Web platforms
A website shows what you do. A web application keeps your operations running smoothly. First we map the users, information flows and future plans. Then we design the screens.
If you are looking for a brochure website or a standard webshop, we are probably not the best choice.
What is a web application?
A custom web application is software that runs in any web browser, with users, roles, data and processes. It supports day-to-day operations: applications, member management, records, orders, reporting and integrations with the software you already use. Zenjoy designs, builds and maintains such web platforms from Leuven, for organisations in Flanders and Brussels for which a classic website or standard tool is not enough.
When people need to log in, data always has to be correct, or the same information lives in Excel, a mailbox and a CRM. Four things we often hear:
Applications, members, records and planning live in spreadsheets. The website is just a shop window.
Each tool solves one part. They are connected through an export, a mailbox or that one colleague who knows everything.
Eighty percent is covered by the package. For the last twenty percent, the workarounds pile up.
The knowledge sits with people, not in the product. Hardly anyone has thought about maintenance.
Every workaround costs time and scatters the data further. The organisation ends up depending on the people who know exactly which export and which shaky Excel formula holds it all together.
| Website | Web platform | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Inform, be found, convince | Support day-to-day operations |
| Users | Visitors | Visitors and users with different roles |
| Data | Content | Content, records, members, figures, analyses, integrations |
| After launch | Editing text | Processes, new versions, monitoring and further development |
Everyone logs in to their own environment: members manage their own details, customers follow up their file, partners add what you would otherwise have to request by email. Roles and permissions decide who sees what and who is allowed to change what. The back-and-forth with forms and the double keying in disappear.
The day-to-day workflows come together in one application: receiving a request or an order, following it up, assigning it, invoicing, closing it. What is manual work today, we automate. The steps where someone really has to decide stay explicitly on screen.
A custom web application rarely stands alone. We connect it to your CRM, accounting, ERP, payment provider or single sign-on, so data is managed in one place and is correct everywhere. We first check whether integrating is enough: replacing is more expensive and rarely necessary.
Figures that today come out of exports and Excel will be live in the application: occupancy, lead time, revenue, member numbers. Every role sees the dashboard that matches their work. An export stays possible for anyone who has to forward a report.
Login, profiles, permissions, personal dashboards.
Forms, imports, quality checks, exports, insights.
Multilingual, easy to search and with a clear editorial flow. Not a loose collection of pages.
CRM, SSO, accounting and other data sources. We first check whether integrating is smarter than replacing.
We use AI to remove copy-and-paste work around the platform, not as a clever layer on top of a form.
Often combined with a mobile app, Platform Care or a solution for federations and research.
Partner data was spread across different structures and sources. We built a platform that keeps locations, members and updates manageable. More than just a map.
Registration, contracts, payments, integrations. Growing along for years instead of starting over every few years.
The method against food waste worked, the tools did not. The platform now supports the daily work.
That depends on what the application has to do. A clearly scoped first version with one user role and a handful of screens is in a different order of magnitude than a web platform with member management, invoicing and three integrations. So we start with a first version that can go into use quickly, and extend it once it is doing its job. Five factors weigh most heavily on the price.
One type of end user is simple. Members, administrators, partners and a public side each mean their own screens, permissions and testing.
A payment provider is routine. An older ERP without a decent API sometimes costs more analysis than the rest of the application put together.
Starting with an empty system is cheaper than migrating, cleaning up and checking fifteen years of history.
How many business processes are we digitising, and how many of those steps are allowed to run automatically?
Design, testing, training, hosting and maintenance are part of the picture. We list them separately in the quote, so you can see what you are paying for.
Every project starts with an exploratory call. After that you get a tailored quote with a fixed scope: a clearly scoped first version, a phasing for what comes next and separate agreements on hosting and maintenance. That way you know up front what the delivery involves and what it takes to let the application grow with your organisation.
In a first call we look at users, business processes, integrations and existing data. You get a proposal for a first usable version, with budget, phasing and agreements on ownership and maintenance. Sometimes one integration or a simpler solution is enough.
Yes, but our strongest projects involve more than content. If a simple website is enough, we will say so. A web agency will be cheaper for you then.
When login, up-to-date data or connecting your tools are the real work. Then a website isn’t enough, and an off-the-shelf package often isn’t either.
We build the web application around that way of working. For a brochure site or a regular webshop we are usually not the best choice.
Yes. Integrations are often the real work. We first look at whether integrating, adapting or replacing is the wisest choice. Not everything has to be custom-built.
In practice the same thing: software that runs in the web browser, without installation. People often use “webapp” or “web app” for a smaller tool with one clear task, and “web based tool” is the wording you see in tender documents. We speak of a web application or a web platform as soon as users, roles, data and processes come into play.
What counts is not the name but the scalability: how many end users, how many features and how much growth does it have to carry? That determines how our developers set the application up.
Yes. We build every web application to be easy to use on a small screen, so it works just as well in the browser of a smartphone or tablet as on a laptop. For people who use it out on the road every day, we can turn it into a progressive web app: with an icon on the home screen, and limited use without a connection.
If you really need the camera, GPS or push notifications of the device, a native app is the better choice. We build that on top of the same web application.
Mainly the number of user roles, the processes, integrations and data migration. Testing and decision points count too. After the discovery we estimate a clearly scoped first version, with separate agreements on maintenance and later features.
You. Ownership of the custom code and the data, and access to repositories and accounts, are set out in the contract. We host and maintain for as long as you want. Taking over existing software from another team? Existing software
Platform Care covers updates, monitoring, support and room to keep building. Without clear management after launch, platforms grind to a halt. Care
Tell us briefly what is not working today. Then we can think along with you in a focused way.
You will talk to someone who thinks along on the substance. No obligation, no standard pitch.
