Build Custom Software
We design and build custom software around your business processes, with engineering in Manila. Discovery, management and the handover plan are agreed before work starts.
Who It's For
Build Custom Software is for a business whose workaround has become a process, and for one with a product to build and no team to build it.
- A workaround has become a process.
- The durable fix is software shaped to the flow you actually run, rather than another off-the-shelf tool.
- There is a product to build and no team to build it.
- Discovery, design and engineering are delivered together, with scope and design decisions agreed with your team.
In both cases we design the system with you and build it with our own engineers, a team of over 150 across Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland and Manila that Adaca has run since 2015.
How It Works
- 1 Run discovery. We sit with your team and map what the software actually needs to do, including the exceptions.
- 2 Design beside you. For an Australia-led engagement, architecture and design decisions are made in your meetings and your context.
- 3 Build the system. Senior engineers in our Manila delivery centre build under the agreed delivery leadership, and you see progress continuously.
- 4 Hand over or run it. Your team takes it over with our documentation, or we keep running and extending it. Decided before we start.
You own the scope, the priorities and the definition of done. We own the architecture, the build and the delivery flow. What you commit to is the engagement and the way we work; the team follows from that.
Team Structure
The build is managed for you. In an Australia-led engagement, an Australian delivery lead is your point of contact, and everyone else reports through them.
Your team
You set the scope and sign off the design. Everything below this line is run on our side.
Delivery lead
Your point of contact, and accountable to you for the build from discovery through to handover.
Project manager
Runs the build day to day inside our Manila delivery centre, and reports to the delivery lead rather than to you.
Engineers
Build the system under the same local leadership, and ship with Claude Code in the delivery flow.
A larger build adds engineers, QA and designers under the same lead. Your point of contact does not change.
How It Compares
An Adaca build runs with engineering in Manila and Australia-led delivery available, so team size and scope are set by the programme rather than by who can be hired locally. Every alternative below is a reasonable choice for some programmes. Read across a row to see where the two models actually differ.
| A local-only agency | An Adaca build |
|---|---|
| Everyone sits in one city. | Australia-led delivery is available, with engineering in Manila. |
| Team size is capped by who can be hired locally. | Engineering scale is not the constraint on the plan. |
| Scope shrinks to fit the team available. | Scope is set by the programme. |
| An offshore-only provider | An Adaca build |
|---|---|
| Discovery and design happen away from you. | Discovery and design happen in your meetings. |
| Nobody local owns the outcome. | A delivery lead is accountable to you. |
| You end up managing the offshore team. | We manage it. You set scope and sign off design. |
| Building an in-house team first | An Adaca build |
|---|---|
| Hire the team, then start the build. | The build starts in weeks. |
| Hiring risk sits with you before a line is written. | Staffing and replacement sit with us. |
| The knowledge stays only while the team does. | Handover with documentation is agreed before we start. |
How We Charge sets out every model. If you are looking to put AI to work across your business rather than build a system, explore Develop AI Solutions.
For Cora Group, Adaca built a custom logistics dashboard bringing customer, consignment and delivery performance data into one view. For ClearView, we built a portal where financial advisors and brokers quote and purchase life insurance for their customers.
Common Questions
What should we bring to the first conversation?
Bring the process you want to improve, the systems it relies on, who will use the software and any constraints the work needs to respect. An existing brief is useful if you have one.
Where is the delivery lead based?
Management can be based locally in Australia or offshore. The location is agreed for the engagement. The team structure shown here illustrates an Australia-led engagement.
How is a build priced?
Either a monthly rate for the team, or a fixed cost for an initial outcome with later phases moving to a monthly model once milestones are met. Which of the two applies is agreed before the work starts.
An estimate is built from the team the work needs, at the same engineer rates that apply to any Adaca engagement. There is no minimum project size.
Who owns the code when the build is finished?
You do. Intellectual property is assigned to you on payment, and that assignment is written into the contract rather than left to custom.
Your code stays in your repositories, under your access controls, unless we agree otherwise.
What happens at the end of the build?
Whichever of the two was chosen at the start. Your team takes the system over with our documentation, or we keep running and extending it. The decision is made before we start rather than negotiated at handover.
Where does the work happen?
Discovery and design are agreed with your team. Engineering runs in our Manila delivery centre, with local or offshore management agreed for the engagement.
Can we change scope once the build has started?
Yes. The scope, the priorities and the definition of done stay with you, and design decisions are signed off by you before they are built.
How do we see progress?
Continuously. The delivery lead sits in your cadence, and the project manager runs the build day to day inside our Manila delivery centre.
How quickly can a build start?
Weeks rather than months. Staffing the build team is ours to do, so the start is not gated on you hiring anyone.
Who is accountable if the build goes wrong?
The delivery lead, by name, from discovery through to handover. Escalation does not run through an account manager.
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