for the diagnostic. The diagnostic is billed and starts when that proposal is signed, not before.
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