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Case studies

Seven businesses, and what their software could cost instead

Pick the one closest to your business. Each one walks through the software that business pays for, says plainly which parts have to stay, and shows what the rest would cost if you ran it yourself.

Read this first

These are examples. They are not real customers, and none of them describe a real business. Olympia has not opened yet, so we have no customer stories to tell, and we would rather say that than make some up. We wrote these to show you how we think about a software bill. Every price we use is our own price, taken straight from our price list. Where a number is a guess, we say so on the page.

Pick the one closest to yours

Seven worked examples. Each opens as a full article.

A car salesman handing a customer one small key attached to an enormous bunch of keys carried in a wheelbarrow

Car dealership

The big system a car yard runs on stays where it is. We say so on the first call. But the chat, the shared files, the photos of every car, the booking page and the used-car customer list are a different story. Those can move, and they are most of what a dealership actually pays for.

Read it
A plumber lying under a kitchen sink pulling out a tangle of brightly coloured cables instead of a pipe, watched by a cat

Trades and field service

A plumbing, electrical or air-conditioning business pays for job software, a phone system, chat, and somewhere to keep photos and certificates. Some of that has to stay. A lot of it does not. This one walks through which is which, job by job.

Read it
A man in an office chair calmly adding another tray to a stack of filing trays that runs up out of the frame

Accounting practice

The tax software stays. It is tied to the tax office, and nothing else will do. Everything around it — where client files live, how the team talks, how jobs get tracked, how you book a meeting — is up for grabs, and that is where the money is.

Read it
A man holding one garden hose that splits into a dozen hoses all spraying at once, watched by an unimpressed dog

Software company

A small software team ends up paying for a dozen tools, one seat at a time, and the bill grows every time someone joins. This example takes a team of twenty and goes through the list one line at a time.

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A volunteer behind a jumble sale table piled with identical wrapped parcels, holding up one very small tin

Charity or non-profit

Charities get some software free, get a discount on some, and pay full price for the rest. Knowing which is which is the whole game. This example sorts a small charity’s tools into those three piles first, and only then talks about moving anything.

Read it
An architect at a drawing board whose drawing is chained and padlocked to the board

Architecture and design studio

The drawing software stays — that is the job. But a studio also moves very large files around, keeps years of finished work, and talks to builders and clients all day. Those parts do not have to be rented by the seat.

Read it
An estate agent showing a couple a house while two removal men carry its front door away behind them

Real estate agency

Trust accounting stays — money you hold for someone else is governed by law, and we will not offer to move it. The listing feed stays too. But the chat, the property photos, the condition reports and the buyer list are most of the bill, and every one of them can move.

Read it

Not one of these seven?

Tell us what your business does and what you pay for each month. We will go through it the same way, for free, and tell you honestly which parts are worth moving and which are not. Plenty of the time the answer is “leave that one alone”.