Development

Abel’s development capability covers core Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) functionality, system integration, mobile applications, and business intelligence reporting.

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Abel is developed by the company that delivers it

Abel ERP is developed, maintained, and extended in-house by Abel Software, the company that originally designed and built the system and continues to implement, support, and enhance it.

Because development is part of Abel’s operating model, ongoing enhancements are driven by customer requirements and operational experience gained through implementation, consultancy, and our help desk. Abel continues to evolve as business needs change in response to real operational demands, evolving processes, and system integration opportunities, while remaining grounded in the structure and integrity of the core system.

Ongoing development and system extension

Development at Abel is undertaken by a permanent in-house team of developers working alongside the consultancy and help desk teams.

Their work covers core application enhancements, customer-specific extensions, integration including Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), web services, and data exchange, mobile applications, reporting and business intelligence development, and purpose-built screens for specific operations, such as weighing. It also includes ongoing enhancement of Abel’s overall user experience, including major interface updates delivered as part of the platform’s evolution.

Abel is designed to align with operational requirements, integrate with surrounding systems, and remain supportable over time.

Core application enhancements

When a customer requests an enhancement that we think has broader value, we develop it within the Abel Core. This enables the functionality of the Abel ERP platform to expand over time for the benefit of all customers.

Customer-specific enhancements

When a business has requirements that are unique to its own operation, Abel can be extended within a dedicated sub-layer of its architecture (the User Schema). This means customer-specific capability can be added in a way that utilises functions within the Abel core application, is separately maintainable, and preserves the ability to receive upgrades.

System integration

Abel’s developers have extensive experience designing and building integrations with third-party applications and external services, both as standard features of the core application and as customer-specific interfaces. This includes APIs, web services, file import / export and other structured transfer of information between systems, as well as integration with reporting and business intelligence solutions, and operational tools such as scanning and labelling systems. The aim is to support connected business processes across systems.

Mobile applications and operational interfaces

Abel’s developers build cross-platform mobile applications for iOS and Android, including Abel’s Mobile Warehouse and Mobile Sales applications, as well as customer-specific solutions.

Abel’s mobile platform extends Abel beyond the desktop to support sales, warehouse, factory floor, and customer-specific operations.

We developed our own Abel mobile framework that underpins our mobile applications. Like our desktop solution, Abel’s mobile framework has been architected to allow customer-specific functionality to be built using core mobile features.

The team also develops device integrations for operational environments, including handheld and in-line scanners, barcode-based workflows, and touch screen interfaces for Windows-based devices used on the factory floor and in forklift operations.

Reporting and business intelligence development

Abel’s developers build reporting and analytics as part of the wider system. This includes report development within the core Abel system and business intelligence solutions within Abel’s BI reporting suite, built on Microsoft Power BI.

Operational data can be extracted from Abel into SQL-based environments (including SQL Server, Azure SQL, and Snowflake) for reporting and analysis. These data environments support Abel’s tailored BI solution and third-party reporting tools, to provide broader reporting and decision-making capability across desktop and mobile environments.

Tools and technologies in Abel’s development

Abel’s development work draws on a range of established technologies and tools.

Core platform

Mobile technologies

Integration technologies

Operational and device technologies

Microsoft technologies

Data and reporting technologies

Ongoing development and enhancement

Abel is a comprehensive ERP platform developed, maintained, and enhanced in response to customer requirements, operational complexity, and changing business environments. Development spans core functionality, integrations, mobile applications, reporting, and customer-specific enhancements, ensuring the system continues to evolve in a structured and maintainable way.