Join.To.IT is a custom software development company that Chicago firms bring in when spreadsheets, email and an aging core system are holding up daily work. We replace the manual steps first and connect to the systems that stay. Our engineers work with Chicago clients remotely.
Chicago has a lot of companies that have been in business for decades. Freight brokers and distributors grew up around the rail yards and interstates, trading firms cluster near LaSalle Street, insurance carriers and agencies fill the suburbs, and the Loop is full of law and accounting firms. Many of them run on an ERP or policy system installed long ago, with spreadsheets and email filling the gaps. The core system still works. The gaps are where the hours go.
So we rarely propose replacing everything. In discovery we sit with the people doing the work, list each manual step and trace where its data comes from. Then we build the new workflow, often a portal or an intake tool, and connect it to the existing system through its API, a database view or scheduled file exports. If the old system later becomes the real bottleneck, we modernize it in phases while orders keep flowing.
Customers request quotes, book loads, track shipments and download PODs and invoices without calling dispatch. The portal reads from your TMS and accounting system, so staff keep working in the tools they already use.
One intake form instead of re-keying data into several carrier portals, with underwriting questions that change by line of business, document generation, e-signatures and an audit log on every submission.
Clients upload documents against a checklist, see where their return or audit stands, sign engagement letters and pay invoices. Staff get reminders about missing items instead of chasing them by email.
We quote fixed-price packages after discovery, so finance can approve one number. Support and smaller changes after launch run at $25–50 per hour.
| Package | Proof of concept | MVP | Market ready | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | From $2,400 | From $9,600 | From $28,800 | From $57,600 |
| Typical timeline | 2–4 weeks | 2–4 months | 4–8 months | 8+ months |
| Common Chicago scope | A working prototype of one workflow, such as quote intake, reading live data from your ERP or TMS | A first portal or internal tool for one team, replacing its spreadsheet and email steps | A customer-facing portal with payments, documents and two or three system integrations | Phased replacement of a core system, running alongside the old one until cutover |
Our engineers keep U.S. business hours, so a question for your operations lead or your ERP admin gets settled the same day. Projects here often need sign-off from several departments, so each sprint ends with a short demo where every group checks its own part.
Our U.S. operations are facilitated through Orcatec LLC, our trusted American business partner, enabling seamless collaboration with clients across the United States.
The whole working day in one platform, with the tools the team already used built in.
~300 daily users on the platform
Read the case study →
From a simple request website to an app that rents a car in minutes.
Minutes to rent a car from the mobile app
Read the case study →Usually, yes. NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics, SAP Business One, Epicor and similar systems have APIs or at least reliable exports. For older or heavily customized installs, we agree during discovery on a read-only database view or a scheduled file exchange, test it against a copy of your data and add monitoring so a failed sync is noticed the same morning.
Yes. Shippers get quotes, bookings, live status, PODs and invoices in one place, and your team stops answering status calls. The portal pulls from your TMS and accounting system. Our Orcatec case, a field-service platform with many integrations, is the same kind of work: several systems feeding one interface that customers and staff use daily.
Usually not. Most agencies get more from an intake and workflow layer that sends clean data into the system they already have. We check what your AMS allows through its API or imports, then build around it. Replacement makes sense only when the old system blocks something the business needs, and then we plan it in phases.
Yes. We use encrypted storage, access by client and matter, single sign-on for staff, download logs and the retention rules your firm sets. Your IT or compliance team reviews the setup before launch. The portal can also handle engagement letters, e-signatures and invoice payments, which removes most of the email traffic around a matter.
Mostly the number of systems we connect to and the state of their data. A clean NetSuite API is quick to work with; a custom export from a decades-old AS/400 takes longer. A proof of concept starts at $2,400 and an MVP at $9,600. A market-ready platform starts at $28,800, and an enterprise system replacement at $57,600.
