What the audit maps. What the build delivers.
The systems you already run, joined into one data layer you own. No re-typing between them, one record of each customer, and something for AI to finally stand on.
Everything AI needs is already in your business.
It sits in the systems you have already bought and the processes your team built around them. Veld finds where it is, builds the data layer that joins it up, and keeps it running.
The first step is a two-week audit. It costs nothing, and it ends in a working prototype of the system we would actually build.
Who we are
Based in Cape Town and Durban. Building since 2018.
Veld is a senior data-engineering team. Our engineers have designed, built and run production data systems inside South African logistics, e-commerce and retail businesses, including some of the country’s largest.
Most AI work starts with a tool and hopes the data catches up. We start with the data the tool has to stand on. That is why what we build gets past the demo and stays useful, and why the first thing we do for any business is an audit rather than a proposal.
A business is made of systems
Each one was bought at a different time for a different reason. Xero holds the invoice. Shopify holds the order. HubSpot holds the deal. The same customer sits in all three, spelled three ways, and a person re-types between them.
Where the three systems disagree
Xero · Invoice
- Customer
- T. Nkosi
- accounts@nkositrading.co.za
- Phone
- 082 555 0143
- Last paid
- 14 Aug
Shopify · Order
- Customer
- Thandi Nkosi
- thandi@gmail.com
- Phone
- 082 555 0143
- Last order
- 2 Sep
HubSpot · Deal
- Contact
- Thandi N.
- accounts@nkositrading.co.za
- Phone
- 031 555 0199
- Stage
- Quote sent
One data layer · Customer
- Customer
- Thandi Nkosi · Nkosi Trading
- accounts@nkositrading.co.za
- Phone
- 082 555 0143
- Invoices
- Paid to date
- Orders
- Last 2 Sep
- Open deal
- Quote sent
What we hold to be true
Three things most AI projects get the wrong way round.
The data layer pays before the AI does.
Connected, trusted numbers change how a business runs on their own. AI only becomes useful once it has that to stand on.
You should see it working before you pay to build it.
Our audit ends in a working prototype on your real workflows, not a slide. If it does not earn a build, you have lost nothing.
The engineers who build it should be the ones who run it.
One team through audit, build and run. Nothing is handed to someone who was not in the room when it was designed.
The audit · Two weeks · No charge
See it working before you pay to build it.
Two weeks with our engineers inside your business. Four things come out of it, and all four are yours to keep.
01
The assessment
Every system, process and tool you run, and how your team actually works with each one. Where the work flows and where it quietly stalls.
02
The report
Objective, value and sequence in one document the whole team has seen, so the decision to build is not one person’s hunch against the room.
03
The Readiness Index
Six axes, one shape: data, process, technology, team, commercial opportunity, risk and compliance. The shape is the diagnosis.
04
The prototype
A working version of the system we would build, on your workflows, running on demo data. Your team clicks through what better data means in their week.
How we work
Audit. Build. Run.
One team from the first question to a system in production, and the same team running it afterwards.
Audit · 2 weeks · No charge
We map what you run and where it disagrees with itself.
You get the report, the Readiness Index and a working prototype.
Build · Fixed price
We connect the systems you own and build only what is missing.
To the standard we hold inside the country’s largest businesses. You approved the prototype; this is that, in production.
Run · Monthly
We keep it working as the business grows.
The subscription rewards a clean, healthy system: we do better when it needs less of us.
Our work · Business Bagel
One decision a day. Everything after it, built by Veld.
Every publishing day, Business Bagel puts out a newsletter, three social posts, six or more web articles, a podcast read and up to two video scripts. A person makes one call in that cycle: which stories run.
Of human input per publishing day. One person marking up a shortlist.
Finished, sourced, scheduled pieces out of every run.
Publishing platforms, off one sourcing pass.
People in the whole business. Everything happens inside that headcount.
“Veld has been the reason we’re able to perform like a 20-person media business with a headcount of only 3.”
Outdoor e-commerce
Fifty tools, one data layer
Within a fortnight of kickoff, Meta and Google Ads data was landing in their own cloud every six hours.
Licensing services
Every lead in the CRM
A placeholder site replaced with a POPIA-aware application wizard on their own domain. Priced as a share of turnover.
Experiences & retail
Twenty systems, one customer
Five ways to take a booking, four records of one item. One customer record designed underneath two brands, now in build.
Questions
What owners ask before the call.
How is this different from just using ChatGPT or Copilot?
Those tools answer questions. They cannot see your orders, your ledger or your bookings, and they cannot fix the fact that three systems disagree about one customer. We build the data layer that makes them useful, and the tools then run on it.
What does the audit cost, and what is the catch?
Nothing, and there is no catch. You keep the report, the Readiness Index and the working prototype whether you build with us or not. We do it because businesses that have seen the prototype usually want the build, and we would rather earn that than sell it.
What do we need to give you access to?
Read access to the two or three systems that matter most, usually the accounting system, the sales or e-commerce platform and whatever holds customers. We name them on the first call. Nothing is changed during the audit.
What if we do not build with you afterwards?
Then you have a report, an Index and a working prototype you can take to anyone. We would rather you built the right thing with someone else than the wrong thing with us.
Who actually does the work?
Senior data engineers who have designed, built and run production systems inside South African logistics, e-commerce and retail. The engineers who run your audit are the engineers who build, and who keep it running afterwards.
Request the audit
Tell us what should be easier.
No form. Write to us the way you would write to anyone, and we reply within one working day.
Your self-scored Readiness Index is added to the message so we can talk about it on the call.
What happens next
We reply within one working day.
A 30-minute call. No deck, no pitch. We ask about the business and what is in the way.
We name the two or three systems we would need read access to.
Two weeks later you have the report, the Readiness Index and a working prototype. Then you decide.