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Software engineering
Custom software development in Brisbane.
Black Shard designs and builds web applications, mobile applications and internal operating systems, and operates what it ships under an ongoing engagement.
Overview
Our custom software work sits in regulated settings: clinical software, legal and compliance platforms, financial-services systems and workflow automation, for Brisbane businesses and clients across Australia. The obligations those settings carry are part of the brief, and the build is designed to meet them.
Build shapes and delivery
Projects can run as a defined build or as an ongoing engineering engagement where the product continues to evolve after launch. Delivery is Australia-wide.
What we build
Web applications, native iOS and Android apps, client portals, and the internal operations platforms a business runs on. Where the build needs one, we design the brand and design system as well.
- Web applications and client portals
- Native iOS and Android apps
- Internal operations and compliance platforms
- Data kept apart per client in the database itself
- Speech, document and workflow automation
- Brand identity and design systems where the build needs one
The platform layer
The platform layer is part of the work: data model, delivery pipeline, observability, and the audit trail the system's obligations call for.
Systems we built and operate
Among the systems we built and run are the operations portal a Queensland law firm works from, the staff portal of an AFSL holder in funds management and corporate advisory, and a clinical app for private hospital specialists on the App Store, Google Play and the web. The law firm's portal writes every state change to an append-only audit ledger. The licensee's portal keeps a compliance audit log of actor, action and before-and-after state on every change, and takes its bank data from the Xero integration services we build on the Accounting API.
How an engagement runs
Two shapes. A defined build has a brief, a delivery date, and a deliverable set agreed before work starts.
Ongoing engagements and delivery
An ongoing engineering engagement gives you a standing team that designs, ships, and operates the software as the workflow changes; the compliance portals we run for a law firm and a financial services licensee take their shipped changes under that model.
In either shape, delivery runs from discovery and design through to a shipped, operating product. Access during the engagement is least-privilege, secrets stay out of code, and security review gates run through delivery.
Why we build on Azure
Our own clinical app and the client platforms we host run in Australian Azure regions, with secrets held outside the code and every release through a reviewed pipeline.
Australian regions and platform assessments
Australian regions are the default for anything holding client data. Azure's infrastructure is independently IRAP-assessed and holds its own certifications at the platform level. Those are the platform's assessments, separate from what Black Shard holds. What we add is the engineering: the tenancy model, the audit trail, and an architecture designed around the obligations the system carries, whether that is the Privacy Act, an AFSL perimeter, or clinical data handling.
Why does secure-by-design engineering matter?
Security added after the architecture has settled costs more than security designed in. Threat modelling runs from the first design session, so trust boundaries, attack surface, and data obligations shape the design.
Shipped security controls
The shipped work shows the result. A law firm's portal we run enforces role-based access and ships a hardened content-security policy, and a clinical app we built keeps each practice's health data apart in the database and carries tamper-evident audit trails throughout.
The other half of the firm is a cybersecurity practice: penetration testing, red teaming, and secure code review against the OWASP and ASD methodologies.
What does a custom build cost?
Cost follows scope, and scope has named drivers.
- Platforms the build spans: web, iOS, Android
- The integration surface
- A single-tenant or multi-tenant data layer
- The compliance obligations the system carries
- A new brand and design system, or an existing one
Quotes and standing teams
A defined build is quoted against the brief and delivery date. An ongoing engagement runs as a standing team on an agreed cadence. Send the brief either way to info@blackshard.com.au; the reply covers shape and scope.
Financial services
Stone Leaf Capital
Staff, investors and the board work from one portal inside the licence perimeter.
The board signs resolutions and minutes in the portal under e-signature.
Health
Aurii
Specialists run notes, letters, orders and billing from one app.
Every clinical record, recording and generated document stays in Australia.
Product screens shown with sample data.
From the newsroom
Software engineering, in the newsroom.
Questions, answered.
Do you work across Australia?
Yes. Every practice is delivered Australia-wide, remotely as standard and on site where the scope needs it.
Do you build native mobile apps or just web?
Both. Aurii ships iOS and Android apps, on the App Store and Google Play, from the same codebase as its web app. Where a build only needs the web, the scope says so.
What happens after launch?
Under an ongoing engagement the product continues to evolve after launch on a regular ship cadence. Under a defined build, the system is delivered as a shipped, operating product with its delivery pipeline in place.
Do you quote fixed-price or time-and-materials?
A defined build is quoted against the brief before any work starts. An ongoing engagement runs as a standing team on an agreed cadence, reviewed as the work evolves.
Can you get the system ready for Essential Eight, ISO 27001, or SMB1001?
Yes, as a distinct compliance readiness service. Certification readiness runs as a milestone program alongside or after the build, and the evidence trail an assessor expects is assembled as controls land.
Who operates the software once it is built?
Under an ongoing engagement, Black Shard operates what it ships, as it does for the portals, practice systems and clinical software among the many systems in production with us today. A defined build is delivered as a shipped, operating product with its delivery pipeline in place, and operation after delivery is agreed in the brief.
How do we start?
Email info@blackshard.com.au or open a brief through the contact page. The first conversation establishes the shape: defined build or ongoing engagement, the platforms involved, and the obligations the system will carry.
