Fragmented ERP
An ageing ERP, a handful of point systems, and nobody owns the whole picture.
Tribes Engineering · Software engineers for engineers
Human Led Delivery. AI Accelerated Outcomes.
Precision on the shop floor. Spreadsheets in the back office?
We're engineers too. We just work with different materials.
We're a software engineering company. We specify, design, build and test software and AI agents that you own. For example, software that turns a tender's drawings into a draft quote, or matches every purchase order on a repeat production run.
- No fee, no obligation
- On your site, 2.5 hours
- Written report you keep
Certified & trusted
Crown Commercial Service Supplier
Crown Commercial Service Supplier
We've worked with big names too
Most of our work is with ambitious UK businesses. It's still worth mentioning we've also worked with many public-facing brands, including Unilever, Google, Chanel, Hitachi, Nationwide, Compare the Market, TRESemmé and Contentsquare.
The opportunity
Most of the sector hasn't started. The gap is measurable.
Tech and professional services firms already use AI to cut admin, answer customers sooner and report in real time. Engineering and manufacturing sit below the UK average. For most firms, the first gains are in the back office, where the work is repetitive and well understood.
UK businesses using AI, by sector, June 2026
2%
of UK manufacturers say AI is widely embedded across their operations.
1 in 5
UK manufacturers haven't adopted AI at all.
£68,000
of every £1m turnover goes on plant and machinery each year (6.8%).
Sources: ONS, Artificial intelligence in UK businesses: 2023 to 2026 (BICS, June 2026); Make UK, AI, Skills and the Future of the UK Manufacturing Sector (June 2026); Make UK / RSM Investment Monitor 2025.
Book your free workshop
The workshop shows where you sit, and what closing the gap would be worth.
The problem
Paying rent on systems that don't fit?
Spreadsheets
Estimating, scheduling and project control in spreadsheets only one person really understands.
Integration debt
Fragile links between CAD, PLM and ERP that break whenever something changes.
Licensing sprawl
Per-seat licences that go up every year and still don't quite fit.
The result: your people become the integration layer.
Re-keying POs, chasing delivery notes, checking invoices. Hours every week that nobody budgeted for.
Back-office savings calculator
What does the legwork cost? A first estimate in 30 seconds.
One check for each side of the house. For repeat production, start with supplier paperwork: invoices matched to purchase orders. For one-off or engineer-to-order work, use RFQ to quote. Rough figures are fine; the results update as you go.
Hours spent per month
107
Hours back per month
85
Back per year
£30,720
Before counting overcharges and duplicate payments caught.
Estimator hours freed per month
96
Extra quotes you could send per month
8
Extra revenue per year
£360,000
From RFQs you currently can't quote in time.
AI, demystified
Three ways AI shows up, in plain English.
AI-assisted work
Copilots & chat tools
Helps your people draft, summarise and search faster. Handy, but it sits beside your process, not inside it.
Best for: individual productivity.
Bespoke software
Built around your process
Repeatable workflows on a solid data backbone: jobs, quotes, schedules, stock, quality. AI now makes it much quicker to build.
Best for: the core of how you operate.
Agentic AI
Digital colleagues
Handles the messy stuff, where inputs vary and judgement is needed: emails, PDFs, drawings, exceptions.
Best for: the legwork between systems.
The best results come from the last two together: bespoke software as the backbone, agents handling the messy work around it. That's where we focus.
Book your free workshop
In the workshop, we match each problem to the approach that fits it.
AI agents
Agents that do the legwork between your systems.
How an agent works, in four steps. Then two examples, one from each side: a manufacturer buried in supplier paperwork, and an engineering firm quoting from drawings.
Reads
Emails, PDFs, drawings, spreadsheets and system data.
Decides
Works out what's needed from your rules and job history.
Acts
Updates the ERP, drafts the reply, raises the PO.
Checks
Checks its own work and flags anything odd to a person.
Manufacturing · Saves money
Supplier paperwork agent
Before
- Each invoice opened and checked against the PO and delivery note by hand
- Details re-keyed into finance or ERP
- Price or quantity mismatches found late, or not at all
- Month-end held up chasing paperwork
After
- Reads every PDF and email the moment it lands
- Three-way matches invoice, PO and goods received
- Posts clean invoices straight into your ERP
- Flags mismatches to a person, with the reason
Engineering · Makes money
RFQ-to-quote agent
“In engineering, the first credible quote often wins.”
Before
- RFQs, tender packs and drawings sit in an inbox until an estimator is free
- Specs, materials and tolerances pulled out by hand
- Similar past jobs hard to find, so costs start from scratch
- Days to respond, some RFQs never quoted
After
- Reads the RFQ email, drawings and specs on arrival
- Extracts material, quantity, tolerances and finish
- Finds similar past jobs and their actual costs
- Drafts the quote for your estimator to check and send
Humans in the loop
People approve anything that matters, like payments or customer quotes.
Running cost sized up front
You know what an agent costs to run before we build it.
Fully auditable
Every action logged, aligned to ISO 27001 and the EU AI Act.
Book your free workshop
The workshop ranks candidate agents by payback, so you know which to build first.
Built for you, owned by you
Built to your spec. Owned outright.
AI has rewritten the build-versus-rent maths. We engineer bespoke software built around your process, owned by you, then test, commission and maintain it like any other kit on your site: fit for purpose, right first time.
Rent today
- Subscription, integration and maintenance fees, forever
- Nothing to show for it at the end
- You bend your process to fit off-the-shelf software
- Features arrive on the vendor's roadmap, not yours
Own with Tribes
- Fixed spec and fixed price, board-ready before we start
- Full IP and source code: an asset on your balance sheet
- Software shaped around how your business actually works
- Built at AI speed, tested and commissioned by senior engineers
Replace a system outright, or keep what works and bolt new modules onto it.
Popular modules to start with, or bolt on
- Works orders & job management
- Estimating, quoting & order processing
- Production & resource scheduling
- Stock & materials visibility
- Quality & compliance control
- Supplier & purchasing portal
- Customer self-service portal
- Maintenance & asset tracking
- Shop-floor capture & executive dashboards
What we typically replace
| Area | Typical tools |
|---|---|
| ERP & operations | Epicor, Infor, SAP Business One |
| Job & works management | SimPRO, Joblogic, BigChange |
| Workforce & scheduling | Deputy, Planday |
| Reporting | Tableau, Power BI, manual spreadsheets |
| Finance integration | Xero, Sage, QuickBooksWe connect, not replace |
We'll tell you straight which tools to replace and which to keep.
Finance systems usually stay. We connect to them so invoices and orders flow through without re-keying.
Weeks
not months to deliver
100% IP
owned by you
£0
ongoing licence or per-user fees
Book your free workshop
We'll put an indicative cost and return against each module.
Shop-floor AI
Back office first. Shop floor too.
The back office is our focus, but we deliver shop-floor AI as well. On repeat production, that means live OEE, less scrap and less downtime from the kit you already own. On project and one-off work, it means schedules that hold when a design change lands.
- Machine data & OEE dashboards
- Predictive maintenance
- AI vision quality inspection
- Production scheduling optimisation
No fee · No obligation
The Value AI Workshop. Find where AI actually pays.
A working session on your site, with your department heads in the room. We find where bespoke systems and AI agents would earn their keep, and put an indicative cost and return against each one.
Led by our CTO, Steven Wright, and CCO, Paul Green.
2.5 hours
On your site, or online
5 working days
To your written report
£0
No fee and no follow-up chasing
The agenda
- 0:00
Welcome, objectives and ways of working
10 minTribes - 0:10
Your business context and priorities
What good looks like in 12-24 months, where you're constrained.
15 minYou - 0:25
Business process walkthrough
Bid to delivery: where the re-keying, delays and rework hide.
45 minJoint - 1:10
Break
10 min - 1:20
Technology, data and systems landscape
ERP, CAD, finance, spreadsheets, subscriptions.
25 minJoint - 1:45
Opportunity mapping
Against four levers: efficiency, insight, integration, commercial.
30 minJoint - 2:15
Prioritisation, indicative value and next steps
15 minTribes
What we're not doing
- Selling a platform. There's nothing to buy at the end.
- Recommending AI for its own sake. Some of the best answers won't involve it.
- Choosing tools. That comes later, based on evidence.
- Chasing you afterwards. “Interesting, but not now” is a perfectly good outcome.
Who should be in the room
- Sales & commercial / estimating
- Operations & production
- Finance
- IT or systems
Someone who can sign off a change, and someone who runs the process week to week. The second one usually knows where the time really goes.
What you walk away with
A shared process map
Your core processes end to end, marked where time, cost or accuracy leaks out.
A systems picture
Your systems, data and subscriptions, with integration gaps and end-of-life risks flagged.
A prioritised shortlist
Each opportunity with an indicative cost and return.
An agreed sequence
Quick wins split from bigger bets, each with a named owner.
See what you get
Pages from a real (anonymised) report we prepared for an engineering group with five operating businesses.
The cover Welcome, objectives and ways of working Commercial upside is built on the first three What the client has by the end of the session
Book your free workshop
Your own report, within 5 working days.
AI readiness scorecard
How ready is your back office for AI? 8 questions. 60 seconds.
Question 1 of 8
Is your job, quote and order data held in one system rather than spreadsheets?
0out of 16
Your result
Ready for quick wins
Where we'd look first
How we work
Explore. Assess. Build. Before a line of code is written.
Assessment
We map your systems and software spend, and work out the five-year own-versus-rent case. Board-ready before you commit to anything.
Fixed-scope build
AI-accelerated delivery by senior DevCheck®-vetted engineers, with security and testing at every layer. Fixed scope, fixed price.
Own & extend
You own the software outright, full IP and source, and add modules as you grow.
Bigger builds are phased, so an MVP is live and earning while we build the rest.
After launch
- Maintenance and updates
- Training and handover
- Feature enhancements
- Optional hosting (platform agnostic)
- Optional 24/7 support
Book your free workshop
Step one is the workshop, held on your site at no cost.
Why Tribes
Senior engineers. AI-accelerated. Governed at every stage.
Human Led Delivery. AI Accelerated Outcomes.
You specify, design and make things that have to work. So do we. We're engineers too; we just work with different materials. The discipline is the same as a good toolroom: specify, design, build and test, and get it right first time. The result is solid, enterprise-grade software, with AI systems that are considered and safe.
200+
Products delivered
100+
Projects across industries
ISO 27001
Certified
DevCheck®
Every engineer, every project
Every engineer vetted
DevCheck®, our proprietary vetting platform developed with the University of Salford, scores developers 1-1000 across technical ability, communication and real-world experience.
Governed and secure
ISO 27001 certified, with AI-assisted code review and testing at every layer.
B Corp certified
One of a small number of B Corp tech businesses in the UK, with responsible AI aligned to the EU AI Act.
Built in Manchester
Our founder has been part of Manchester's digital scene for 30+ years, including the Manchester Digital steering committee. We're a Crown Commercial Service supplier.
Meet the people you'll work with
Steven Wright
CTO
Runs the process and systems review in the workshop, and owns the technical architecture.
Paul Green
CCO
Makes sure every opportunity stacks up commercially, with a cost and a return.
Book your free workshop
Steven and Paul lead the workshop together.
What clients say
Four clients, in their own words.
Tribes is truly a world-class development company. We came to them with the impossible and they delivered, on time, on budget, something that is now the cornerstone of our offering.
The team at Tribes are proving to be a fantastic technology partner, helping us design and build proofs of concept at speed, with superior talent in both thought leadership and delivery.
Your team is brilliant, great at interpreting and anticipating our needs. If I have any digital build projects in the future, you'll be the first call I make.
Tribes are true thought leaders and global professionals in development and creative engineering.
FAQs
Straight answers to fair questions.
Is there a fee for the workshop?
No. There's no fee and no obligation. You keep the written report whatever you decide.
Is it a sales pitch?
No. It's a discovery and advisory session. If it leads to a project, that's a separate conversation, and we won't chase you.
What happens on the 30-minute call?
A short conversation with Steven or Paul to see whether the Value AI Workshop is a fit. Bring one example: a tender you struggled to quote in time, or a production week that went sideways. No other prep needed.
Do we need to prepare anything?
A little helps: a list of your core systems and subscriptions with rough annual cost, the two or three reports you lean on most, and each attendee's top three frustrations. We send a short guide beforehand.
Who should attend?
Ideally 4-8 people across sales/estimating, operations/production, finance and IT, including someone who runs the process week to week.
What happens afterwards?
Within 5 working days you get the process map, systems findings and a prioritised shortlist with indicative cost and return, plus a recommended next step where one makes sense.
Do we have to replace our ERP?
No. Often the best answer is to keep what works and add modules or agents around it: for a manufacturer, an agent matching purchase orders to goods received; for an engineering firm, a quoting tool that reads drawings and pulls through the BOM. We'll tell you straight which bits to keep.
Who owns the software you build?
You do: full IP, source code and data. No per-seat licences, no lock-in, documented so any competent partner could maintain it.
Is our data safe?
We're ISO 27001 certified, every engineer is DevCheck® vetted, people approve anything that matters, and every agent action is logged.
How quickly can you build?
Typically weeks, not months, at fixed scope and fixed price, phased so an MVP is earning early.
Where are you based?
Manchester, with a second engineering hub in Bucharest, Romania. We come to you anywhere in the UK.
Book your free workshop
Another question? Email bruce@tribes.tech.
The next step
Engineer to engineer. Start with a 30-min call.
You machine metal. We engineer the systems that run your business. A 30-minute call tells us both whether the Value AI Workshop is a good use of your team's morning.
- 1
Send the form
It takes 60 seconds.
- 2
A 30-minute video call
With Steven or Paul, to see if it's a fit.
- 3
We come to you for 2.5 hours
Your report lands within 5 working days.
- No fee
- No obligation
- No chasing
- ISO 27001