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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

ONX 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 ONX Application Management & Support. That way, the institutional knowledge stays with the system after go-live.

 

Application Development capabilities

 ONX 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 ONX 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

Processes that used to take days or weeks of manual effort completed in minutes. Workflows once spread across spreadsheets and email handed back to the business as a managed application with the associated reliability and audit trail, too.

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Business agility

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

 “We’re defining what AI-first development looks like in practice by making AI part of the process from day one, not adding it later. From requirements gathering through testing, our teams work with AI as a true collaborator, helping clients deliver faster and rethink what’s possible.”

Trevor Sykes

 Trevor Sykes

 Delivery VP

Don’t take our word for it

“OnX continues to be a reliable and trusted partner, consistently providing support whenever we have questions or encounter issues. Doug's proactive engagement—regular attendance at our meetings and close alignment with our roadmap—demonstrates a genuine commitment to understanding our priorities and aligning with our operational needs. A key factor in OnX's successful relationship with the City of Edmonton is its deliberate focus on understanding our environment, our challenges, and the business outcomes we are working toward. Their highly skilled technical team further strengthens this partnership, enabling us to confidently tackle complex initiatives and advance critical projects with greater speed and assurance."

ManagerCity of Edmonton / Government

“OnX has been an incredible partner and really takes the time to understand our needs and our culture. Elias and Gabriel have been fantastic throughout and represent OnX professionally and with curiosity about our technology landscape.”

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) / Hospitals & Physicians; Medical

“The OnX account team consistently demonstrates a high level of professionalism and expertise. They are not only a pleasure to collaborate with, but also excel at understanding and translating customer requirements into practical, cost-effective solutions. Their ability to balance client needs with budgetary constraints ensures that projects are both feasible and aligned with business objectives. Overall, their commitment to service and depth of knowledge make them a valuable partner in achieving successful outcomes.”

Sr. Manager IT InfrastructureDeloitte / Accounting Services

“The commitment and dedication by OnX is second to none. We truly do feel that OnX is simply more than a vendor—rather a valuable partner in Sask Polytech's overall success. We truly value the insight that Mark T, Tuyet L, Marcel M, Ali S and various others have guided us within our value streams. Cannot say enough good things about OnX.”

Team Lead NetworkSaskatchewan Polytechnic / Education

“OnX's core competency in professional services, staffing and procurement services have been integral to the success of assisting the operations staff for the Canadian Blood Services. The OnX team have proved themselves to be more than a vendor but a partner in enabling the reliability for the services The Canadian Blood Services provides.”

Canadian Blood Services / Organization; Non-profit

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. ONX 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. ONX 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. ONX 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. ONX 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 ONX AI & Data team on the data foundation, model selection, and ethics review for every AI-enabled application.
How is the ONX approach to application development different? Three things distinguish the ONX 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 ONX 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.