We Built This for One Kind of Shop
If you run a small or mid-sized manufacturer in the industrial Midwest, you have probably watched software firms treat you as an afterthought. The ERP vendors sell to companies ten times your size. The implementation partners are offshore and generic. Next Industrial is the opposite of that: the manufacturing practice of Seven Hills Technology, focused on first-ERP manufacturers, roughly 10 to 249 employees, across the industrial Midwest.
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Understand the Business Problem First, Then Write the Code
Seven Hills Technology started in Cincinnati in 2015 with a conviction most of our industry had backwards: understand the business problem first, then write the code. A decade of delivering custom software later, that has not changed.
Along the way we kept ending up in manufacturing. We advised a specialty manufacturer sizing up a custom AI build. We built and cleaned up systems for companies whose previous vendors had walked away or never documented a thing. The same pattern kept showing up, and it is the one we now build Next Industrial around: shop owners who need real software, sold to them straight, by people who have done the work before.
Next Industrial is how we bring that focus to manufacturers specifically: the same team and the same track record as Seven Hills Technology, aimed at one industry instead of several.
We Assess Before We Recommend, and You Own What We Build
We start with an assessment before we recommend anything, and we are honest about who we are not a fit for yet. Very high-mix, high-complexity machine shops are where ERP projects churn hardest, and we would rather earn that work later than sell it to you now and watch it struggle.
When we do take on an engagement, you own what we build. Every step produces something that is yours: source code, documentation, a working system. If you decide to take it in-house or change direction, the work goes with you. For the four things that set us apart, see Why Next Industrial.
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You get proof most new brands can't offer on day one: a decade of delivery, a Midwest team you can meet, and clients who've stayed with us for years.
The technical depth that the team was able to comprehend and the consultative nature of the interaction was impressive. They were able to provide a feasible roadmap and an "MVP" approach to move us forward without spending millions of dollars... 7 Hills stood out as the one company that was interested in understanding the problem.
Get a No-Obligation Fit Assessment
Start with the honest read on whether this is right for your shop, before the first contract. That is how we start.