Know exactly what to build, before you pay to build it.
Helmsman software consulting is a paid study of how your business runs, ending in a written plan: what to build, in what order, how it should be structured, and roughly what it will cost and take. The plan is yours. Build it with us, or give it to your own team or another company.
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Who needs software consulting?
You probably need it if…
- You know something has to change, but not exactly what to build.
- You have quotes from three companies, and they are not quoting for the same thing.
- Your team wants to build it in-house or with AI tools, and has not built a system like this before.
- A past project ran over budget on change requests, and you do not want that again.
- You need a complete scope before you sign a fixed-price contract.
What does software consulting include?
- 01
Process map
How work really flows today
Every department, every hand-off and every spreadsheet, drawn from your own people and your real documents.
- 02
Requirement document
Every rule written down
Approvals, discounts, calculations, exceptions and reports, written plainly enough that any builder can work from them.
- 03
Solution structure
Modules, data and connections
Which modules you need, how the data fits together, what connects to what, and who sees what.
- 04
Build order
What goes first, what can wait
The work split into parts that can each go live on their own, with the part that saves most at the front.
- 05
Cost and time
A yardstick for every quote
A rough cost and time for each part, so you know whether a quote is fair before you sign it.
- 06
Build or buy advice
An honest answer
If ready-made software fits your business better than a custom build, the plan says so.
Build with us, or build on your own.
You pay for the plan. What you do with it is your choice.
The plan turns straight into the first stages of the build
Build it with Helmsman
- Nothing is studied twice: the build starts from the plan.
- The price for each part is fixed against a scope you have already agreed.
- The people who wrote the plan are the people who build it.
The plan is yours to take anywhere
Build it on your own
- Give it to your own developers, a freelancer or another company.
- Every quote you collect is now for the same thing, so you can compare them.
- The scope is written down, so you can hold whoever builds it to it.
What goes wrong without a plan.
Three ways businesses usually start, and what we see happen next.
Your own team, or a first-time builder
Building without the knowledge
- The new system copies today's spreadsheets, mistakes included.
- Sales, stock and accounts are built one at a time and never agree on a number.
- Rules nobody wrote down, such as approvals, discounts and exceptions, surface after go-live.
- The database fits today. A second branch, company or currency means a rebuild.
- The one person who understood it leaves, and nobody can change it.
Fast screens, missing rules
Building with AI tools alone
- AI writes what you ask for. It cannot know what you forgot to ask.
- Screens appear in days. Stock valuation, tax, permissions and month-end close come out wrong, and it shows only with real data.
- Access and security rules are left out unless someone knows to ask for them.
- Each new prompt can quietly break something that worked last week.
- When it fails, nobody on the team understands the code well enough to fix it.
Scope missed, then change requests
Handing it straight to an agency
- The quote covers what was said in two meetings, not how your business runs.
- The scope is written by the seller, in its words. Gaps are found later, as extras.
- Every missing rule becomes a change request (CR), with its own price and date.
- CRs pile up: the project costs more than the quote and finishes late.
- Meetings turn into arguments about what was in scope, instead of progress.
How scope gets missed, and change requests start.
- 01A two-hour meeting becomes the scope.
- 02The quote is priced on that scope.
- 03Building starts. Users see the first screens and spot what is missing.
- 04Each gap becomes a change request, priced and dated on its own.
- 05The real cost is the quote plus every change request.
A typical example
The scope says "sales order with discount". Nobody wrote down that the discount depends on the customer's group, the quantity slab and this month's scheme, or that a manager must approve anything above 10%. That is four change requests before the first invoice is printed.
A plan finds these gaps on paper, from your own people and your real documents. Fixing a gap on paper costs a conversation. Fixing it in built software costs a change request.
What a plan saves you.
- Quotes you can compare
- Every builder prices the same written scope.
- A fixed price you can trust
- When the scope is complete, the quote holds.
- Far fewer change requests
- The gaps are closed before anyone writes code.
- The right thing, built first
- The plan puts the part that saves most at the front.
- Build or buy, decided early
- If ready-made software fits, the plan says so.
- A plan you own
- It stays yours, whoever builds it.
How does Helmsman deliver software consulting?
The full approachConsulting covers the first three stages of the Helmsman approach: Understand, Analyse and Architect. We sit with the people who do the work, read your real documents and reports, and write down how the business runs, including the rules nobody has written before.
You receive the plan as documents you keep. The fee is fixed and agreed in writing before we start. From there you decide: build it with Helmsman, or take the plan to whoever you choose.
- 01UnderstandProcess map
- 02AnalyseRequirement document
- 03ArchitectSolution structure
- 04DesignScreens and flows
- 05DevelopWorking software
- 06ImplementLive system
- 07EvolveOngoing support
From quotation to dispatch, on one record
An industrial filter manufacturer in India: sales, production routes, stores, dispatch and accounts in one ERP, replacing an older system.
Every repair, from counter to collection
A mobile-repair chain in Southern Africa: job cards, technicians, parts, branches and accounts in one ERP.
One ERP, from the greenhouse to the ledger
A flower farm in East Africa: production, grading, inventory, sales, accounts and HRMS in a single system.
Industries we build this for
Consulting questions, answered.
What is software consulting?
It is the work done before any software is built: we study how your business runs and write it up as a plan you keep, covering what to build, the order to build it in, how the parts fit together, and a rough cost and timeline.
Do we have to build with Helmsman after the consulting?
No. The plan is yours. You can build it with Helmsman, with your own developers, or with another company.
What do we get at the end?
A process map, a requirement document, a solution structure, a build order, and a rough cost and time for each part, as documents you keep.
What is a change request (CR)?
A change request is work that was not in the agreed scope, added after the project has started. It usually comes with its own price and pushes the finish date back.
Why do software projects go over budget?
Most often because the scope missed how the business really works. Each missing rule is found after building starts and becomes a change request, so the final cost is the quote plus every change request.
How does a plan reduce change requests?
It finds the gaps on paper, from your own people and your real documents, before anyone writes code. A gap fixed on paper costs a conversation; a gap fixed in built software costs a change request.
Can our own team, or AI tools, build from the plan?
Yes. The plan is written so any competent team can build from it. For AI tools, it supplies the business rules they would otherwise guess.
How much does software consulting cost?
It is a fixed fee, agreed in writing before we start. It depends on the size of the business and how many departments the plan covers.
Who owns the plan?
You do. Every engagement is covered by an NDA.