A client portal for Aqua IT Support
A client-management portal with granular access control — cutting search time by 90%+ and making the business enterprise-ready.
What started as a spreadsheet replacement has become Aqua's operational backbone. We built the internal platform first, proved it over a full year of real use, then opened it up to clients — and it's still evolving five years on.
Aqua IT Support provides IT services to SMEs across central Scotland, built on a genuinely personal service. As their client base grew, that approach was being held back by the tools behind it: IT infrastructure managed in shared OneDrive spreadsheets, with multiple engineers editing the same files and no way to restrict access to sensitive client data.
We replaced the spreadsheets with a unified client-management portal. Engineers get controlled access to a complete IT asset catalogue, jobs are prioritised on a single dashboard, and clients now have secure read-only access to their own configurations and passwords — all protected by two-factor authentication and complete audit trails. It made Aqua enterprise-ready without losing the personal touch.
Finding a client's details used to mean digging through spreadsheets — now it's instant and fully auditable. The portal has become the backbone of how we run, and it lets us take on bigger clients without losing the personal service we're known for.
A multi-stage approach.
Internal platform first
We started by replacing the OneDrive spreadsheets with a robust internal platform — a complete, searchable IT asset catalogue with controlled access for each engineer. This took three to four months and gave the team a single, consistent source of truth.
Careful data migration
Rather than carry the spreadsheets' problems across, we migrated the data manually — auditing and correcting years of historical inconsistencies as we went, so the new portal started clean.
A year of real-world validation
The platform ran internally for a full year, proving itself in day-to-day use and hardening around how Aqua actually works before any client ever touched it.
Client self-service
With the internal platform proven, we added secure client-facing access — read-only views of configurations and passwords, protected by two-factor authentication and backed by complete audit trails. The platform continues to evolve five years on.
Controlled, searchable, self-service.
The portal gives engineers controlled access to a complete asset catalogue and a prioritised job dashboard, while clients get secure read-only self-service — on desktop and mobile.
What changed.
90%+ faster search
Instant search across every client and asset replaced minutes of digging through spreadsheets — saving hours every week and letting engineers fix more on the first call.
Controlled access
Granular per-engineer access, read-only client views, two-factor authentication and complete audit trails replaced shared files anyone could edit.
Enterprise-ready
With consistent data and auditable access, Aqua can take on larger, more complex clients without losing the personal service ethos they're known for.
An operational backbone
What began as a spreadsheet replacement now runs the business day to day — and after five years it's still being extended with new capabilities.
Guides from this project
Platforms: Spreadsheets
We can make your business enterprise-ready too.
If you're outgrowing spreadsheets and shared files, we'll plan an auditable platform with proper access control that scales with you — without losing what makes your service personal.