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Applications

Application Development

Build applications with modern, scalable architecture, a security-first approach, and AI readiness to deliver value long after launch.

Your business runs on applications. When those applications support your goals, your business moves faster. When they don’t, everything else slows down. Partner with CBTS to design and build custom, cloud-native, AI-enabled, and low-code applications — from a single workflow to a full enterprise platform.
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When off-the-shelf doesn’t hit the mark

Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions are often but not always sufficient. Sometimes an application is too core to your business or too integral to your competitive advantage, or your needs are simply too different from what the market offers. As customers expect more and AI reshapes what’s possible, choose a development partner who can help you decide what’s worth creating, build it well, and stay with you as the application evolves.

 

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The CBTS approach

Build what the business needs

CBTS starts by understanding what an application must do, who it needs to serve, what it must integrate with, and what “done” means for your business. Technology recommendations follow the problem, not the other way around. After all, a custom application built on the wrong architecture becomes tomorrow’s legacy problem. A cloud-native application built without governance becomes an unbudgeted cost line. And a low-code application built without thought to integration becomes the next shadow IT headache.  
When you partner with us, the same engineering bench that builds your application can support it in production through CBTS Application Management & Support. That way, the institutional knowledge stays with the system after go-live.


Application Development capabilities

 CBTS development engagements span these primary capability areas, and most projects draw on more than one.

Discovery & Design Workshop


Our Discovery & Design Workshop brings your business and technical stakeholders together to define future-state vision, surface requirements, and translate priorities into an actionable path forward. We align before a single line of code is written, so your application is built right the first time.

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Custom Application Development


We offer end-to-end design, development, and deployment of applications purpose-built for your business. Our integrated scrum teams handle front-end and back-end work across the frameworks your environment requires, along with mobile and integration work. Automated testing, CI/CD pipelines, and deployment automation are built into the development cycle, so quality scales with velocity. We also design integrations with your ERP, CRM, identity, data, and partner systems for resilience and observability.

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Cloud-native Application Development


We architect applications so the cloud platform does the heavy lifting your team would otherwise have to handle. That means containerized, microservices-based architectures that let teams ship faster, scale selectively, and isolate failures without taking the application down, plus cloud-native databases, event-driven services, and serverless compute that reduce infrastructure overhead and tie cost more directly to actual usage. We also build identity, encryption, policy enforcement, and runtime monitoring into the architecture from the first design session.

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Where to start

Advisory engagements

A CBTS advisory is a time-bound, fixed-fee engagement designed to give you a clear answer to a specific strategic question — fast.  

Discovery & Design Workshop

Best for: Organizations grappling with a business problem, such as lack of in-house resources, end-of-life challenges, or multi-faceted risks related to existing applications. 
You walk away with: 
•    Expert analysis of your current state, including insights on application condition, cost, risk, and business value 
•    Recommended actions for solving the business problem  
•    Executive readout deck for leadership alignment

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What success looks like

New applications should help your business get measurably better at something you couldn’t do before. Three outcomes show up most consistently in CBTS application development engagements.

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Revenue growth

New applications support innovation across product/service development, data monetization, and customer experience. CBTS-built applications routinely power revenue programs whose business case wasn’t feasible on the legacy platform.

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Improved productivity

With a trusted foundation in place, it takes far less time to stand up new analytics, AI, and reporting initiatives.

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Business agility

 Applications that put your customers at the center and are designed for greater speed, reliability, and usefulness.

 “We are defining what AI-first development looks like as a real practice, starting with it, not bolting it on. The team works with AI as a real partner from the first requirement to the final test. That changes the scope of what’s possible for our clients.”

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Ari Steinberg

Director of Application Development, CBTS

Don’t take our word for it

“I love the creative, tailored solutions that are delivered in a consistent and reliable way while always doing what it takes to make things right.”

Chief Technology and Information Security OfficerFinancial Services / Banking

“My team at CBTS have been trusted partners for a long time. They provide excellent technical support and pre-sales work. Their breadth of knowledge and ability to bring in the right resources have helped us steer our technology into the future.”

Managing Director, CISO, Head of TechnologyPrivate Equity / Financial Services

“CBTS treats us like a partner and not just a customer. The technical expertise is next to none and the relationship management is some of the best I have experienced.”

Director, Telecom and Architecture ServicesHealthcare

Development is one part of the application lifecycle

New applications almost never operate in isolation. They integrate with existing systems, often replace ones that no longer fit, and need to be supported in production once they go live. CBTS covers the full lifecycle, so the handoffs between phases happen within a single accountable team.

Related insights 

Frequently asked questions 

Why would a business choose custom application development? Custom application development is the practice of designing and building software tailored to a specific business problem, rather than buying a packaged product and adapting the business to it. It’s the right answer when an application is core to your competitive advantage, off-the-shelf options don’t fit the workflow, or the cost of working around a packaged solution exceeds the cost of building one. CBTS custom development engagements typically include requirements work, architecture, design, build, testing, integration, and deployment, all delivered by integrated scrum teams. Custom development is a popular path for our government and enterprise clients whose applications must meet strict accessibility requirements.
What is cloud-native application development? Cloud-native application development is the practice of designing applications specifically to take advantage of cloud platforms. Usually, that involves containerized or microservices architectures, managed databases and services, serverless compute where it makes sense, and continuous deployment built into the development lifecycle. The benefit is the operational and cost flexibility that cloud-native architecture makes possible. Applications can scale automatically with demand, deploy more frequently with less risk, and integrate more cleanly with the rest of your environment.
What is no-code/low-code development, and when does it make sense? No-code and low-code platforms let teams build applications with minimal hand-written code — using visual development tools, pre-built components, and configurable workflows. They’re a fit for line-of-business workflows, internal applications, automation of repetitive processes, and rapid prototyping. They’re not suitable for applications with complex business logic, heavy integration requirements, or unusual user experience needs. CBTS builds on Microsoft Power Platform (Power Apps, Power Automate, Copilot Studio) and helps clients establish the governance, integration, and lifecycle management that turn one-off low-code apps into a managed portfolio.
Can you build applications with AI integrated into them? Yes, and this represents one of the fastest-growing parts of our development work. CBTS builds applications with generative AI (GenAI) capabilities, agents, and intelligent workflows integrated into the user experience. The technical work is only part of the engagement. The harder work is designing the guardrails: data loss prevention, model boundaries, hallucination controls, audit logging, and human-in-the-loop patterns that make AI-enabled applications safe to run in enterprise environments. We partner with the CBTS AI & Data team on the data foundation, model selection, and ethics review for every AI-enabled application.
How is the CBTS approach to application modernization different?  Three things distinguish how CBTS engages on modernization. First, we assess every application against business value and technical condition before recommending a path. Second, we cover the full set of modernization options (rehost, replatform, refactor, rebuild, integrate, patch), so our recommendations aren’t shaped by the limits of what we offer. Third, the team that modernizes an application can continue supporting it in production through CBTS Application Management & Support. That way, the institutional knowledge built during the modernization stays with the application after go-live.
How is the CBTS approach to application development different? Three things distinguish the CBTS approach to custom application development. First, our development teams aren’t the same teams that did the discovery and architecture work, but they’re sitting next to them. That translates into a clean handoff where the original intent doesn’t get lost. Second, we cover the full development spectrum (custom, cloud-native, low-code, and AI-enabled) under one roof, so we don’t shape recommendations based on what we do or don’t offer. Third, the team that builds your application can continue supporting it in production through CBTS Application Management & Support. That way, the institutional knowledge stays with the system after go-live.

Strong foundations start with building the right thing well

Every new application is a long-term commitment. CBTS helps you make it a good one, with discovery work that gets the scope right, architecture that keeps options open, engineering discipline that holds up under pressure, and the option to stay with the application after launch.