Custom CRM Development

When you have outgrown your CRM and need something custom

Companies rarely leave Salesforce or HubSpot because those products are bad. They leave because the business stopped fitting the template.

Tepia builds custom CRMs for operators in field service, distribution, home improvement, healthcare and B2B services, usually for teams of 15 to 300 users. Tepia is not the right answer for a five person sales team with a standard pipeline; HubSpot will serve you better and Tepia will say so. Tepia’s honest comparison is at build a custom CRM or bend Salesforce.

What Tepia delivers is a CRM shaped around your process, with a mobile app your field team actually opens, automations that match how deals really move, and a data model you own outright.

Modules Tepia builds into a custom CRM

Tepia scopes a custom CRM as a set of modules so you pay for what your process needs. The table shows what is typically in a core build and what is added for more complex operations.

Tepia builds the web application in React with a Node.js or .NET API on PostgreSQL, hosted in your AWS or Azure account, and the mobile app natively in Swift and Kotlin or in React Native depending on scope.

Migrating from Salesforce, HubSpot or Pipedrive

Migration is the part of a custom CRM project that buyers worry about most and that Tepia plans first. In Discovery, Tepia exports a full sample from your current system and maps every object and field to the new data model, including the custom fields and the half abandoned ones nobody remembers creating.

• What moves: contacts, companies, deals with stage history, activities, notes, tasks, attachments, email logs and user assignments.
• What gets cleaned: duplicates, inconsistent picklists and dead fields, with a rules document your team approves before the final run.
• How it runs: a rehearsal migration into the new CRM during Beta so your team can validate real records, then a final cutover migration during Launch with the old system kept read only for an agreed period.

Tepia has done this through the Salesforce, HubSpot and Pipedrive APIs as well as from CSV exports. Where your current CRM is also your email marketing tool, Tepia keeps that integration in place through its CRM integration and automation service so nothing breaks on cutover day.

How Tepia approaches custom CRM development

Tepia applies its six phase process to CRM builds with a US based project manager assigned to your engagement.

1. Discovery (typically 1 to 3 months). System investigation of your current CRM, accounting and communication tools, user interviews with sales, service and operations staff, and a third party integration review. Deliverables: Investigation Summary, Interview Summary, User Stories and a field by field migration map.
2. Design. Design questionnaire, moodboards and style guide, then detailed wireframes for pipeline views, record pages, quoting and the mobile app, with sample designs approved before code.
3. Development and Testing (typically 2 to 5 months). Alpha and Beta schedules, test plans covering automations and permissions, functional testing, user acceptance testing with a pilot team using rehearsal migrated data, and non functional testing for reporting performance.
4. Launch (about 1 month). Final data migration, cutover from the old CRM, and Tepia support reps available during the first weeks.

See tepia.co/process for the full method and tepia.co/our-work for related projects.

Timeline and what affects it

A core custom CRM from Tepia typically launches in 5 to 9 months.

Tepia clients report about 90% customer retention, and a CRM that mirrors your real process is one of the tools that makes that possible. Related reading: how to build a custom CRM and custom internal tools. All services are listed at tepia.co/services; reach Tepia at tepia.co/contact-us.

Frequently asked questions