Building a small business ERP and wondering if WeWeb is a good fit

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I’m currently serving as a UI/UX designer for a small business, focused on designing the UI for an internal app and conducting prototype tests with end-users. As I prepare to transition into the development phase, I find myself overwhelmed by the quantity of no-code tools available.

My project requires the following functionalities:

  • A custom scheduling tool similar to Calendly, where external users can book and admins can confirm appointments, with automated logistical and confirmation emails.

  • Automatic post-appointment satisfaction surveys.

  • Inventory management (optional)

  • Internal messaging capabilities (optional)

  • Web and mobile app.

  • Highly customizable UI, ideally pixel-perfect (optional)

  • A company wiki.

  • An employee portal for shift management, similar to Agendrix.

  • Bidirectional calendar synchronization with Google Calendar and iCal (optional)

  • Admin dashboards for pay calculation and data analytics.

While I have some coding experience, I’m far from an expert. But, I do have a webflow background. The client is open to hiring a no-code specialist, but they would like me to attempt building the app after undergoing appropriate training. Given the elaborate functionality requirements and my proficiency level, would Weweb serve as the right platform for this project?

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Hi @manuklass :wave:

So I’m biased obviously but going through your functionality requirements, it seems to me you would be able to do everything you want to in WeWeb. Doesn’t mean it will be easy :wink: because it sounds like an ambitious project but it should be doable :slight_smile:

With a Webflow background, I think you will enjoy the WeWeb editor and be able to design your pages fairly quickly. The learning curve might get steeper when you start adding user interactions or more complex features like the calendar synchronization.

If you decide to give WeWeb a try, we can help here in the community or our weekly Office Hours or even recommend a couple of WeWeb specialists if your client needs more hands-on support :slight_smile:

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Ok ! Thank you for the response, that is really reassuring.

As for specialist, I saw that you had a few agencies listed on the website. Is this what you were talking about or you have a list on individual consultants ?

I was also wondering if there is an easy integration with Zapier or other similar tool.

Thanks

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Yes!

We don’t have a native integration with Zapier but we have a REST API plugin that means you could interact with a Zapier webhook.

Do you have a couple of examples of automations / workflows you’d want to do in Zapier?

If you use a stack like WeWeb + Xano or WeWeb + Supabase, you can do most of the things you would do in Zapier directly in those tools.

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Your Zapier idea is a good intuition - the requirements are about what the whole system needs to contain, not what needs to be built. You’ll find that there are some excellent off-the-shelf tools that you can integrate with to cover more of this functionality. Then you fill in with that which you build on weweb or what have you. Think of it like a bricklayer building a wall. YOu want good bricks, but someone else is providing them. Your job is to lay the mortar to connect the bricks so they make the sturdy wall that serves your business.

I have a talk on mental models for no-code building that we also apply at State Change in our office hours. One part of it is the “shopper’s mindset” that encourages you to pick the right tool for the job - or sometimes something to replace the job entirely. By shopping for the bricks and laying the parts of the wall that create the most value first, you’ll be surprised how quickly you can spin up that which creates value for your company.

Welcome to low-code!

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Hi @manuklass!

Sorry for the late response. I wanted to give you a detailed answer.

Like @Joyce said, WeWeb is a great tool for what you want. But remember that many things you need will have to be done “behind the scenes” or in the backend. I’ll explain more below.

A few years ago, we faced the same decision: “(How) should we build our own ERP system?”. Here’s a question to think about:

Is it worth the time and effort to make this from scratch?

There are many tools out there that might do what you want. Like you said, Calendly can help with meetings, and you can use Typeform or SurveyMonkey for surveys. There are also tools for talking with your team (Teams, Missive, Slack) and create a company wiki (Notion, Fibery ← we love Fibery!).

So why not just use these ready-made tools? For us, we chose to use many tools together as an ecosystem. Here’s a list of what we use:

  • Todoist for task management
  • sevDesk for accounting
  • Toggle for time tracking
  • Qonto for banking
  • Whimsical for Mind Maps and Wireframes
  • Missive for communication
  • Fibery as a management and visualization tool to process and view the data of all other tools
  • n8n to glue it all together

We are a small agency and we decided that until now, although we are programmers, know how the backends work and are educated in Bubble and WeWeb, it is not worth the effort. This is hundreds of hours of work.

If you still want to make your tool, here’s some advice:

Custom Scheduling Tool: A lot of the work will be backend-focused, especially connecting calendar APIs, setting up logic, etc. WeWeb would mainly handle the frontend, which might be the more straightforward part.

Post-appointment Surveys: Predominantly backend tasks.

Inventory Management: This could range from being simple (just storing everything in a database with a sleek WeWeb frontend) to quite complex if extensive business logic is needed.

Internal Messaging: A significant chunk of this would be backend, which can get tricky.

Web and Mobile App: With WeWeb, you get a Progressive Web App (PWA) out of the box. This is installable across PCs and most mobile devices. Aesthetically, the sky’s the limit!

Employee Portal for Shift Management: A considerable amount of backend work with challenges in crafting an intuitive UI. However, WeWeb is the right tool for the frontend.

Calendar Sync: Yet again, the backend is where the real magic happens.

Admin Dashboards: WeWeb is perfect for this.

I hope this makes things clearer! If you want, we can talk more. We’ve made similar tools before and might have some helpful advice. Send me a PM if you’re interested.

Take care,

Max

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That is a really great point @Max actually: very often the tools we need already exist. Thanks for taking the time to express it so well!

It’s common to think that building your own tool will save you money but very often that’s not counting the hours put into building and maintaining it.