Who this is for
Most companies that make things got to where they are because someone was exceptional at the work. The construction, the manufacturing, the product. Technology was always secondary. By the time the systems problems get serious, almost none of them go find someone with a real IT background to build out their stack or select their systems. They find someone smart who has some downtime and tell them to go figure it out. No matter how capable that person is, this just isn't what they do.
What almost always follows is a technology mess. Systems nobody remembers the purpose of. A wildly overcomplicated ERP setup that holds the business back instead of supporting it. Processes built around workarounds that have been in place so long nobody questions them anymore. And, increasingly, AI tools purchased faster than anyone evaluated them, pointed at production systems before anyone asked what could go wrong.
If any of that sounds familiar, cleaning it up is what I do.
Maker Systems works exclusively with manufacturers, hardware companies, and construction firms in the Pacific Northwest and beyond: specialty subs, GCs, and everyone in between. That specificity is the point. If you make things, your systems problems look different from a services company's. You have BOMs, MRP, RMAs, work orders, receiving workflows, subcontract change orders, prevailing wage compliance across multiple states, complex union rules, and warehouse operations that most IT consultants have never seen up close.
I have. That background is what makes the difference between an advisor who can speak your language in the first meeting and one who has to learn it on your dime.
What I do
Fractional CIO & vCIO Engagements
Strategic technology leadership without the full-time cost. Right for founder-led companies where there isn't existing technology leadership and where a full-time CIO isn't the right hire yet.
ERP Selection & Implementation
If you're outgrowing your current system, evaluating replacements, or mid-implementation and in trouble, this is the core of what I do. For manufacturers, contractors, and hardware companies specifically, not generic enterprise consulting.
Systems Integration
I've rebuilt integration infrastructure for organizations running at scale replacing legacy platforms, designing webhook routing, controlling network ingress, building for supportability rather than complexity.
AI Governance & Tool Assessment
AI tools are getting purchased faster than anyone is evaluating them. A consultant recommends something, leadership approves it, and IT is handed a deployment request for a tool nobody fully understood before the contract was signed. I assess agentic tools before they touch your environment. Not from vendor documentation, but from actually installing and running them, proposing a deployment architecture that contains the risk rather than hoping the defaults hold.
AI Integration & Implementation
When the evaluation says go, I build it. Analytics pipelines connecting your CRM, ERP, and data warehouse. Natural language interfaces to business data. Workflow automation that ties your existing systems together without creating something nobody can support when the project ends.
Platform experience
ERP
NetSuite, JD Edwards E1, Odoo, Viewpoint Vista, Sage 300CRE, Microsoft Dynamics F&O
Integrations
Celigo, Boomi, MuleSoft, Tray.ai, n8n, Zapier, JDE Orchestrator, SSIS, HookDeck
AI
Claude, Anthropic API, n8n AI workflows
Industry Specific
Procore, eBuilder, Shipstation, Fishbowl, Katana
Project Management & DevOps
Jira, Azure DevOps
CRM
Salesforce, HubSpot, Adobe Marketo Engage
Ecommerce
Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Prodigy
Finance Adjacent
Concur, Ramp
BI & Analytics
Power BI, Tableau, Looker, Superset
Background
I've led technology at a fabless hardware design company, managed ERP implementations across construction and manufacturing environments, and rebuilt integration infrastructure for a $7 billion general contractor including finance and project management integrations across Procore, JDE Orchestrator, and a legacy iPaaS the organization had been captured on for years. The subcontract change order workflows alone took months.
More recently I've been doing the work of evaluating and governing AI tools in production environments, building AI-powered analytics pipelines, assessing agentic tool deployments before they touch infrastructure, and developing acceptable use frameworks for organizations that are moving faster than their governance can keep up with.
No degree, no legacy firm pedigree, no interest in making simple things sound complicated.
More about the person behind this practice at jaredskye.com.
Contact
Let's talk about what's not working.