Bespoke platform for drilling and ground investigation contractors — 57,000+ lines of first-party code across 46 purpose-built database tables. An offline-first field app, web push, automated PDF reporting, compliance tracking, and a client portal with per-job access control.
DrillPro is an operations platform for drilling and ground investigation contractors — the businesses that sink boreholes and run site investigations for engineers and developers across the UK.
The work that pays happens in fields, quarries and half-cleared development sites. The paperwork that proves it — drill logs, rig check sheets, defect reports, compliance records — was being written on paper and carried back to an office in a van. Sheets went missing, logs were retyped by hand, and nobody could answer "where is that job up to" without ringing someone. Meanwhile clients rang the office for updates that already existed on a clipboard.
Off-the-shelf field software exists, and it charges per seat forever while still making a specialist contractor work the way the software wants. The brief was a platform the business would own outright: one that assumes no mobile signal, gives the office real depth without giving a driller a spreadsheet to fill in on a phone, and lets clients see their own job without seeing anyone else's.
Every Mako Digital case study includes a complete build specification — the actual technical decisions that made the project what it is.
Every Mako Digital build follows a documented approach — consistent across every project, calibrated to each client’s industry, brand, and customer journey.
Boreholes are sunk in fields, quarries and half-built sites where mobile data is a rumour. So the driller-facing app is built offline-first: sheets are held in IndexedDB, entries autosave as the crew works, and everything syncs when a connection reappears. A crew never loses a shift's data because a mast blocked the signal — which is the single fastest way to lose a workforce's trust in a system.
The office needs depth, the driller needs three taps and a big button, and the client needs to see their own job and nothing else. Rather than one interface bent to fit all three, the platform ships separate surfaces for office admin, the field app and the client portal, each with its own navigation and its own permissions, sharing one data model underneath.
Behind it sit 46 purpose-built database tables — jobs, rigs, vehicles, equipment, drillers, forms and submissions, defects, compliance requirements, documents and sign-offs, RAMS, training records, spec sheets, planner bookings, holidays, messaging, notifications and an audit log. Modelled properly as relational data rather than bolted onto WordPress posts and meta, which is what makes the reporting and compliance views possible at all.
Drill logs and rig check sheets used to be paper that came back to the office in a van, if it came back at all. Now the crew completes them on a phone and the platform generates the finished PDF server-side, ready to issue. Compliance is handled the same way: a requirements matrix tracks what each person and each asset needs, and document sign-offs are recorded rather than remembered.
The portal gives a client read-only visibility of the jobs they are attached to — drill logs, rig check sheets, equipment certification — with per-job viewer control deciding exactly who sees what. It removes the endless "can you send me the logs" emails without ever exposing one client's data to another, and it turns the platform into something the contractor can sell on.
If we wouldn’t put it on our own business, we wouldn’t put it on yours.The Mako Digital Standard
DrillPro Case Study: Mako Digital designed and built DrillPro, a bespoke operations platform for drilling and ground investigation contractors. The build delivered over 57,000 lines of first-party code across 46 purpose-built database tables — an offline-capable field application backed by IndexedDB, hand-rolled web push over VAPID, server-side PDF generation for drill logs and rig check sheets, rig vehicle and equipment registers, a compliance requirements matrix with document sign-offs, RAMS and training records, internal messaging, an audit log, and a client portal with per-job access control.
This is the build we point businesses at when they ask whether custom software is worth it against per-seat SaaS. See our custom CRM development page, web design for IT and software companies, or visit the case study archive for more examples.
A bespoke operations platform for drilling and ground investigation contractors, built from scratch by Mako Digital. It covers jobs and scheduling, rig vehicle and equipment registers, digital drill logs and check sheets, defect reporting, compliance and training records, RAMS, internal messaging, automated PDF reporting, and a client portal — across separate interfaces for the office, the field crew and the client.
Yes, and it is a large part of what we do. DrillPro is over 57,000 lines of first-party code across 46 database tables — a genuine operations platform rather than a website with a form on it. See our custom CRM development page, or the SaaS builds in the case study archive.
Yes, and for field work it is essential. The DrillPro field app stores forms in the browser's IndexedDB and autosaves as the crew works, so a shift recorded in a quarry with no signal is never lost — it syncs when a connection returns. Any system used by people working outdoors needs to be designed this way from the start; retrofitting offline support later is far harder.
Because per-seat SaaS gets expensive fast and never quite fits. Industry platforms charge monthly for every user and still make you work the way they designed, which for a specialist contractor usually means paying to be inconvenienced. A bespoke build costs more once, then costs nothing per user, fits the way the business actually runs, and is an asset the business owns rather than a subscription it services.
Yes. DrillPro includes hand-rolled web push over VAPID — no third-party notification service, no per-message fee, and no app store to get through. Crews and office staff get notified on their phones about the things that matter to them, from a platform the business owns outright.
DrillPro runs its own session-based authentication layer rather than WordPress user accounts, with login attempt throttling against brute force and an audit log recording what happened and who did it. Client portal access is controlled per job, so a client can only ever see the work they are attached to.
Platforms are scoped and priced individually — a build of this size runs into months rather than weeks. The useful comparison is not against a website but against what per-seat SaaS costs over three to five years, plus the cost of the work not fitting. We will give you an honest scope and tell you if an off-the-shelf product would genuinely serve you better.
Yes. Website work is mostly regional, but custom software is delivered UK-wide — DrillPro serves drilling contractors across the country. Mako Digital is based in Wigan; see web design for IT and software companies or get in touch to discuss a build.
If DrillPro is the kind of work that fits your business, these are the closest peers in our portfolio — full platforms rather than websites, all built from scratch.
Bespoke platforms are scoped and priced individually. Same approach as DrillPro — a real data model, interfaces built for each audience, offline where the work demands it, and a system the business owns outright instead of renting per seat.
