Fördermax case study: from the client's own prototype to a platform they develop themselves

Fördermax is a digital platform for managing German grant-application workflows. Hacusto needed more than a collection of forms: consultants and trades businesses had to keep track of projects, documents and application status without rebuilding the same record by hand at every step.

The starting point was not a blank page. Daniel Richter, Managing Partner at Hacusto, had already built a prototype himself that showed the intended workflow. Coflnet used it to lay the groundwork for a larger system: the app and the API behind it. Daniel then gradually took over further development himself. Hacusto now operates and develops Fördermax independently; Coflnet is not the platform’s current operator.

The workflow behind the software

Grant applications bring together customer data, building details, offers, supporting documents, technical descriptions, authorisations and signatures. The information arrives at different times and may be handled by several roles. A useful system therefore has to do more than display an online form. It needs to preserve the state of each project and make the next required action clear.

The Fördermax app was built around that project workflow. It gives users an overview of their orders and keeps a project’s data and documents together. The public Fördermax service is aimed at window builders, energy consultants and trades businesses, all of whom interact with the same funding process from a different position.

From prototype to a solid foundation

A prototype built by the client is a good start: it shows how the workflow should look from the business side. A system that has to support several roles, many projects and ongoing extensions needs a different structure, though. That is the foundation Coflnet built:

• A web app. The Fördermax app is built with Flutter and runs in the browser.
• An API as the backend. The app handles sign-in, order data and documents through its own interface, keeping the user interface and data handling cleanly separated.
• One shared project record. Data is entered once and is then available in later steps, instead of being copied between emails, PDFs and internal lists.

Development now sits with the client

A handover was not planned as a separate project phase. It happened because Daniel is technically versatile and gradually took over further development himself once the foundation was in place. What makes this possible is that structure: a clear separation between app and API, and a codebase that someone outside the original team can understand and extend.

Custom software should not leave a client permanently dependent on the original development team. For Fördermax, development now sits where the knowledge of the funding process lives: with Hacusto.

Hacusto described the collaboration this way:

„ich bin sehr beeindruckt wie pragmatisch und effektiv die zusammenarbeit ist“

Daniel Richter, Managing Partner, Hacusto

We have kept the feedback in its original wording. It captures the standard we aim for: resolve the practical constraints, keep decisions understandable and build software the client can carry forward themselves.

What this case demonstrates

Fördermax is a useful example for organisations whose core process has outgrown spreadsheets, email attachments and disconnected forms, and who already have their own idea or even their own prototype:

• an existing prototype as the starting point instead of planning from scratch;
• one project record instead of duplicate data entry;
• app and API designed as one system;
• and a foundation the client can keep developing themselves.

The concrete result is the app behind Fördermax, which Hacusto now operates and develops itself.

If you need a document-heavy business process turned into software, or want to turn your own prototype into a solid foundation, a one-hour consultation is a practical way to define the workflow, integrations and ownership model before development starts.