Your business has its own way of working.Your CRM should too.

The system

More than a contact database.

A useful CRM connects what your team knows with what it needs to do. An enquiry should lead to an owner, a next action and a clear outcome. A won deal should carry its context into delivery. A relationship should remain understandable when someone changes role or leaves the company.

We start with the things your business actually manages: clients and opportunities, but also projects, jobs, properties, bookings, talent or suppliers where the operation requires them. The relationships between those records matter as much as the fields inside them. A contact linked to the wrong company is a data problem; a booking disconnected from its brief is an operational one.

Your custom build can bring sales and delivery into one coherent workspace, or connect the CRM to the specialist tools you already use. We agree which system owns each piece of data and which events should move it. Replacing every tool is rarely the right starting point.

• Records and relationships shaped around the business.
• Pipelines, ownership, tasks and a clear activity history.
• Fast lists, saved views and interfaces people can use daily.
• Permissions, change history and reports tied to real decisions.

AI with a job to do

The next step, ready for review.

The best place for an agent is inside a real workflow. It can prepare an enquiry brief from linked records, identify missing information, draft a follow-up or propose tasks after a meeting. Each action should have a purpose, an allowed source of context and a person who can review it.

We define the difference between a rule and an AI judgement. A rule can flag an overdue task deterministically. A model can help summarise an ambiguous conversation. The CRM should make that distinction clear, rather than calling every reminder an autonomous agent.

For each scoped agent, we specify the information it may read, the changes it may propose, how approval works and what happens when the information is stale or incomplete. External communications and consequential changes require the agreed review step. Integration access, provider costs and evaluation are part of the scope.

Our own product

Building a CRM sharpens how we build yours.

Meibo is Wall & Fifth’s own CRM product in development. Its current implementation includes configurable fields and pipeline stages, saved views, inline editing, reviewed workflow signals and an assistant that prepares briefings, reply drafts and proposed tasks when an AI provider is connected.

That gives us a practical foundation for interface design, record editing and reviewed workflows. We assess the reusable components against your requirements and identify which connections, record types and specialist modules need further development. Those capabilities are built and verified as part of the agreed scope.

Your project may use independently built software, reusable components or an expressly licensed core. The decision follows the requirements, ownership expectations and operating costs. The client-facing product is designed around your business; the underlying architecture is an informed choice, agreed before work starts.

What you receive

A working system. A clear handover.

The starting point is a defined operational release: the core records, one complete business journey and the integrations required to make it usable. Discovery establishes the boundary. We price that boundary, design the interface and build against acceptance criteria your team can understand.

Migration is planned as a delivery workstream. We map and test the data before cutover, reconcile the results and decide how history, files and relationships will be retained. Some source platforms restrict exports; we identify those limitations before claiming the migration will preserve everything.

Before launch, the people doing the work test realistic scenarios. We check the interface, record permissions, integrations, failure states and any agent approval flow. The handover includes the agreed code, access, deployment documentation, user training and responsibility for support. A dashboard alone is not a completed CRM.

The investment

From £50,000. Priced around the scope.

£50,000 is the starting build investment, not a promise to deliver an unlimited list of features. Record complexity, workflows, access rules, external connections and migration quality determine the actual quote. A useful first release concentrates on the work the team does most often.

The build price and running costs are separate. Hosting, email services, AI usage, third-party licences, monitoring and ongoing support are identified in the proposal. Maintenance keeps the agreed system healthy; new features are a separate decision. Broader product development can continue through an Embedded Partner engagement.

The business case should compare the entire cost of each option with the value of the workflow it improves. A custom CRM is worth considering when a distinctive operation justifies the investment and the company can own the system after launch. If configuration solves the problem well, that deserves a fair hearing.

Ownership & continuity

Know what you own before you commit.

You own your business data. For an independently built CRM, the agreed custom code and infrastructure are handed over under the project contract. If the proposal uses Meibo or another reusable core, it identifies the retained IP, licence, custom-code ownership, hosting and exit terms before you sign. A perpetual licence, source escrow or full IP assignment is only included when expressly agreed in that contract.

We also agree who controls the hosting account, how you export records and attachments, and what another team would need to operate the CRM. Hosting in your own account can be scoped. Code ownership, a software licence and access to your data are different rights; a responsible proposal spells out all three.

After launch, continuity depends on documented deployments, controlled access, backups and an agreed support arrangement. A beautiful interface is only useful if the business can trust what sits underneath it.