Specialised Digital has grown out of a real UK factory floor and real frustrations – not a software boardroom. We’re building a more practical ERP and AI-enabled platform to run our own manufacturing business, and exploring how what we’re learning could help other manufacturing SMEs too.
Our MD Katie has driven this project with her extensive manufacturing experience and created our own custom ERP system connecting our accounting software (Xero), Microsoft exchange (emails), Shipping functionality (Shiptheory) and Woo Commerce (ordering platform), to create a data lake which then gives us unlimited opportunities.
We looked at the ERP options available to a business like ours. Most were built for a different kind of company: too large, too rigid, or too dependent on external consultants to configure and maintain. So we started building something shaped around how we actually work – and Specialised Digital grew from that decision.
Made Smarter has confirmed that a 50% matched-funding consultancy grant is available to support your business in implementing a system similar to ours.
Katie can provide consultancy support at a day rate of £1,995 + VAT, with 50% of this cost covered by the grant, subject to grant approval.
To explore the funding opportunity and begin engaging with Made Smarter, please visit:
Talk to most manufacturing SMEs and the same frustrations come up:
| Problem | What it looks like day to day |
| The system dictates the process | You end up working around the software instead of it working for you |
| Information lives in different places | Sales, production and stock all see a different version of the truth |
| Every change needs outside help | A simple update means a call to a consultant and an invoice |
| Costs creep as you add integrations | Each connection to another system adds licence and support cost |
| Teams don’t adopt what they don’t understand | Complexity slows down the people who most need clear information |
| Reporting doesn’t lead to action | Dashboards that describe a problem, without helping anyone fix it |
We call the deeper issue the golden handcuffs problem – the point where a business becomes so tied to a particular platform, developer or consultancy that changing course becomes expensive and disruptive in itself. It’s one of the main things we set out to avoid, we want the manufacturer to own the system, for it to be there’s and be an iterative process that can grown with them.
That’s the principle behind everything we’re building. In practice, it means:
This is our direction and our ambition. It’s still evolving – deliberately.
We’re bringing together the areas of Specialised Covers that used to sit in separate systems and spreadsheets:
This reflects the direction and scope of our internal platform today. It isn’t a fixed package, and it isn’t offered as a standard product to every manufacturer we speak to – what we build with a future partner would be shaped around their business, not ours.
We’re not interested in AI for its own sake. Within our own platform, we’re exploring how it can give authorised people faster, plainer access to information that already exists in the business – rather than replacing anyone’s judgement. Offering insights into the data and suggested next steps not more numbers and information to process themselves.
Examples of the kind of questions this is intended to answer:
– “What’s the status of order 4471?”
– “Which materials are running low this week?”
– “Which purchase orders are still open?”
– “What’s due to be dispatched tomorrow?”
– “Which returns need attention?”
– “What customer opportunities haven’t been followed up?”
These are illustrative of the direction we’re exploring, not a guarantee of every capability. The aim is simple: less time searching, more time acting – with AI supporting the people who know the business, not replacing them.
Specialised Covers is a family-owned UK manufacturer, established in 1981. We design and manufacture bespoke protective covers from our 32,000 sq ft facility in Shipley, West Yorkshire, with experience across bespoke, made-to-order and specialist production.
Specialised Digital is being shaped and tested through the day-to-day needs of that business – not designed in isolation from it.
This is a conversation, not a sales pitch. It’s a chance for us to:
– Understand your current systems and challenges
– Explore where a more tailored platform might help
– Learn from your experience as Specialised Digital develops
– Work out together whether there’s a sensible basis for further discussion
There’s no cost, and no commitment to buy anything by booking a call.
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