AI consultation & custom software · United Kingdom
Scarecrow Innovations designs and builds custom applications and AI-assisted systems. We work out which parts of a business a machine should be handling, then build the thing that handles them. You deal directly with the person writing the code, and where the honest answer is that you do not need software, we will say so.
Who this is for
01 — Where it usually starts
Nobody sets out to end up here. It happens one subscription at a time, and by the point it is noticed, somebody is spending two days a week keeping four systems in agreement with each other. That somebody is usually the owner.
The rota, the reconciliation, the chasing. It lives in one person’s head and a spreadsheet built several years ago, and the business slows to a stop when they take leave.
Booking in one place, payments in another, customer records in a third, and a member of staff typing between them. You are paying a monthly fee for the privilege of doing the joining up yourself.
The value is rarely where the demonstrations suggest. In practice it sits in the routine middle of the week: reading documents, drafting replies, sorting a queue, flagging the exception that needs a person.
A number arrives with a six-month plan attached and no explanation of what the money buys. You should be able to see what is being built while it is being built, not at the end.
02 — Services
We are not a general agency. We do not take on brand, campaigns or content. We work out where software and AI pay for themselves in a business, and then we build that software.
01
We map how the work actually moves through your business, then set out where automation would pay for itself and where it would not. You get a written assessment you can act on with us or with anybody else. Where the honest conclusion is that a build is not justified, that is what the assessment says.
02
Installable web applications that behave like native ones: they sit on the home screen, tolerate a poor connection, and update the moment a change is deployed. Booking, scheduling, records, payments, reporting, staff tooling and customer portals, built to the way the business actually operates.
03
Frequently the right answer is not a new application but a considered piece of integration between systems you already pay for, with a language model handling the reading, sorting and drafting that currently occupies somebody’s morning. Faster to prove, cheaper to build, straightforward to extend later.
04
Once something is live it needs hosting, backups, an eye on it and the occasional change. That can sit with us on a monthly basis, or with whoever already looks after your systems. Either way it is discussed and agreed before a project starts rather than raised afterwards.
03 — Recent builds
Everything below is live software with real users in it, not a proposal or a prototype. Each one was designed, built and shipped by the person who would build yours.
Build 01 — Gym management platform
Gym operations · live and in daily use
A gym running on four separate providers for booking, personal-training diaries, payments and member records, none of which shared data. Every Monday somebody spent a morning reconciling the difference between them. The brief was to replace all four with one system that fits how the floor actually runs.
Current status: running a gym today. Members book, train and log nutrition in one application, staff operate from their phones, and the Monday reconciliation is now a screen rather than a task.
Build 02 — Event operations
Event operations · in use across an event calendar
Each event needed dozens of qualified officials recruited, vetted, rostered, briefed, checked in and paid. The process ran on sign-up forms, a group chat and a spreadsheet, which meant somebody spent the fortnight before every event chasing individuals. Nothing was held centrally and nothing was auditable afterwards.
Current status: in use across the event calendar. Directors approve officials, fill shifts and export hours from a single screen rather than five tools, and pre-event chasing has been replaced by a notification.
Build 03 — Consumer product
Public app · scoped, built and shipped in days
A small, well-defined problem: establishing which of several subscriptions actually carries a given title. It is included here because it shows the other end of the range. Not everything needs to be a platform, and a tightly scoped idea can be a working, published product inside a week.
Current status: live and publicly available. It is the shortest demonstration we have of how we scope, build and ship.
Every system on this page keeps a working business moving day to day, and we are the ones who hear about it when something is wrong. That changes how software gets built: the awkward edge cases get handled before launch rather than raised as change requests afterwards, because otherwise they land on our own Saturday morning.
04 — How a project runs
Every project is different, so every project is priced individually. There is no rate card and no package. What does not change is that you see the thing being built while it is being built.
Start here if you are unsure
We look at how the work moves through your business and tell you where software and AI would pay for themselves, and where they would not.
Start here if you know what you want
A defined piece of software, built and put into service. Scope and cost are agreed between us before anything begins.
Once something is live
Hosting, backups, monitoring and changes, handled monthly. Agreed at the start of a project rather than raised at the end of one.
05 — How we work
Small suppliers usually leave this to the first meeting. It is quicker for everyone if it is written down, including the parts that are a conversation rather than a policy.
One person, from the first call to the last change. Not an account manager relaying messages to a developer you never meet. It is the main reason scoping takes a week rather than a quarter.
If an existing tool does the job, or the process needs fixing before any software is written, we will say so. It costs us a project and saves you considerably more.
Priced per project rather than from a rate card, because the work varies too much for one. You will know what a piece of work costs before you decide to go ahead with it.
Agreed per project rather than assumed. Some people want the code and the repository in their own name; others would rather it simply ran and somebody else worried about it. Say which at the outset and it goes in the proposal.
Systems are designed with UK GDPR in mind from the start. In the gym platform that meant subject data export and erasure built in rather than added later. Hosting region and data processors are agreed per project, and we will tell you which third parties touch your data.
Brand, campaigns, content, SEO retainers or anything sold by the month that nobody can measure. We build software and advise on where it helps. Everything else we would be guessing at.
06 — Questions
If your question is not covered here, put it in the enquiry and it will be answered in writing before you commit to anything.
There is no rate card, because the work varies too much for one to be honest. Tell us the problem and roughly what you had in mind spending, and you will get a straight answer about whether the two match. If they do not, we would rather say so on the first call than three invoices in.
The person you speak to. Scarecrow Innovations is deliberately small, which means the person scoping the project is the person writing the code and the person you email when something is wrong at eight on a Monday. It is the main practical difference between us and an agency of the same price.
That is a conversation rather than a default, and it is worth having early because it affects the price. Some people want the repository and hosting in their own name and full ownership of what they paid for; others would rather we simply hold it and run it. Say which you want at the outset and it goes in the proposal in writing.
No. That is the usual starting position and it is exactly what the advice engagement is for. Most of the value is not in the applications being demonstrated publicly; it sits in the routine middle of the week, in reading documents, drafting replies, sorting a queue and flagging the exception that needs a person. We will set out where it pays and, just as importantly, where it does not.
Entirely dependent on scope, and anybody who answers that question before hearing the problem is guessing. For a sense of the range: StreamFinder went from idea to a published, working product in days, because it does one thing. The gym platform took considerably longer, because it handles payments, personal data and a timetable that people rely on. You will get a realistic view once we know which end of that range you are at.
Ordinarily we build installable web applications instead. They sit on the home screen, send push notifications and work offline, but they update the moment a change is deployed rather than waiting on a review queue, and they carry no store commission. Where a product genuinely needs store distribution we will say so rather than talk you out of it.
Systems are designed with it in mind from the start rather than retrofitted. In the gym platform that meant subject data export and erasure built in as features. Hosting region and the list of third parties that process your data are agreed per project, and you will be told what they are rather than having to ask.
We are small on purpose, and it is a fair question. What you get for it is direct access to the person building the thing and decisions made in a day rather than a fortnight. What you do not get is a bench of people to throw at a deadline. Where a project genuinely needs a bigger team than ours, we will tell you rather than take the work and learn at your expense.
07 — Start here
A few lines is enough. Enquiries go straight to the person who would do the work, and come back with an honest view on the best route, including where that route does not involve us.
We will read it properly and come back to you with an honest view on the best route, including whether you need us at all.
Anything urgent in the meantime: tom@scarecrowinnovations.com.