Government Software Development Company

Government agencies carry compliance requirements, accessibility obligations, and security standards that most software vendors have never had to think about. Off-the-shelf platforms that work for commercial organisations often fail in government contexts -- the data sovereignty requirements, the audit trails, the integration with legacy systems.

We build custom government software for local authorities, regional agencies, and GovTech companies -- citizen portals, permits systems, case management, grant administration, and analytics platforms that meet the security, accessibility, and compliance requirements your procurement team will actually sign off on.

  • Citizen self-service portals with digital forms, online payments, and case tracking -- integrated with your back-office systems

  • Permits and licensing management from application through inspection to approval -- replacing paper workflows and manual processing queues

  • Case management for social services, regulatory compliance, and benefits administration -- with audit trails and reporting built for public sector accountability

  • Government analytics dashboards, performance reporting, and open data platforms built for your reporting obligations

Summary

RaftLabs builds custom government software for local authorities, state agencies, and GovTech companies -- citizen self-service portals, permits and licensing systems, case management for social services and benefits, grant administration platforms, public safety software, and government analytics. We understand procurement constraints, security requirements, and accessibility standards. Most government software projects deliver a production-ready module in 12 to 20 weeks at a fixed, agreed cost.

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What government agencies get when they work with us

12weeks from kickoff to a live citizen portal or case management system
100+software products shipped across public sector and regulated industries
WCAG 2.1AA accessibility compliance built into every citizen-facing interface

Our government software development services

Government agencies face a specific set of software problems. Legacy systems that predate modern web standards but can't be replaced without disrupting live services. Procurement processes that require fixed costs and documented security controls before a line of code is written. Accessibility obligations that commercial software typically treats as an afterthought. Audit requirements that demand complete records of every decision, every data change, and every access event.

We build software for government and GovTech clients who need systems designed around these constraints from the start. We understand the difference between building for a commercial organisation and building for a public authority -- the data handling requirements, the security standards, the accessibility obligations, and the accountability expectations that come with public money and public trust.

Citizen self-service portals

Generic e-government platforms are built for simple transactions -- a payment form, a basic application. When the service involves multiple steps, document upload, identity verification, conditional logic based on the applicant's circumstances, or integration with back-office case management, the generic platform breaks down and staff end up processing submissions manually.

We build citizen portals that handle the full service journey -- from initial application through document verification, officer review, decision, and appeal -- with the citizen able to track their case status at every stage without calling the contact centre.

What you get

  • Digital service forms with conditional logic, document upload, and identity verification
  • Case tracking so citizens can see where their application is without calling
  • Integration with your back-office case management and payment systems
  • WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility compliance and mobile-first design
  • Secure document management with retention policies configured to your data schedule

Best for

  • Local authorities replacing paper-based or email-based service request processes
  • Agencies with high contact centre call volumes from citizens chasing application status
  • GovTech companies building citizen-facing products for local or central government clients

Permits and licensing management

Building permits, business licence applications, planning applications, and regulatory approvals share the same fundamental process -- an application is submitted, documents are checked, officers are assigned, inspections are scheduled, decisions are made, and conditions are recorded. When this process runs on paper forms and email, the processing queue is invisible, deadlines are missed, and applicants have no visibility of where they are in the queue.

We build permits and licensing systems that make the workflow visible and trackable for both applicants and officers, with integrations to GIS, payment processors, and back-office finance systems.

What you get

  • Online permit and licence application forms with conditional logic and document upload
  • Officer workflow for case assignment, inspection scheduling, and decision recording
  • Applicant tracking portal showing application status, outstanding requirements, and decision notices
  • GIS integration for spatial searches, adjacent property notifications, and map-based case display
  • Automated fee calculation and payment processing integrated with your finance system

Best for

  • Local authorities processing building permits, business licences, or planning applications on paper
  • Regulatory agencies with high application volumes and statutory processing deadlines
  • Councils whose current system can't support online applications and automated fee calculation

Case management for social services and benefits

Social services and benefits case management involves some of the most sensitive data a government agency handles -- vulnerable individuals, household composition, financial circumstances, safeguarding records. The software needs to be not just functional but secure, auditable, and designed to support workers who carry high caseloads and can't afford data entry errors.

We build case management systems for social services, housing, benefits, and regulatory compliance -- with the audit trail, the access controls, and the safeguarding workflow that public sector accountability requires.

What you get

  • Individual and household case records with service history, needs assessment, and action plans
  • Referral management for inter-agency working and multi-disciplinary team coordination
  • Safeguarding workflow with alert thresholds, escalation paths, and decision recording
  • Role-based access controls separating worker, supervisor, and management views
  • Statutory reporting outputs for central government returns and performance monitoring

Best for

  • Local authorities replacing legacy case management systems with modern web-based platforms
  • Social care and housing teams working across disconnected tools with no consolidated citizen view
  • Agencies with statutory reporting obligations that require case data in specific formats

Government grant administration

Government grant programmes -- from small community funding rounds to large capital grant schemes -- involve the same core workflow: applications are received, assessed, approved, monitored for compliance, and closed with an outcome report. When this runs on email and spreadsheets, the assessment is inconsistent, the monitoring is manual, and the evidence trail for audit is difficult to reconstruct.

We build grant administration platforms for government bodies distributing public funds -- from the application portal that applicants use to submit bids, to the assessment and award management tools that programme managers use to make and monitor funding decisions.

What you get

  • Online application portal with eligibility checking, document upload, and application tracking
  • Officer assessment workflow with scoring, panel review, and decision recording
  • Award management with grant condition tracking, milestone monitoring, and payment scheduling
  • Clawback and variation management for grants where conditions are not met
  • Audit-ready reporting showing every assessment decision, every payment, and every compliance check

Best for

  • Local and regional government bodies distributing capital or revenue grants to community organisations
  • Central government departments running competitive funding programmes with high application volumes
  • Grant-making public bodies that need to demonstrate transparent and consistent decision-making

Public safety and incident management software

Public safety software -- for police, fire, emergency management, and regulatory enforcement -- has demanding requirements: high availability, offline capability for field officers, real-time data sharing across agencies, and an audit trail that will withstand scrutiny in legal proceedings. Off-the-shelf public safety platforms are expensive, slow to implement, and rarely fit the specific workflows of a local or regional agency.

We build public safety and enforcement software for agencies that need systems designed around their specific workflows and jurisdiction requirements rather than adapted from a generic platform.

What you get

  • Incident recording and case management for enforcement and regulatory agencies
  • Field officer mobile apps with offline capability for use in areas without connectivity
  • Inter-agency data sharing with controlled access and a complete sharing audit trail
  • Scheduling and resource management for field teams and enforcement officers
  • Reporting for statutory returns, court proceedings, and performance management

Best for

  • Local enforcement and regulatory agencies replacing paper-based incident recording
  • Emergency management teams coordinating multi-agency responses with no shared data platform
  • Public safety agencies whose current system requires data re-entry across multiple platforms

Government analytics and performance reporting

Government agencies face growing expectations for performance transparency -- from the central government departments that fund them, from elected members who scrutinise their performance, and from citizens who expect to understand how public money is spent. Producing performance reports manually from data held in disconnected systems is slow, resource-intensive, and produces numbers that different parts of the organisation can't agree on.

We build government analytics platforms that connect the operational systems -- case management, permits, benefits, finance -- and produce the performance reports that local authorities, regulators, and central government departments need.

What you get

  • KPI dashboards for service heads, senior leadership, and elected members showing live operational performance
  • Statutory performance reporting in the format required by central government or the relevant inspectorate
  • Financial performance reporting linking service delivery outputs to budget spend
  • Open data publishing tools for local authorities with transparency publication obligations
  • Self-service report builder for service managers who need data without an analyst engagement

Best for

  • Local authorities with statutory performance reporting obligations to central government or the inspectorate
  • Agencies whose performance data lives in multiple systems and requires manual reconciliation to produce a single report
  • Government bodies that want to publish open data for transparency without a manual extraction process each time

Problems we solve in government software

Citizen service requests submitted by email or paper form with no tracking or status visibility

When planning applications, permit requests, and service enquiries come in by email or paper form, the processing queue is invisible. Officers don't know what's in the queue without checking their email. Citizens don't know where their application is without calling. Statutory processing deadlines are tracked manually or not at all. A citizen portal with case tracking replaces the queue with a system that is visible to both officers and applicants.

Case records for the same individual spread across multiple service areas with no joined-up view

A citizen who interacts with housing, social care, and benefits services is three separate records in three separate systems. When any one team needs to understand the full picture of an individual's circumstances -- for a safeguarding review, a joined-up support plan, or a fraud investigation -- they have to request information from two other teams. A unified case record changes that without requiring all services to use the same operational system.

Grant assessment decisions that are difficult to reconstruct for audit because they happened in email

When grant applications are assessed through email, the scoring is inconsistent between assessors, the rationale for borderline decisions is not documented, and the full evidence trail is spread across multiple inboxes. An audit or Freedom of Information request requires weeks of email archaeology to reconstruct what was decided and why. A structured assessment workflow records every score, every comment, and every decision in a system that produces an audit trail automatically.

Performance data requiring manual extraction and reconciliation before any report can be produced

The finance system, the case management system, and the HR system each produce their own reports in their own format. The performance manager spends two days every quarter extracting the data, reconciling the numbers across systems, and building the report in a spreadsheet. The numbers in the report are already out of date by the time it reaches the senior leadership team. An analytics platform that connects the source systems produces the same report from live data in minutes rather than days.

Permit and licence renewals chased manually because there is no automated reminder or tracking system

Business licences, food hygiene certificates, and premises approvals have statutory renewal dates. When the renewal tracker is a spreadsheet and the reminder is a manual email, renewals are missed. The business continues to operate without a valid licence, enforcement action is required, and the council carries both the compliance risk and the reputational cost. An automated renewal management system sends reminders at the configured intervals, escalates non-renewals to enforcement, and maintains the complete licence history.

Safeguarding referrals and multi-agency information sharing managed through informal channels

Safeguarding referrals between social care, police, education, and health are some of the highest-stakes information exchanges in local government. When they happen by phone, email, or fax, the referral record is incomplete, the response timeline is untracked, and accountability for follow-up is unclear. A structured referral and information-sharing system creates a complete record of every referral, every response, and every decision -- the audit trail that serious case reviews and inspections require.

How we work with government clients

Government projects require more detailed discovery than most. We map the current process -- the paper forms, the email workflows, the legacy system integrations, the statutory obligations -- before designing anything. We identify the data protection requirements, the accessibility obligations, and the security controls that the project must meet from day one. Discovery produces a fixed-scope specification that can go through procurement without scope uncertainty.

What to ask any government software team

Compliance and security

  • Do you understand the data sovereignty and cloud hosting requirements for public sector data?
  • Can you produce a DPIA and evidence of penetration testing before go-live?
  • Have you built to WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards, not just audited against them after build?
  • Do you understand the audit trail and records retention requirements for public sector systems?

Legacy integration

  • Can you integrate with our existing back-office systems, including older or proprietary platforms?
  • How do you approach integrations where no API is available?
  • What is your approach to data migration from legacy systems?

Delivery and procurement

  • Is the cost fixed before development starts and suitable for a public sector procurement process?
  • Do we own the code and data, with no vendor lock-in?
  • What does post-launch support look like and what does it cost?

Government software development cost

Estimated rangeTimeline
Citizen portal or self-service application form
Permits or licensing management system
Case management system
Full government platform with analytics

The cost of manual government processes

60%of citizen contacts with local government are avoidable -- duplicate enquiries chasing status on applications submitted by paper
3xlonger to process a permit application manually versus through a digital workflow system
£2.8Maverage annual cost of manual back-office processing in a mid-size UK local authority

Frequently asked questions

Most focused builds -- a citizen portal, a permits system, or a case management tool -- deliver a production-ready system in 12 to 16 weeks. The full engagement, including discovery, security assurance, accessibility audit, and parallel running before full cutover, typically runs 20 to 28 weeks for a single service. Larger platform replacements covering multiple service areas run 6 to 12 months. We work in milestones, so you see working software every two weeks and can adjust scope before it is built into production.

Yes, and we build accessibility in from the first sprint rather than auditing against it at the end of the project. WCAG 2.1 AA compliance is a legal requirement for public sector websites in the UK under the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations, and a practical requirement for any citizen-facing government service. Our development process includes accessibility checks at each sprint review, and we conduct or facilitate a formal accessibility audit before go-live. We can provide an accessibility statement and a VPAT for procurement requirements.

Yes. Most government projects involve at least one legacy back-office system -- a financial management system, a housing system, a planning system -- that the new digital service needs to connect to. Where the legacy system has an API, we use it. Where it does not, we build integration using database-level connectors, file-based exchange, or a middleware layer that translates between the legacy system's data format and the new platform. We document the integration architecture during the discovery phase so there are no surprises when development starts.

A citizen portal or self-service application form with back-office integration typically runs $30,000 to $65,000. A permits and licensing management system covering application, workflow, inspection, and decision runs $50,000 to $100,000. A case management system for social services or benefits administration typically runs $60,000 to $120,000 depending on the complexity of the case workflow and reporting requirements. We scope every project before pricing it -- fixed cost agreed before development starts, suitable for a public sector procurement process. We do not do hourly billing.

Government software by product

Government software by capability

Talk to us about your government software project.

Tell us your agency type, the service you need to digitise, and the compliance or procurement constraints we need to work within. We'll tell you what we'd build and how.