We build software for Australian businesses that have outgrown off-the-shelf products — and we will tell you when building is the wrong call.
Custom software development in Australia is usually sold as an inevitability. Every agency page tells you that off-the-shelf will never quite fit and that the answer is to build. Sometimes that is true. Often it is not, and starting from there is how businesses end up paying for something they did not need.
Drawn AI builds custom business software for Australian SMEs. Liam and Jacob started it in 2024, out of shared frustration with business systems that made ordinary work harder than it needed to be — Liam from retail operations management, Jacob from mining operations. We work from Melbourne, Victoria and Queensland, remotely, with clients around the country. The way we work is to build around the systems you already run — Xero, MYOB, Shopify, Cin7, SimPRO, Deputy, Employment Hero, SharePoint — rather than asking you to replace them.
Building is the right call when a process is specific to how your business actually makes money, when the products you have looked at only fit with three workarounds hanging off them, and when those workarounds have a cost you can count in hours, errors or margin.
It is the wrong call in at least three common situations. If an off-the-shelf product covers most of what you need and the gap is preference rather than necessity, buy the product and get on with it. If the process is about to change — a restructure, a new site, an acquisition, a system your largest customer is about to mandate — wait, because you would be paying to build a specification with a short shelf life. And if your data is inconsistent, incomplete or spread across four places that disagree with each other, spend the money on fixing that first. Custom software built on unreliable data just produces unreliable answers faster. If one of those applies to you, we would rather say so early than take the work.
For construction and trades businesses running work across multiple sites, a system that ties quoted hours, purchase orders, timesheets and variations to one job number — so margin is visible while the job is live, not after it has been invoiced.
Rostering, shift handover, prestart checks and stocktakes for multi-site retail operations, where head office and the store or crew are looking at the same information at the same time.
Quote to order to invoice, carrying pricing rules, approval thresholds and customer-specific terms through the whole path, so nobody rekeys the same numbers into three systems.
Registers holding SWMS, permits, inductions, licences and insurance certificates, with expiry dates, reminders and an audit trail showing who changed what and when.
One place for the requests that currently move by email — leave, purchase approvals, credit limits, contractor inductions — with the status visible to everyone who needs it.
Often the cheapest useful thing we build. Connecting the systems your business already runs so information moves once, without replacing anything.
A conversation about what is actually going wrong and what it costs you. This is where we say if we think an existing product, or a data clean-up, would serve you better than a build.
We map the process as it really runs, including the parts that only happen at month end and the exceptions people handle manually. This business process analysis usually shortens the build, because it shows what does not need building.
We design the smallest useful version, build it, and put it in front of the people who will use it early. You see working software during the build, not at the end of it.
We connect it to your accounting, payroll, POS or job management systems so data flows rather than being retyped. Client data we host sits in Australian regions.
Once it is in daily use, we refine it. Real usage always shows things a specification cannot, and the subscription is designed to cover that continuing work.
We do not quote fixed-price projects or bill by the hour. Drawn AI works on a monthly subscription with a minimum term of three months and 30 days' notice to cancel. What you pay depends on the scope and how much continuing development you want. We will give you a monthly figure before you commit to anything.
Fixed price suits work that finishes. Business software rarely finishes — processes change, integrations break when a vendor updates an API, and the useful version is the third one. A subscription covers building, hosting, support and continuing changes without a variation for every request. It suits businesses that expect their software to keep evolving.
Businesses wanting a one-off tool that will never change, and businesses that need a single capital figure for a board paper, a grant acquittal or an asset write-off. If you need a fixed price on a fixed scope with a defined end date, we are not the right fit, and it is better to know that in the first conversation.
You own your data outright and can export it at any time. Ownership of the software itself is set out in writing before work starts, including what happens if you stop the subscription. Ask about it in the first conversation — any developer who is vague on this question is telling you something.
Less than a replacement rollout, because we build around what you already run. Expect a few hours in discovery, some time from whoever knows the process best during mapping, and testing from the people who will actually use it. Nothing gets switched off until the replacement is working alongside it.
Yes. We are based in Melbourne, Victoria and Queensland and work Australia-wide, remotely. Most of the work — discovery, mapping, reviews, support — is done well over video and shared documents. If you want to talk it through, email outreach@drawnai.app or use the contact page.
A first conversation costs nothing and usually ends with a clearer idea of what is worth building — sometimes that answer is “not yet”, and we will say so.
No lock-in templates. Built around you.