Business software development: ERP, CRM and back-office systems
Mesterséges Intelligencia Központ Kft. is a software development company based in Budapest, Hungary. We build custom ERP, CRM and back-office systems with integrations and artificial intelligence, and we are currently developing a large ERP and CRM system.
In short: the system is built around the company's own processes, not the other way round. We connect NAV Online Számla, your invoicing service, your bank and your webshop, and after handover we run the system as well. The contract governs source code and usage rights.
What systems do we build?
Business software runs the daily operation of a company: what was sold and to whom, what is in stock, who is working on what, how much is outstanding. It comes in three large families, and the line between them is often blurred:
| System | What it is for | Typical parts |
|---|---|---|
| ERP (enterprise resource planning) | the company's resources in one place | stock, purchasing, sales, production, finance |
| CRM (customer relationship management) | tracking customers and sales | customer records, quotes, sales pipeline, customer service |
| Back-office system | the administration behind the scenes | invoicing, contracts, work orders, approvals |
With a custom system, only what the company really needs gets built, and it works the way the people there work, so there is no need to bend the operation to the logic of a boxed product. Our articles Custom ERP or a customised off-the-shelf ERP? and When is it worth developing a custom CRM? explain when the custom route pays off for an ERP or a CRM.
The modules a back-office system is built from
The most common building blocks, which we combine according to the company's needs:
- Stock and warehouse: item master, storage locations, goods receipt, goods issue, stocktaking, minimum stock alerts.
- Invoicing and finance: quotes, orders, pro forma invoices, invoices, tracking of receivables and payments.
- Projects and work orders: tasks, owners, time and costs spent, resource planning.
- Customers and sales: customer history, contacts, sales pipeline, quote tracking, support tickets.
- User roles: role-based access; a log shows who changed what and when.
- Reports: management reports, dashboards, export to spreadsheets.
Integrations we connect
Business software is only truly useful if it is not an island. This is how we connect it to the company's other systems:
- NAV Online Számla: sending invoice data to the Hungarian tax authority's real-time invoice reporting system through its machine interface, and processing the acknowledgements.
- Invoicing services: if invoicing stays in an external service, for example Számlázz.hu or Billingo, we connect through their interfaces.
- Banks: importing bank statements and transactions, and matching incoming payments to invoices.
- Webshops: synchronising orders, stock and prices between the webshop and the central system.
- Couriers and other systems: parcel shipping, email, calendar, an existing ERP or CRM, connected through APIs, webhooks or scheduled file exchange.
If a system has no public interface, we choose how to connect to it together during the requirements analysis. You can read more about connecting systems and automating repetitive work on the Process automation page.
Artificial intelligence in business software
Large language models (OpenAI's ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude, Google's Gemini) are useful wherever a person used to read, copy or write:
- Documents: the system reads the data from incoming invoices, delivery notes and orders, and records it ready for review.
- Email: it sorts incoming emails and drafts a reply on the customer record.
- Questions about your data: you can ask the system in plain language, for example: “Which of our quotes has not had a reply yet?”
- Summaries: before a meeting, it summarises a customer's full history.
Where a mistake costs money, the AI proposes and a person approves. We explain how we connect the models and how we handle data protection on the AI integration page.
Moving from your existing system
Such a project rarely starts from a blank page: the company already has spreadsheets, an old program or an off-the-shelf system. The steps of the move:
- Assessment: what data, processes and connections exist, what works well and what does not.
- Data mapping: where each piece of old data goes, and what needs cleaning up (duplicate customers, an incomplete item master).
- Trial migration: the old data goes into a test environment, where the key users check it.
- Switchover: in stages, or by running the old and the new system side by side for a short time, so that daily work does not stop.
- Follow-up: bug fixing and operation after go-live.
Not everything has to be replaced at once. Often the workable path is to place the new module next to the old system first and let the two talk to each other through an interface.
Our experience
We are currently developing a large ERP and CRM system; we do not disclose the client or the product name. This work has taught us that the screens are rarely the hard part of business software. The data model, the user roles, the integrations and the takeover of old data decide whether people will use the system or keep their spreadsheet running next to it.
How do we work?
- A free first consultation: what the system must do, and what it need not.
- Requirements analysis and specification with the key users.
- Measuring the functional size of the development in COSMIC function points (ISO/IEC 19761); the offer and the schedule are derived from it.
- Development in stages, with regular demos.
- Handover: the contract governs source code and usage rights.
- Operation and maintenance.
We sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) on request. The steps are described in detail on the How we work page.
Frequently asked questions
Custom ERP or an off-the-shelf system?
If the company's processes fit a ready-made system well and little customisation is needed, the off-the-shelf product is often the faster and cheaper route, and we will tell you so. Custom development pays off when the company works differently from the boxed logic, when many systems must be connected, or when customisation would cost more than a module of your own. A middle way is also common: the existing product stays, and a custom module or integration extends it.
Who will own the source code?
The contract governs source code and usage rights.
Can you take over our existing system?
After an assessment, and where it is feasible, yes, in two ways: we migrate the data of your existing system into a new one, or we take over the further development and operation of an existing custom system. For the latter we need the source code and the access rights; once we have assessed the state of the code and the data, we tell you honestly which path is workable.
What does the price depend on?
On the functional size of the development, which we measure in COSMIC function points (the ISO/IEC 19761 standard). The method counts data movements (Entry, Exit, Read, Write), so it is independent of the technology and the team. We derive the offer and the schedule from this size; integrations, non-functional requirements (performance, security, availability), design and operation also play a part. Details: Pricing.
Do you also run the system?
Yes. After handover we provide operation and maintenance: monitoring, bug fixing, updates and further development. If you would like to talk about your own system, write to us using the details on the Contact page.