Custom management software

When files run the business

Orders arrive in one Excel file, stock lives in another, quotes go out from a word processor and approvals go through WhatsApp. As long as the business stays small, it holds together.

Then a quote goes missing, a follow-up is forgotten, the stock count is wrong at delivery time, and every month-end turns into reconciling figures that do not match. This is often when management starts considering custom management software.

SADIS is a Moroccan software development and integration company, with its registered office in Laâyoune and an operational office in Casablanca. We develop business applications and platforms, like the B2B ordering platform for Konipa, an automotive parts distributor, and we deploy, configure and integrate ERPs such as Sage and Odoo. Doing both allows us to tell you frankly when to develop, and when not to.

What custom software is

It is a tool built from your own operating rules (your approval steps, sales units, prices per customer and documents) rather than a standard product your team has to adapt to. It usually takes one of these forms.

• Complete management of the sales cycle: quotes, orders, delivery notes, invoices, credit notes and customer payments.
• A targeted business tool for what your software package cannot do: workshop scheduling, construction site tracking, delivery rounds, quality control, rental contracts.
• Stock management built around your organisation: multiple warehouses, alert thresholds, batches, locations, barcodes.
• A portal open to your customers, your resellers or your field teams, linked to your internal management system, in the form of a web application or a mobile app.
• A connector between two applications that do not talk to each other, to stop double entry without replacing anything.

Custom or off-the-shelf

Development is justified when part of your business falls outside standard products, and that part matters. Your way of working may be what sets you apart, and bending it to a software package would mean giving that up. Or your software may cover the essentials while the rest is done in Excel, in which case an application fills the gap, connected to the existing system. The need also arises when several tools share the same data, or when your system has to open up to customers, field sales reps or subcontractors.

Conversely, accounting, payroll and standard sales management (FR) are well served by the software packages on the market. They keep up with regulations and accountants know them. In that case, we will advise you to deploy the ERP and develop only the add-ons you actually need.

SADIS deploys, configures and integrates Sage, Odoo and other ERPs, without being an official partner or reseller of Sage or Odoo: we have no licences to push.

Moving away from Excel and double entry

Excel is an excellent calculation tool and a poor information system. The moment it stops being enough is easy to recognise: several versions of the same file are circulating, only one person understands the spreadsheet, and nobody knows who changed what.

Moving away from it does not mean throwing everything out. These files often contain business rules built up over the years. We identify the files that are actually used, work out what they calculate, then build those rules into the application. Customers, items, prices and history are cleaned and imported: from day one, the team finds its data already in place.

The same logic applies to double entry. An order noted in a file, keyed in again in the sales management software and then copied onto a delivery note means three chances to make a mistake. Information should be entered once and flow from quote to invoice.

Connected to Sage, Odoo or your existing software

An isolated application recreates the problem it was meant to solve. It almost always exchanges data with software that is already installed: items, prices, stock, customers, orders, invoices.

You then have to decide, for each piece of data, which software is authoritative. Who creates a new customer? At what point does an order become an invoice? These choices look technical, but they are organisational, and they are made with the teams.

Ready for e-invoicing

The DGI is gradually rolling out e-invoicing in Morocco (FR): invoices issued in a structured format and transmitted to a platform run by the tax administration. On the timetable, only the official texts published by the DGI are authoritative. Software designed today without taking this into account will have to be reworked later.

From the start, it must therefore provide for:

• structured invoice data: the ICE of the company and of the customer, quantities, VAT rates and amounts, rather than free text;
• a controlled workflow, from quote to credit note, with document numbering and a record of each step;
• the ability to exchange data with an external platform, beyond a simple PDF;
• invoicing kept separate from the rest of the application, so that it can keep up with the regulations without touching the core of the software.

If you already use an ERP or an in-house tool, the question is the same: how to connect it to e-invoicing when the time comes. Depending on the case, the answer lies in configuring the software package or in building a connector.

Code ownership and reversibility

Entrusting your management software to a provider means entrusting them with part of how the company runs. Many companies have learned this the hard way: the provider stops responding, and they are left with neither the code nor the access. That is why we write it into the contract.

• The source code and documentation belong to you, with an assignment of rights over what is developed for you.
• Hosting, the domain name, databases and technical accounts are opened in your name.
• Your data remains exportable at any time, in open formats.
• We use widely adopted technologies that another provider will be able to pick up.

SADIS is a young company. Its founders spent six years on freelance assignments within large French industrial groups before founding SADIS in Morocco. It is fair to ask whether a provider will still be around in a few years: reversibility must be guaranteed by the contract, not by a promise.

Applications by sector

The techniques change little from one sector to another; the business rules change a great deal.

• Distribution and trade Prices and discounts per customer, field order-taking, reseller portal, multi-warehouse stock, partial deliveries.
• Manufacturing Production orders, bills of materials, batches, quality control, time tracking.
• Construction and public works Site tracking (FR), progress statements, equipment and machinery, exchanges between the office and the field.
• Transport and logistics Delivery rounds, shipment tracking, proof of delivery, service invoicing.
• Services Contracts and subscriptions, call-outs, team scheduling, recurring billing.

Questions to ask a provider

Whichever provider you consult, these questions will help you judge their proposal.

• Do you have a project we can look at? Two of our assignments are described in detail on our References page: a B2B ordering platform for a distributor, and the migration of an industrial subsidiary to Microsoft 365. A reference contact can be provided during a meeting, with the client's consent.
• Who will hold the code, access and data? The answer must be written into the contract.
• How will the software connect to our tools? Proposing to replace everything without looking at what already exists means taking a risk on your behalf.
• What have you planned for e-invoicing? Software developed today must be able to adapt to it without being rewritten.
• Who provides maintenance, and how? Management software stays in use for years; how it will evolve should be planned from the start.

How a project runs

1. Current-state review Interviews with the people who use the tools, review of Excel files and existing software.
2. Scoping A written scope: functions, exchanges with existing systems, data to migrate, priorities.
3. Step-by-step development Successive versions, tested by your teams on real cases, rather than a single delivery at the end.
4. Go-live Data import, user training, support during the first weeks.
5. Maintenance and enhancements Fixes, regulatory updates, new features.

Workshops and training are held on site, from our Casablanca office; follow-up can then be done remotely, anywhere in Morocco. The same contact can also take care of email and the migration to Microsoft 365 (FR), the network or the IT fleet.