Straight answers on cost, time and what to build.

Sunbeam is a software agency based in Lucknow, India. The studio is there. The clients are not limited to the city. We design and build AI agents, workflow automation, custom software and business systems, websites and digital products, knowledge systems, and cloud infrastructure, and we advise on architecture, scope and fractional engineering. The work starts from a workflow that is slow, unreliable or invisible, and the technology follows from that.

The studio is in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. We work with teams across India and with clients in the Gulf, the UK and the US. Discovery and delivery are written and remote-friendly. A conversation can happen in person in Lucknow when that is useful.

Yes. The engineering is the same. Time zones, hosting location, and any extra privacy duties that come with the client's country are part of the scoping conversation, not a surprise after the build.

Professional firms, clinics, operators and public teams with a real workflow to fix, and startups that need a first version of a product. We also work alongside internal engineers when the gap is capacity or a specialist piece of the system.

Send the workflow, who it affects, and what a better week would look like. We ask a short set of questions and recommend a next step: a call, a written view of the options, or a proposal. The contact form reaches a person. You can also email [email protected].

Unless a written agreement says otherwise, you own the project source code and the deliverables after payment. Domain, hosting, repository, analytics and data should sit in accounts your organisation controls. We hand over the access and the notes required to operate what we build.

Yes. That is a design requirement, not a favour at the end. We keep the system understandable, document the decisions that constrain the next change, and leave credentials with you. You can continue with Sunbeam, hire, or move the work to another team.

Someone has to own access, monitoring, backups and the next change. That can be your team or an ongoing engagement with us. The model is agreed before delivery is called complete, so launch is not the moment the system becomes a mystery.

No. Sunbeam does not publish a rate card or package prices. A written proposal follows a look at the workflow, the integrations and the risks. Anything you read elsewhere that quotes a Sunbeam price is not from us.

When a product you can buy already fits the workflow, when the need is a simple brochure site at the lowest possible fee, or when long-term ownership of the system does not matter. We will say so. The homepage section on fit describes this in more detail.

There is no single price, and Sunbeam does not publish one. As a general observation about how the Indian market talks — not a Sunbeam fee, and not a number from a study — a tightly scoped internal tool is often discussed around a few lakh rupees, while a web application with several roles, a migration and more than one integration is commonly discussed from the high single-digit lakhs into a few tens of lakhs. Treat that spread as a way to see that the words hide different work. A budget needs a written scope.

Because the idea is not the scope. One quote may assume a single workflow, your existing tools, and data you will clean yourselves. Another may include three roles, a migration, a public website and a year of changes. Ask each quote what it leaves out, who does the data work, and what 'done' means.

More roles and permissions, more systems to connect, messy data that has to be moved, a public website plus the internal tool, strict hosting or audit rules, and uncertainty about the workflow itself. Uncertainty is expensive because the team rebuilds what the first version guessed wrong. A clear first workflow is the most reliable way to keep the work small.

As a general observation of projects of this size, not a Sunbeam delivery promise, a first usable version — sign-in, one core workflow, and a screen the team works from — often sits in the range of about two to four months after the workflow is understood. A very narrow internal tool can be shorter. A system that replaces several departments is longer. The calendar is set by decisions and data as much as by engineering.

Once the structure, the words and the decisions are ready, a focused business website is often a matter of weeks rather than months. The wait is usually the content and the approvals, not the pages. A site that also has accounts, payments or a booking engine is a web application, and it should be timed as one.

A workflow that is still being argued, a third-party product with no usable interface, records that have to be cleaned by hand, and approvals that sit with people who are not in the project. None of these are fixed by adding engineers late. They are fixed by naming the decision and the owner earlier.

Yes. A specification is an output of understanding the work, not a ticket you must buy before we will talk. Discovery can produce the decisions, the first scope and the things that are deliberately left out.

Ask them to describe your workflow back to you before they describe their stack. Ask what they would refuse to build, who owns the code and the accounts, and how a different developer would run the system in a year. A portfolio of logos without a description of the problem is a weak signal. A written scope with exclusions is a strong one.

What is the first workflow, and what is explicitly later? Where will the code, the data and the hosting accounts live? What happens when a third-party tool has no API? Who is responsible after launch? What will you need from our team each week? The answers should be specific to your work, not a recycled proposal.

Buy when the workflow is a common one and a product already does it without daily workarounds. Build when the firm is paying in staff time to force a product to match a process that is actually how the firm makes money or stays compliant. Many firms need a thin system around a product they should keep. Our comparison of custom software and SaaS walks through that choice.

When the same hand-off fails often enough to measure, the off-the-shelf tool cannot hold the record the team needs, and the firm will still care about this workflow in a year. It is not worth it for a process that is about to change, or for a problem a configuration setting would solve.

Yes, when that tool should remain the system of record. We look at what it can already do, what an integration can add, and what is a genuine gap. Replacing a product the team has just learned is rarely the first recommendation.

A website helps someone understand the organisation and take a next step, usually without an account. A web application is where people log in and do work: a register, a booking book, a client upload, a pipeline. Many organisations need the website first and the application when the work itself has outgrown the inbox. They should be scoped as different things.

A useful agent does one bounded job against the firm's own material: draft a first reply from approved answers, list the documents still missing on a matter or engagement, summarise a file a colleague has to pick up, or answer a staff question from a maintained set of sources. It is a junior assistant with a narrow brief, not a new employee with judgment.

It replaces the repeated reading and the repeated typing, when those steps are well defined. It does not replace the person who decides, signs, advises, or is accountable to a client. Firms that skip the review step discover that the time they saved comes back as corrections.

By limiting the sources it may use, testing it on real examples from the firm, and putting a person in front of anything that leaves the building or changes a record. The system should show where an answer came from. An agent that can invent a fact and send it is a liability, not a feature.

It is the firm's way of keeping the answers, documents and decisions people keep asking for, in a form the next person can find and trust. That might be a structured library, a search layer over approved files, or an assistant that will only speak from those files. The important parts are an owner, a source of truth, and a way to tell the current version from the old one.

A shared drive stores files. It does not know which file is current, who may rely on it, or how a new joiner should ask a question. A knowledge system adds those rules. Without them, search just retrieves the contradiction faster.

Lead routing, reminders, a status email that reads from a list the team already keeps, and a hand-off between two tools that both have an interface. Automation is the right size when the process is already clear. It makes a confused process fail faster, so we map the steps before connecting them.

India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 is the general law for digital personal data. The Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025 were notified on 13 November 2025, and the Rules' own commencement clause brings obligations in by stages: some Board machinery from notification, consent-manager registration one year later, and the main duties — notice, security safeguards, breach intimation and individual rights — eighteen months after notification, in May 2027. A firm should not treat the transition as a reason to be casual. Existing duties under the Information Technology Act framework still apply, and software built now should already have a purpose, a notice, limited access, a retention rule and a way to respond if something goes wrong. Confirm the latest notifications with counsel before you rely on a date. This is an orientation, not legal advice.

Wherever the work requires, decided before the build. Many Indian firms want data in India. A public-sector body may have a stricter hosting rule. A client in the UK or the Gulf may add another regime on top of Indian law. We do not pick a convenient default and move it later.

No. The firm that decides why the data is processed remains responsible for that decision. Sunbeam builds the access, the audit trail and the operational habits that make the firm's choices enforceable, and we handle data we see in delivery under the agreement we sign. Compliance certificates are not something we award ourselves.

A person sees the clients, matters or patients they work on, not the whole archive. Admin rights are few. Departed staff lose access on the day they leave. Downloads of identity documents and financial papers are deliberate, not the default of every screen. These are ordinary engineering choices, and they are much cheaper to make at the start.

Usually an intake record with an owner, a checklist of documents still missing, and a list that shows whether a matter is waiting on the client or the firm. A full practice-management product is the right answer when the firm has already outgrown those basics or already depends on one. See the law firms page.

Yes. The useful version is a booking or request path, reminders, and one day list that reception and the clinician share, including walk-ins. Clinical records stay in the system the practice already trusts for that job unless there is an explicit, separate decision to move them. See clinics and healthcare.

An engagement list by client, entity and period, and a document request the client can complete, so GST, TDS, tax and audit papers stop arriving as loose chat images. The filing portals and the partner's judgment stay where they are. See CA and accounting firms.

A drawing register is the list of sheets on a project with the current revision, the status, and who it was issued to. A spreadsheet holds this until two people, or two jobs, can no longer share one file safely. The software adds a transmittal record and a query log. See engineering and construction consultancies.

Often, yes. The QR code opens a menu the cafe can update today, and the order becomes a ticket the counter or kitchen sees. Payment can stay at the till. If the POS is already the menu and the ticket, we do not build a second one. See restaurants and cafes.

A lead list with a source and an owner, a listing record the website reads so the page cannot drift from the sales sheet, and a pipeline that continues after the site visit. The website is the public face of that record. See real estate.

Yes. The first need is usually the open batch, the seat, the fee status and a place the current timetable lives. Live classes can stay on the tool the faculty already uses. See education and coaching.

We can build a focused request tracker, a document intake with a reference number, or an information site the team can update, where the organisation is allowed to commission that work. We do not claim empanelment, a GeM listing, or an award. Hosting and procurement rules are part of the first conversation. See government and public sector.