# How to get systems built when your people cannot build yet

> When work runs on spreadsheets, chat and paper and staff are not yet confident builders, Substrait's team builds the first systems with a named person from your team, and trains your people to keep building.

URL: https://substrait.build/problems/build-systems-when-staff-cannot-build-yet/  
Last updated: 2026-11-06

**The question:** Our work runs on spreadsheets, chat and paper, and our staff are not software people. How do we get proper systems?

Start with a team that builds alongside your people. Substrait's team builds your first systems on Substrait with a named person from your team, and the Builder Academy teaches the rest of your people to keep building.

## Why this is hard

Much of the work in a growing company never got a system.
It runs on spreadsheets, chat groups and paper.
Staff know the work best, but most are not yet sure they can build software, even with AI.
A platform on its own does not change that.

## What Substrait does

Substrait comes with people.
Every engagement includes Substrait, and adds what your team needs first.

| Part | What it is |
|---|---|
| Academy | Training that teaches the people who know the work to build. Substrait is the lab they learn in. |
| Build | Substrait's team builds the systems you need, with a named person from your team alongside |
| Substrait | The platform the systems run on, where your people keep building after the team steps back |

The person who lives the problem knows it best.
That is why every system Substrait's team builds has a named person from your team building it too.
They learn to change the system themselves, so it keeps improving.

## Questions and answers

### Do we have to learn to build before we can use Substrait?

No. Substrait's team can build your first systems for you, with one of your people alongside. Your people learn as they go.

### What if our basic systems are missing?

Groundwork can come first. Where orders are still on paper or group reports are in spreadsheets, Substrait's team can start with systems and data, and Substrait comes in with the first thing the team builds.

## Related

- [Solutions for every starting point](https://substrait.build/solutions/): Substrait serves three kinds of company: teams already building with AI, companies ready to start whose work still runs on spreadsheets, chat and paper, and companies stuck on a closed legacy vendor system. Each has its own way in.
- [Guided building: every builder knows what to do next](https://substrait.build/capabilities/guided-building/): Substrait coaches each builder inside the platform, from their first sign-in to their first tool in production, at the depth that fits what they already know. The Builder Academy is a separate, optional human service.
- [Templates: Substrait's best practice, wired to your company](https://substrait.build/capabilities/seeded-templates/): Substrait builds templates of common business software on best practice from its own experience. Every installation starts with them, already connected to the company's cloud, sign-on, identity, data and design. A template is copied and owned, never locked to a central version.
- [How to get the small tools on IT's backlog built](https://substrait.build/problems/clear-the-it-backlog/): IT builds the core systems, and the long tail of small tools never gets built. Substrait lets the people who need those tools build them, and turns requests into tools through product management and build agents.