Home › Custom Software Development › Rainham

Custom Software Development · Rainham · ME8 · Medway, Kent

Custom Software Development in Rainham, Kent

Bespoke business software, web applications, system integrations and Shopify stores for Rainham and Medway businesses. A Kent team that has been building properly since 2011, 25 miles down the A2.

Rob Sherwood, co-founder of Dev Partners
Kent developer, not a London agency billing London rates. We are based in Gravesend, DA12. The work we do for Rainham and Medway businesses is the same work we do for clients including the Telegraph and Hearst. The rates reflect where we are, not where we are not.

Trusted by:

Telegraph Media Group
Hearst Communications
Chi Chi London
AX Paris
Motel Rocks
2011
Established in Kent
~25mi
Gravesend to Rainham
100%
UK team, no offshore
15+
Years of bespoke builds

Close enough to matter. Experienced enough to deliver.

Rainham sits in the middle of the Medway urban area, one of the largest commercial clusters in Kent. Businesses here range from long-established trade and manufacturing firms to professional services and retail. The common thread we see across all of them is the same: software that was adequate when the business was smaller and is now holding it back.

Spreadsheets that have become unmanageable. Systems that do not talk to each other. Off-the-shelf tools that cover most of the requirement and then develop an expensive gap exactly where it matters most. These are problems that custom software solves, and solving them is what we have been doing since 2011 from our office in Gravesend.

Medway businesses that come to us usually arrive for one of three reasons: they have outgrown the tools they started with, they have a process nobody has ever built an app for, or they have tried a developer already and need someone to fix the result. All three are conversations we have regularly. All three are problems we can help with.

The signs that off-the-shelf has run out of road

The spreadsheet nobody trusts anymore

Started as a simple tracker. Now it is a business-critical document with thirty tabs, conditional formatting nobody understands, and a high chance of error every time someone touches it.

Systems that do not talk to each other

Orders come in through one system. Stock lives in another. Accounts are somewhere else entirely. Someone re-enters the same data in three places and everyone accepts this as normal.

A process that no tool was built for

You have looked. There is no app that does exactly what your operation needs. You have tried approximating it with the closest available options and lived with the gaps ever since.

Software that works for one person and breaks at ten

Built when the business was smaller. Now it creaks under real usage. Concurrent users, real data volumes, and edge cases that never came up in the original brief are causing problems.

A developer who has gone quiet

You have a website or system that needs work and the person who built it has stopped responding. The code is undocumented. Nobody knows how it works well enough to touch it safely.

Paying for features you will never use

The SaaS pricing tier that covers your requirements also bundles capabilities you do not need. You are essentially funding someone else's product roadmap and getting nothing for it.

Software and systems for Rainham and Medway businesses

Bespoke web applications

Custom-built tools for managing operations, bookings, stock, customers, or whatever your business runs on. Designed around your actual workflow, not a generic model adapted to fit.

Custom CRM systems

A CRM that models how your team actually manages relationships and pipeline. An open-source CRM such as Krayin or EspoCRM as a starting point, or fully bespoke to your specification. Either way, yours to own.

System integrations

Connecting your existing tools so data flows without manual re-entry. Accounting software, stock management, logistics platforms, third-party APIs. If it has an API, we can connect it.

Shopify development

Custom Shopify builds for Medway retailers and brands, Shopify plus ERP integration, platform migrations from Magento or WooCommerce, and bespoke theme development. Shopify Select Partner.

Operational workflow tools

Job management, scheduling, quoting, approval workflows, internal dashboards. The software your team uses every day to get work done, built around the way you actually operate.

Legacy system rescue and modernisation

Taking over a system that has been left without support, is undocumented, or has simply reached the end of what it can do. We assess what exists, tell you what it needs, and get it working again.

Who we have built for

National clients, Kent address, same team throughout.

Our client list includes national publishers, fashion retailers, energy companies and logistics businesses. The same standards we apply to those projects apply to every Medway business we work with. A selection of who we have built for:

  • Telegraph Media Group — publishing and subscription management software
  • Hearst Communications — circulation, subscription and reader services platforms
  • CDS Global — fulfilment and publishing software running for over a decade
  • PSS Project Skills Solutions — CRM, course booking and project management platform
  • BPC Energy — complete bespoke business operations platform
  • Jones Hire — warehouse picking app, customer ordering and driver delivery systems
  • AX Paris — custom Shopify build and ERP integration for a national fashion brand
Start a conversation

What our clients say

19 clients. A few of their words.

Read all 20 quotes →

Want your software, servers and tech plan handled as one monthly arrangement? See Your tech department.

Questions people don't always ask, but should

The questions we think every business should ask a software developer, including us. The honest answers are on our custom software page.

Questions from Rainham and Medway businesses

Yes. We are based in Gravesend, about 25 miles from Rainham via the A2, and we work with businesses across the Medway towns and wider Kent regularly. Most development work runs remotely, but we are close enough to make site visits straightforward when a project benefits from them.

Primarily cost and directness. London agencies carry London overheads and the account management layers that come with larger operations. We are two directors who have been building software from Gravesend since 2011. You deal with Rob or Jason throughout, not a project manager relaying messages to a team you never speak to. The quality of the work is the same. The cost reflects where we actually are.

Bespoke web applications, CRM systems, operational workflow tools, client portals, system integrations, Shopify stores, and internal management platforms. The common thread is a process that off-the-shelf tools cannot handle properly. If there is an app for what you need, we will tell you to use it. If there is not, we build it.

Usually yes. Inheriting systems left without support is a significant part of our work. Undocumented, insecure, or simply not functioning as intended. We assess what exists, give you an honest view of what it needs, and get it stable. We do not assume a rebuild is required unless the assessment genuinely shows one is.

A focused single-system build typically takes eight to fourteen weeks from signed-off specification to live. We scope every project before any work starts and give a fixed price rather than an estimate, so you know what you are committing to before work begins. The scoping conversation is free and without obligation.

Yes. Most of our client relationships extend well beyond the initial build. We offer ongoing development retainers, maintenance agreements, and ad-hoc support. Several clients have been with us for over a decade. When we build something we build it to last, and we stay available to maintain and extend it.

Rob Sherwood, co-founder of Dev Partners
“

Operational software lives or dies on the details — the edge cases, the handovers, the one report nobody ever documented. We build it properly the first time, in-house, so it keeps pace with the business instead of becoming the thing everyone works around.

Rob Sherwood
Co-founder, Dev Partners

Custom software for Rainham and Medway

Talk to Rob and Jason. No account managers, no pitch, no obligation.

Tell us what you are trying to build or fix. We will give you a straight assessment of what is involved and whether we are the right fit. If we are not, we will say so.

We can help with:

  • Bespoke web applications and business software
  • System integrations and API work
  • CRM systems built around your process
  • Shopify stores and ecommerce
  • Taking over from a developer who has gone quiet

Based in Gravesend, DA12. Serving Rainham, Medway and Kent. We reply within one working day. Call 01474 639 089.

Book a Free Consultation

Tell us about your project and we will be in touch within one working day.