We are After Premise, a UK company founded in 2014 by Brian King and Lesley Vanbeck. We help organisations run important processes and controlled documents properly, instead of through email chains, shared drives and spreadsheets.
This is the first post on our blog. It explains who we are, what we build, how we like to work, and what you can expect to read here.
The problem we keep meeting
Most organisations already have a process that works, until the day it has to be proved. Quotes, certificates, inspections, approvals and contracts tend to start in a spreadsheet and travel by email, with the supporting documents attached to whichever message was sent last.
That is fine until someone asks which version was approved, who signed it off, or where the original is. The answer is usually a search through inboxes. We built our business around making that question easy to answer.
What we do
We do two things, and they fit together.
First, we are an implementation partner for two low-code platforms. We are a Caspio Silver Partner, and we build Caspio applications for things like single sign-on, asset management, inspections and integrations. We are also a Smartsheet Aligned partner in the UK, working on compliance, programme and contract management.
Second, we make APDocs, our own document control layer. When a record in Caspio or Smartsheet reaches the right stage, APDocs files its documents into governed cloud storage, keeps the revision history, and links the controlled copy back to the record. Your team stays in the tools they already use.
That was the aim from the start. Lesley and I both came from large enterprise, and we wanted the tools those organisations rely on to be affordable whatever the size of the company, levelling the playing field. Building APDocs on AWS Lambda is what makes that practical. It scales with demand, so a small team gets the same controls as a large one, and you are charged for what you use rather than for capacity you do not.
How we like to work
We start with one process, not a grand programme. Pick the process that causes the most pain, get it working properly, then move to the next. It keeps projects small enough to finish and gives you something useful early.
Everyone gets every feature. You would not buy a car where seatbelts were an optional extra, and we do not think audit trails, version history or resilient storage should be either. Our tiers differ by how much you store and process, not by which controls you are allowed to switch on.
We also try to be open about money. APDocs pricing has no per-user licence fees, so adding colleagues or external reviewers does not raise the bill, and our pricing page shows the monthly tiers and example implementation ranges. Final scope and cost are always agreed with you before we build.
And we like to keep things practical: a clear description of what each part of the system does, so you can check it for yourself.
What you will find here
Expect practical posts rather than announcements. We plan to write about document control in Smartsheet and Caspio, how audit trails and version history work in practice, lessons from client projects, and the thinking behind APDocs. Our first technical post, Why We Built APDocs, covers the architecture.
If you have a process that still lives in email and spreadsheets, we would like to hear about it. Get in touch for a demo, or look at how APDocs works first.
Brian King, After Premise