Your systems should fit how you work.A business systems consultant who builds the fix.
I'm James Webb, founder of LINK. I work as a business systems consultant for owners whose software and processes are fighting each other - mapping how the business actually runs, connecting what you already pay for, automating the repetitive work, and building custom systems where nothing on the market fits.
Most systems consultants hand you a recommendation. I build and implement it, because I've done exactly that for LINK's own nine businesses across six industries - and for clients who were paying for platforms that never matched how they work.
James Webb
Founder, LINK Group
Signs you need a systems consultant, not another subscription.
Someone exports a spreadsheet every month
The numbers exist, they just live in four systems that do not talk, so a person stitches them together by hand - late, and differently each time.
The inbox is the system of record
Jobs arrive as emails, get worked from the thread, and the only history is whatever someone remembers to forward.
You pay for a platform you mostly ignore
A capable product built for the average of its market, doing a great deal you have no use for and never quite the things you need.
Revenue leaks between quote and invoice
Work that slipped, hours that were never billed, margin lost in the handover between two tools. It never appears on a subscription line.
Hiring is the only way to take on more
Admin scales with volume because nothing is automated, so every new client costs a fraction of a new person.
Nobody can answer 'how are we going?'
Not because the answer is bad - because it would take a day to assemble, so nobody does.
How it works. Buying is always on the table.
Map how the business actually runs
Not the org chart and not the process document from three years ago - the real path a lead, a job and a dollar take through the business, and every place a person re-keys something along the way. This is the part most systems projects skip, and it is why so many of them get quietly switched off.
Decide: buy, connect, or build
Most problems are solved by a product you can already buy, or by connecting the ones you have. Those are cheaper, and I'll tell you so. Building is only the answer where nothing on the market fits how you work - and that is a decision made on the numbers, in writing, before you spend.
Implement it properly
Integrations between Xero and the rest of the stack, automation of the repetitive steps, and custom systems where they are justified - built on a real database with your process as the model, not a product bent until it nearly fits.
Hand it over
The code, the database and the logic are yours. Handed over so another developer or your own IT team could pick it up, with no per-seat fee that grows every time you hire.
The common thread is fit, not size.
None of these businesses had simply outgrown their software. No product on the market matched how they ran - and the cost of that never showed up on a subscription line.
Commercial tiling contractor
Moved off simPRO onto one custom system for staff, jobs, scheduling and quoting. $55,000 saved in systems cost - and the bigger win was the revenue that stopped leaking through project management.
Large online retailer
Inventory, customers and the storefront integration on one back end instead of three products and the glue between them.
Multi-service online business
CRM, projects and people management on one system, with each person's workload visible so capacity is managed rather than guessed at. The inbox stopped being the system of record.
LINK's own nine businesses
CRM, lead management and automation built in-house across six industries, replacing around $40,000 a year of software subscriptions.
Just need to see the numbers?
If the main problem is that nobody can see how the business is going, start with a connected dashboard - Xero joined to the rest of the stack, read with you by LINK's accountants.
Financial dashboards →Already know it needs building?
If no product fits and the case for a custom system is already clear, go straight to what gets built and how.
Custom software development →Is it the whole business, not one system?
A systems review is usually the first step of a business transformation, and the repetitive steps it turns up are what business automation removes.
Wondering where AI fits?
Custom AI backends, models built for specific jobs, and an honest roadmap of where AI belongs in your business and where it does not.
AI consulting →Common questions.
→What does a business systems consultant do?
Works out how your business actually runs, finds where the software and the process are fighting each other, and fixes it - by recommending the right product, connecting the systems you already have, or building something where nothing on the market fits. The good ones also implement it. A consultant who only produces a recommendation leaves you holding a document and the same problem.
→Is a business systems consultant the same as a business systems analyst?
They overlap. A business systems analyst usually sits inside a company's IT team, documenting requirements for a system someone else will build or configure. A business systems consultant is brought in from outside to diagnose the whole operation and, here at least, to build or implement the fix as well. The difference that matters to you is whether the person you hire is accountable for the result or only for the specification.
→Do I need custom software, or just better use of what I have?
Usually the second, and I'll tell you so in the first conversation. Most businesses need their existing tools connected properly and two or three processes automated - a smaller, cheaper job. Custom is the answer when no product fits how you work, and just as often that is a platform doing far more than you need rather than too little.
→Which software do you work with?
Whatever you already run. Xero is in almost every stack and is usually the first thing connected, then job management, CRM, payroll, POS and inventory. Most have a usable API; where one genuinely does not, I tell you before you spend anything. If the real problem is seeing the numbers in one place, start with a connected dashboard rather than a systems project.
→We're on simPRO and it doesn't fit. Is custom the answer?
Sometimes. The tiling contractor on this page was on simPRO: a capable product that did a great deal they had no use for, and never the things they needed the way they wanted. Before going custom, check whether a different off-the-shelf product fits - that is cheaper, and I'll say so. Custom is the answer when none of them match how you run.
→What does it cost?
No published price, because connecting two systems and building a platform are not the same product. It starts with a conversation about what you run and where the friction is, then a scoped quote. The useful comparison is usually not against zero, it is against the per-seat subscriptions and the leaked hours the current setup is already costing you.
→Do we own what gets built?
Yes - the code, the database and the logic of how your business works. Handed over, not licensed back. No vendor deciding at renewal time what your business is allowed to do next year.
→Is this a small business service?
Yes, and it suits smaller businesses better than its reputation suggests. Custom software earned its price tag in a different decade; the tooling has changed what a small experienced team can ship. The businesses that gain most are often ones that never thought of themselves as big enough to need a systems consultant at all.
→Do you work outside Brisbane?
Yes. LINK is in Fortitude Valley and most of this work is remote, so clients are Australia-wide. Brisbane clients get in-person mapping sessions where they help.
Tell me what you run and where it hurts.
This comes straight to me, not a sales team. You'll get a straight read on whether it is worth building anything - including when the answer is no.