Questions
Questions people actually ask
Short answers. Where there is a longer one, it links to the chapter that gives it.
What does ReadyRun do?
ReadyRun is a South African software company. It runs the ordinary software a business needs as standard, unmodified applications on infrastructure the business owns, and builds the one part that is the reason customers choose that business into software owned outright by the client. Based in Johannesburg, working in South Africa and the United Kingdom.
Where does a project like this actually start?
Smaller than most people expect. The first thing is usually one piece of work somebody currently does by hand: a document copied into an email, a spreadsheet filled in every Friday from figures that already exist elsewhere. No new software arrives, nothing is switched off, and nobody has anything to learn. It gets scoped and quoted after somebody has looked at how the business works.
Chapter 1: Automate the Carrying, Never the CaringWhat happens to the software we already have?
Nothing is thrown out to make room. Every system is looked at on its own and one of three things happens to it. It stays, because it does its job, and the new work connects to it. It is replaced, because it is not doing its job and building a better one is not worth it. Or it turns out to be how the business wins work, and becomes software the business owns.
Chapter 5: Three Things Can Happen to a SystemShould we buy software or have it built?
Both, and the split is the work. Most of what a business does is ordinary: invoicing, projects, chat, file storage. Doing those differently wins nobody any work, so buy them and leave them standard. The part that is the reason customers choose you cannot be bought, because anything you can buy your competitors can buy too.
Chapter 6: Whatever You Can Buy, Your Competitors Can BuyWhat does it cost?
It depends on the mixture, which is why the pricing page shows rates rather than one number. Standard software you keep or replace is priced by what it runs on: a server, a once-off installation fee and a monthly fee. Software built around the way you work is priced as an outcome rather than by the hour. Most businesses pay for a mixture of all three.
Do you self-host everything?
No, and being able to say which things should not be self-hosted is what makes the rest of it credible. Mail, documents and meetings should be Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, and we will tell you so. Self-hosting the documents leaves email in the wild, which is the part nobody should improvise. We will never propose self-hosting your mail.
Chapter 5: Three Things Can Happen to a SystemWhat happens if we want to stop working with you?
The source sits in your repository and runs in your tenancy, on a conventional stack, so it leaves with you rather than a copy of the data. Two founders have left ReadyRun projects and the work carried on without them. Neither of those was a stranger picking it up cold, which is worth saying plainly, because that is what the promise would mean in full.
Chapter 7: No SpellsDoes this mean job cuts?
No, and it is the question most people think and few ask. The same people spend their day on the part of the job that needed a person, and the business takes on more work without taking on more administration. Roles change shape. We will not promise that no role ever changes, because that promise gets broken.
Chapter 3: Your People Are the WiringNot answered here?
The long version is eight chapters, in the order the work actually happens. Or ask us directly, which is faster.