Custom ERP Systems
Off-the-shelf ERP makes your shop learn its way of doing things. We build it the other way around, starting with the piece that costs you the most.
Where it goes wrong
The average budget is $9,000 per user over five years. For a shop with 30 people in the system, that's about $270,000, and the price on the quote is only part of it.
Sample quote
ERP software, 30 usersYearly plan
$110per user, per month1
$39,600 a year
Fine print
Most ERPs are rented by the user now. Microsoft's Business Central Premium lists at $110 a month for each one, paid yearly, so 30 users is $39,600 a year. Ask what the price will be at renewal.
In Panorama's 2026 study, 30% of ERP projects went over budget, most often because they needed more technology partway through. Ask for a fixed price.
A new report, field or step usually means a consultant at an hourly rate, so the small fixes never get made and people drift back to spreadsheets. Ask what a change costs and whether it survives the next upgrade.
The typical project takes 9 months to go live, after about 17 weeks spent choosing a system. Ask to talk to a shop your size that's been running it for two years.
How AI handles it
In a system built around your shop, AI keeps every open job up to date, and your team decides what happens to a job that's already moved on.
When a customer changes what they need, AI reads the email and finds every open job it touches.
AI adds the change to each job's route in your system, so the floor sees it on the traveler.
If a job is already past the change, AI drafts a fix, and someone on your team makes the change.
Case study
[Shop name], [what they make], [city and state]
[Number][What it measures]
[Number][What it measures]
“[What the owner said about it, in their own words]”
[Name], [title], [shop name]
Questions
No. We can build the one piece your ERP handles badly and connect it to the rest, so your team keeps everything that works. If your ERP is mostly fine, AI for Your ERP may fit better.
See AI for Your ERPIt used to be something only big companies could afford. Now AI writes much of the code, so most of the work goes into learning how your shop runs and getting your data right. And you don't build it all at once. You start with the piece that costs you the most, put it to work and add to it as you go. Panorama's 2026 study found the same thing: fixing a few high-impact processes first pays off sooner, with less risk.
Yes. If your drawings or customer files are under an NDA, we sign one before we see anything, and we only see what you choose to show us. For defense work, the AI can run on a computer in your building.
See Private AI
Who runs your project
I'm Christian Hostetler, the founder. I'll learn how your shop really works, build your system around it, and stay with you after it goes live.
in revenue I've driven across all the clients I've managed and consulted for over the last five years
We'll look at your current systems and show you what a custom system could look like for your business.
A shop or a plant that makes parts, products or equipment.
We'll look it over before we talk, so the call is about your shop.
You'll get a text with the link and a reminder before we talk.
Outside the US, start with your country code, like +44.
We'll go through your current systems and show you what a custom system could look like.
We build custom systems for manufacturers, so if you're not running a shop or a plant this wouldn't do much for you. If that changes, come back.