What happens next
Getting started
A deployment takes somewhere between a few weeks and two months, depending mostly on the state of your existing data. Here is the whole process, so you can see what you are agreeing to before you agree to it.
It runs on your servers, not ours
We install the software on infrastructure you control. Student records, addresses, and routes stay inside your network and under your existing policies — there is no copy of your data on a vendor's cloud, and no third party holding it on your behalf.
For a public body with obligations under FOIP, that turns the hardest question in any procurement — where does the data live and who can reach it? — into a short answer: on your server, and only the people you grant access to.
The trade is that your IT department has to provide a server and grant us access to support it. For most districts that is a familiar arrangement; the requirements are below, and they are deliberately unremarkable.
Is this a fit?
We are a small studio, and we are not the right answer for everyone. Better to work that out now than three meetings in.
Probably a good fit
- You run transportation on spreadsheets, paper, and institutional memory, and it is starting to cost you
- You have IT who can provide a Linux server, or a hosting provider you already trust
- You would rather your student data stayed on your own infrastructure
- You want the software changed when it does not fit, not a feature request that disappears
- You are big enough that this matters and small enough that a national vendor treats you as a rounding error
Probably not us
- You need a fully managed service with no server of your own to look after
- You need it live in a fortnight — data migration alone takes longer than that
- You need 24-hour phone support and a named account team
- Your procurement requires a vendor with hundreds of staff behind it
None of these are judgements — they are just things we are honestly not set up to do. If one of them describes you, a larger vendor will serve you better, and we would rather say so.
The process
Each step depends on the one before it. The ranges are honest — where a stage runs long, it is nearly always the data.
A conversation
Week 0You tell us what you are doing today and where it hurts. No demo script, no obligation, and no sales team — you are talking to the person who wrote the software. If what you need is not something we do, we will say so.
A look at what you have
1–2 weeksWe look at the actual data: your student records, your routes, your boundaries, whatever exists and in whatever shape it is in. This is where the real scope of a project becomes clear, and it is the step that most often changes the plan.
Your IT team gets the requirements
Runs in parallelA short, specific list your IT department can act on — server, database, PHP version, and VPN access for us. Nothing exotic, and nothing that needs new hardware in most districts. The full list is below.
Installation and data migration
2–4 weeksWe install onto your server and bring your existing data across. Migration is usually the longest part, because real data is messy and the answer to "is this address in the catchment" has to be right before anyone trusts the system.
Configuration and training
1–2 weeksEligibility rules, boundaries, schools, and the settings that make it your district rather than a generic one. Then we train the people who will use it daily, on your data rather than a sample database.
Go-live, then support
OngoingWe stay close through the first registration period, because that is when the questions arrive. After that, support is ongoing and you are still talking to the same person.
What your IT team needs to provide
Worth forwarding to whoever runs your servers. If anything here is a problem, tell us early — there is usually a way around it.
- A Linux server
- Physical or virtual, on your infrastructure or a hosting provider you choose. Most districts already have somewhere suitable.
- PHP 8.4 or newer
- With the standard extensions. We will confirm the exact list against your environment.
- MySQL 8
- MariaDB equivalents are usually fine — worth checking with us first.
- VPN access for us
- So we can install, maintain, and support the system without your data ever leaving your network. Scoped and revocable, on your terms and your VPN.
- A TLS certificate and backups
- Whatever your district already uses. We will tell you exactly what needs backing up.
What it costs
Cost depends on which products you need, how many students and vehicles you run, and how much work the data migration turns out to be. We would rather quote you something accurate than publish a number that changes the moment we look at your data.
What we will not do is price by the seat and then charge you again for the routing. Because the mapping and routing are ours and self-hosted, planning as carefully as you like costs nothing extra — there is no meter running while you work.
Tell us roughly what you have and we will come back with a real figure.
Start the conversation
The first step is a conversation, not a demo. Tell us what you are doing today and we will tell you honestly whether we can help.