Your ERP can't store a UK SECRET part number, so the dockyard runs on locked spreadsheets
For a Portsmouth defence or maritime-engineering firm, a custom ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) that handles security-classified bills of materials, ITAR/export-controlled parts, and naval subcontract milestones runs £70,000 to £180,000 over 5 to 9 months. Off-the-shelf NetSuite or SAP gets you accounting and stock, but it won't legally segregate a UK SECRET part number from a commercial one, and that gap is exactly what stalls your dockyard work.
You run a marine-engineering shop feeding the naval base, and your bill of materials is half in a NetSuite tenant and half in a passworded Excel file because the ERP has nowhere to mark a component as export-controlled or project-classified. So a fabricated bracket destined for a frigate refit sits in the same stock table as a ferry handrail, and your quality lead reconciles them by memory.
SAP Business One and Microsoft Dynamics assume a clean commercial supply chain. They don't model the thing that actually governs your day: which cleared engineer is allowed to see which drawing, and whether the steel came from an approved, certified source. Odoo is more flexible but still ships with no concept of a security classification field, so you bolt one on and now your audit trail lives outside the system the auditor wants to inspect.
Budgeting a erp build in Portsmouth
| Project scope | Typical cost | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Classification-aware ERP core (parts, stock, certs) | £70k to £110k | 5 to 7 months |
| Plus subcontract billing and project costing | £110k to £150k | 7 to 8 months |
| Plus secure hosting, clearance review, integrations | £150k to £180k | 8 to 9 months |
The case for owning your erp
A custom ERP lets you make classification and certification first-class data, not bolt-ons. Every part carries its security marking, its export-control status, and its material cert chain in the same record that drives stock, purchasing, and the subcontract milestone billing. When a MoD prime asks for a full traceability pack on a delivered assembly, you generate it from one system instead of stitching three together the night before the audit.
- Classified or export-controlled work is a meaningful share of revenue and currently lives in spreadsheets
- MoD prime contractors require traceability packs your current ERP can't assemble
- You manage subcontract milestone billing that finance rebuilds manually each month
- Your work is entirely commercial marine or ferry supply with no classified components
- You need standard accounting and stock live in weeks, not a built system in months
- You have under 20 staff and one product line that fits Odoo out of the box
What your build should include
Portsmouth ERP: the full scope
Digital Heroes builds the full ERP stack for Portsmouth teams. Typical engagements cover ERP integration, NetSuite customization, SAP integration, Odoo development, Microsoft Dynamics 365, ERP migration and cloud ERP.
Delivery, week by week
Exactly what you get
A bespoke ERP where classification, export-control status, and material certs are core data on every part, not afterthoughts. Stock, purchasing, project costing, and subcontract milestone billing all run off that one record. Cleared-staff access is enforced by clearance level, and a full traceability pack for any delivered assembly generates in one click. It connects to your CAD/PLM and accounting so the dockyard floor, purchasing, and finance read the same numbers.
How to choose a developer in Portsmouth
Pick a team that has shipped for regulated or defence manufacturing, not just commercial e-commerce. Ask them to walk through how they would store and segregate a SECRET-marked part, where that data is hosted, and how they would produce an audit trail an MoD prime would accept. A team that asks about your clearance posture and List X status in the first call is the one to keep. One that promises a fixed price before seeing your BOM is guessing.
- Classification and export-control status become enforced fields, so a SECRET-marked part physically can't appear in a commercial pick list
- Full material-cert and source-approval chains attach to each component, generating an audit-ready traceability pack on demand
- Subcontract milestone billing against naval primes maps to your real contract structure, not a generic invoice
- Cleared-staff access rules built into the ERP mean onboarding an engineer to a new contract is a permission change, not a week of spreadsheet edits
- One source of truth across the dockyard floor, purchasing, and finance instead of three reconciled copies
- A classification-aware ERP needs a real security review and likely a List X / Facility Security Clearance conversation, which adds months no commercial ERP project carries
- You take on hosting and patching responsibility for a system holding security-marked data, which means your IT cost and obligation goes up permanently
- Build cost is 3 to 5 times an Odoo configuration, and it only pays back if classified work is a real slice of revenue
- You lose the ecosystem of off-the-shelf NetSuite add-ons and have to commission anything you later need
- !They've never heard of List X or Facility Security Clearance. Ask how they'll handle hosting of security-marked data
- !They quote a fixed price before discovery. Ask what they assume about your classification and cert requirements
- !They push you onto a generic NetSuite implementation. Ask how it enforces part-level security segregation
- !No defence or regulated-manufacturing references. Ask for a project where they handled export-controlled data
- !They treat the cert chain as a custom field rather than core data. Ask how an auditor would query it
Teams investing in erp in Portsmouth usually scope it next to internal tools, shopify, inventory management, since these systems share data and budgets.
Rohan advises mid-market and enterprise teams on ERP, CRM and custom software, and has led delivery on dozens of business-software builds.
Writes for Digital Heroes, shipping business software for 2,000+ brands across 55+ countries since 2017.
Frequently asked questions
Can a custom ERP legally hold UK security-classified data?
It can, but the hosting and the facility around it must meet the relevant security standard, which for SECRET-level work usually means a List X / Facility Security Clearance conversation. A capable Portsmouth build team scopes this in discovery rather than discovering it at launch.
How is this different from just adding fields to Odoo?
Adding a classification field to Odoo gives you a label, not enforcement. A custom ERP makes segregation a rule the system obeys, so a SECRET part can't appear in a commercial pick list and a non-cleared user can't open the record at all.
What does it cost to maintain after launch?
Budget 15 to 20 percent of build cost per year, higher than a commercial ERP because you own patching and security obligations for marked data. That ongoing cost is part of the buy-versus-build maths.
Will it integrate with our accounting and CAD?
Yes. A good build connects to your existing accounting package and your CAD/PLM so parts and certs flow in without re-keying. The integration work is a real line item, so price it explicitly.