Questions, answered
The things people ask before they get in touch. If yours is not here, the contact form reaches a person, not a queue.
Getting started
Before any of the detail: how a project begins.
Plan a project at /brief: pick what you are building, answer a dozen quick questions, and you get your brief written up with an indicative price band in about three minutes. Or book the free AI audit, a 30-minute conversation about where AI actually fits your business. Either way, nothing is built until you have a detailed scope and a fixed quote in writing.
Essex, United Kingdom. Most of our clients are in Essex and Greater London, and we work across the UK and Ireland. Reviews and check-ins happen over video, and we visit when it helps.
A 30-minute, no-obligation conversation about how your business runs today: where time goes, what gets retyped, what nobody has a clear view of. You leave with an honest answer on whether bespoke tooling would pay for itself, and if it would not, we say so.
No. It is an indicative band from the published pricing tiers so you know roughly what things cost before you invest more time. The quote itself comes after scoping, is fixed, and is agreed in writing before any work begins.
Cost and ownership
What it costs, why the pricing is public, and what you own at the end.
Each entry package covers the specific scope listed on the pricing page. A small internal tool, one product workflow or a brochure website has a different scope from a full platform. We agree a fixed written quote before starting, including revisions, delivery, exclusions and running costs. Extra integrations, user roles, content or platforms are quoted explicitly.
Yes. An automation sprint connects a defined task using existing supported tools. A startup validation page explains an idea and collects interest before a product build. Both have separate starting prices on the pricing page and do not require a development retainer.
Timing depends on the agreed scope. The pricing page lists the delivery window for each project option, and a focused first release is scoped individually. We agree a timeline before work begins.
Every project includes a handover with documentation. Maintenance is scoped separately for the system, or you can choose another provider. Optional ongoing development for improvements and new features starts at £1,500 per month + VAT. This retainer is billed separately from the one-off build and any hosting or third-party usage charges.
You receive the custom source code, deployment under your accounts and handover documentation. You can choose who maintains it. Third-party services and open-source components keep their own licences and terms.
We review the systems you use and the access they provide. An API can make a connection possible, but permissions, service limits, data quality and ongoing costs still need checking. We agree supported integrations in the project scope.
Minor tweaks within the revision rounds are included. For larger changes, we'll scope and quote transparently. Retainer clients get priority access and discounted rates.
Bespoke has a build cost, so it needs a clear reason to exist. Compare the scope, hosting, maintenance and usage costs with the subscriptions and manual work it could replace. An existing product may be the better-value choice. Any expected return depends on your business and how the tool is used.
Published starting prices help you decide whether a project is in range before spending time on a conversation. The final quote depends on the agreed scope. We account for the content and integrations you need, along with the work required for launch. We explain what is included, what may cost extra and what will have ongoing charges before you commit.
Automation platforms can be a good choice for connecting supported apps and handling repeated steps. Bespoke is worth considering when you need logic, controls or a user interface that the existing setup cannot reasonably support. We check reliability, access, usage charges and maintenance before choosing an approach; a focused integration may be enough.
Bespoke or off the shelf
How a build compares with the tools you may already use.
When an important, repeated part of the job does not fit the tools available, and the cost of those workarounds justifies a build. Start with the process, the people using it and a measurable outcome. A better setup or a small integration may solve the problem first.
No. Existing software can be a good fit and quick to put to use. Bespoke needs an agreed scope and a credible case for the investment. Compare the full cost: setup or build, licences, hosting, maintenance, third-party usage and the time your team spends on the process. Savings are not guaranteed.
Yes, where they still serve the business. We can help configure a platform, connect systems or build a focused tool alongside them. We check what access and integration options the existing products support before agreeing the approach.
You receive the custom source code and handover documentation, with deployment under your accounts. Hosting, maintenance, third-party services and AI usage may still have charges. Open-source components and external services retain their own terms. Ongoing support and future changes are scoped separately.
It depends on the scope, integrations and review work. Our pricing page shows the delivery window for each published option. We agree a timeline before starting and can phase the work so the first useful version has a clear boundary.
You bring the knowledge of how the business works and take part in reviews. We handle the technical design and delivery. AI is included only where it adds useful value; a clear workflow and ordinary automation may be enough.
AI, in plain English
What the AI part actually is, and what it costs to run.
ChatGPT is a very capable assistant you talk to. AI engineering is putting that kind of capability inside a tool your business runs every day, so it reads your enquiries, scores your deliveries or forecasts your Saturday without anyone typing a prompt. The engineering is what makes it reliable, affordable and yours.
Using a model is the easy part. Engineering is everything around it: which model, how you know it is right, what it costs at scale, and how it improves. Without that, you have a demo, not a tool.
Almost never. We build on the best available models and put the engineering into how they are used. We don’t train or fine-tune models, and we’ll tell you if your problem genuinely needs that.
Usually pence a day at small-business volumes, because we route to the cheapest model that passes the tests and cap daily spend. We show you the real number from production, not an estimate.
Apprism
The AI layer that works over the apps you already use.
Apprism is the AI layer from Appening Now. It sits over the apps your business already pays for, such as your CRM, email and spreadsheets, and does the reading, drafting, checking and chasing between them. Nothing changes a record until a person approves it.
No. Apprism works over the tools you already use rather than instead of them. We check the access each of your apps provides, and agree in writing which ones it connects to, before anything is built.
No. Apprism prepares the change and shows you what it would do. Nothing changes a record until a person says so.
It depends on what each app allows. Many business tools can be connected through the access they provide, but permissions, limits and running costs need checking first, so the supported apps are agreed in the scope before work begins.
Book the free AI audit, a 30 minute conversation about where AI fits your business, or plan a project at /brief. Nothing is built until you have a written scope and a fixed quote.
Prismatch
Apprism for technical recruiters: account research, bench match and the play.
Prismatch is Apprism for technical recruiters. One command reads a company’s technology, from its job ads and website for a new account or from the documents an existing client has shared, spots what it is about to build, finds the people in your own CRM who fit that stack and drafts the play: the team, the delivery model and the follow ups. A consultant approves anything before it is written back.
The one you already use. We check the access your CRM provides in discovery, then build a connector scoped to exactly what the skills need. Each consultant signs in as themselves, so the agents see only what that person can already see.
Prismatch is not tied to one AI vendor. We agree in discovery which AI workspace it runs in, usually the one your team already pays for, and the skills, agents and connector are built around that choice.
No. Only one agent can write, and only after a consultant presses Approve. It saves the brief as a note and adds tasks and candidate tags, every write logged with who approved it. It has no delete, merge or bulk update action at all.
For a new account, public sources only: company filings, job ads, company websites and news, and nothing scraped from LinkedIn or from behind a login. For a client you already have, also the documents that client has shared with you. Every technology and signal carries its source and its date.
Yes. For an existing client it reads what they have given you directly, such as roadmaps, architecture notes, workforce plans, statements of work and your own call notes, and finds dates that moved, contractors about to roll off and scope that is growing. Those documents are read only for that client’s account, kept in its own space and never mixed into public research or used for another account.
It stays in your CRM, read through each consultant’s own permissions. The UK GDPR position, the processor terms and retention are agreed in writing before anything touches a real record.
With a 90 minute workshop: bring three consultants and the prompts they already use. Then a first run puts one command to work on one of your real accounts, read only against your own CRM. If the brief is not better than what your team does by hand, you stop there.
Still got a question?
Plan your project in three minutes and the brief comes back with the answers that depend on your situation, or ask us directly.