Progress rarely comes from doing more of the same. It comes from questioning the structures we rely on and being willing to rebuild them when they no longer scale. Over the past months, we have taken steps towards our development foundation. Not by changing what clients see or experience, but by strengthening what sits underneath. The result is a more standardised, scalable way of working that benefits both our clients and our teams over time.
From one-off builds to a standardisation mindset
Traditionally, we built our digital solutions from the bottom every time. They solve a specific need well, but over time they become harder to maintain. We have found that fixing the same issue across multiple projects creates unnecessary complexity. Instead, we have moved towards a shared platform built on a foundation of in-house .NET packages. This allows improvements to be made once and applied everywhere. It represents a shift away from isolated solutions and towards a platform mindset that evolves continuously.
Progress rarely comes from doing more of the same. It comes from questioning the structures we rely on and being willing to rebuild them when they no longer scale. Over the past months, we have taken steps towards our development foundation. Not by changing what clients see or experience, but by strengthening what sits underneath. The result is a more standardised, scalable way of working that benefits both our clients and our teams over time.
From one-off builds to a standardisation mindset
Traditionally, we build our digital solutions from the bottom every time. They solve a specific need well, but over time they become harder to maintain. We have found that fixing the same issue across multiple projects creates unnecessary complexity. Instead, we have moved towards a shared platform built on a foundation of in-house .NET packages. This allows improvements to be made once and applied everywhere. It represents a shift away from isolated solutions and towards a platform mindset that evolves continuously.
Enabling more advanced administration
A platform approach makes it possible to support more sophisticated admin functionality, such as direct integration with our clients’ infrastructure. Clients can, for example, manage organisational structures directly, moving users between roles or departments within their own IT systems, and their role within the training platform updates accordingly. This allows clients to manage complexity without increasing technical risk, and to deliver training content customised to their position in the organisation. While we have previously built platforms using Umbraco, this solution is entirely in-house.
It is a Cadpeople platform, independent of third-party constraints, which enables the flexibility to host many different types of apps under one umbrella: training portals, admin portals, and reporting tools - all run within the platform.
Why standardisation is an advantage
Standardisation is sometimes misunderstood as being restrictive. In practice, it creates freedom. By working from a shared platform, developers no longer rely on deep client-specific knowledge to solve problems. The platform is flexible enough to integrate with different CMSs and LMSs, or to manage content directly when needed.
This shared foundation means issues are easier to revisit, features are easier to extend, and teams can onboard faster and more consistently.
Improving something once means improving it everywhere, for everyone.
What now?
We continue to build using this approach. For users, the experience remains as it always has: a visually strong platform with relevant content at its core. Behind the scenes, however, the change is significant. When something new proves its value, new ambitions naturally follow. One of these is a development flow shaped by automation: designing processes where quality checks, testing and deployment are handled by the system rather than through manual steps.
Our development cycle moves code through structured version control, automated testing and a deployment process that removes much of the manual work. If the code does not meet defined quality standards, it does not move forward. When it does, it is deployed in a consistent and predictable way every time. The result we are working towards is a more sustainable way of building digital solutions. It also marks a clear step towards a stronger DevOps culture, where developers can focus less on process and more on creating real value.
Want to stay in the loop?
Get occasional newsletters from Cadpeople.
