Custom Manufacturing Software Development for Omnicon
A custom manufacturing software development platform replaced the low-code tool Omnicon, a 250-engineer manufacturing consultancy, had outgrown, unifying project, team, and billing workflows.
- Geography
- Cali, Colombia
- Year
- 2018
- Stage
- 201-500 employees, 250+ engineers
- Team
- 1 full-stack engineer, 1 UI designer, 1 project manager
- Duration
- August 2018 to ongoing
The situation
Omnicon is a manufacturing automation consultancy in Cali, Colombia, running more than 250 engineers across active projects. The company had been managing structured teams, billing cycles, and business process reporting through a low-code tool, and that worked while Omnicon was smaller. At 250-plus engineers, the low-code surface had become the bottleneck, and the case built specifically around Omnicon's operation was clear.
The brief was a custom platform, internally branded Kairos, that would own project and team management end to end, with billing and reporting built in rather than bolted on as a separate tool.
What we built
Shipverra staffed the build with one full-stack engineer, one UI designer, and one project manager, a compact team scoped to what a 250-engineer consultancy actually needed rather than a large delivery org. The engagement began in August 2018 and has continued since, with the platform growing as Omnicon's operation has grown.
Kairos covers project and team management end to end: activity assignment, monitoring, and the reporting layer that project leaders, engineers, and developers use to coordinate work day to day. Billing and business-process features sit inside the same platform, so operational reporting and financial reporting share one data model instead of living in separate systems that need to be reconciled by hand. That combination is what turns a project tracker into a fuller software development platform.
The stack is Angular on the frontend, with Node.js, Knex.js, and Objection.js on the backend, and MySQL for storage. Component design was deliberately built for scale, so Omnicon could add new reporting surfaces and chart types as its needs changed, without a rebuild each time.
"They offer great support."
Engagement FAQ
What kind of tool does a platform like Kairos usually replace?
In Omnicon's case, it replaced a low-code tool that worked at a smaller scale but couldn't hold up past 250 engineers. Once project volume, team size, or reporting complexity outgrows what the original tool can support, the case for a purpose-built platform overtakes the case for keeping the low-code layer.
Is a platform like Kairos a one-time build or an ongoing engagement?
Ongoing. Kairos has been in production since August 2018 with the same lean team, one full-stack engineer, one UI designer, one project manager, expanding it as Omnicon's reporting and billing needs grew. That's the honest timeline for a platform meant to replace a low-code tool at scale: it's not a fixed-scope delivery, it's infrastructure that keeps growing with the business.
Can billing and reporting live inside the same platform as project and team management?
Yes. Kairos keeps operational reporting (project and team activity) and financial reporting (billing) inside one data model, which avoids the reconciliation work that comes from running them in separate systems.
What team size does a project like this need?
Omnicon's Kairos platform has run since 2018 with a lean team: one full-stack engineer, one UI designer, and one project manager. A compact team can carry a platform like this as long as the component architecture is built to scale without a rebuild each time new reporting needs show up.
How do you know a low-code tool has become a bottleneck?
The signal at Omnicon was scale. Managing structured teams, billing cycles, and reporting through a low-code surface worked when the company was smaller, and became the bottleneck once it crossed 250 engineers. Reporting that needs manual workarounds, and process rules the low-code structure can't express cleanly, are the usual early signs.
How much does a custom manufacturing software development platform like Kairos cost?
There's no fixed number to quote, because Kairos wasn't priced as a fixed-scope project — it's an ongoing engagement staffed with a lean team (one full-stack engineer, one UI designer, one project manager) that has run since August 2018 and grown as Omnicon's needs have. Cost scales with team size and how much scope you bring in at once: a platform covering project and team management alone costs less to start than one that folds in billing and reporting from day one.