# How to get the small tools on IT's backlog built

> 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.

URL: https://substrait.build/problems/clear-the-it-backlog/  
Last updated: 2026-11-06

**The question:** Our IT team will never get to the small tools each department needs. How do we get them built?

Let the people closest to the work build them, on a platform IT trusts. Substrait gives every department a governed way to build its own tools, and a place where a request becomes a working tool through product management and build agents.

## Why this is hard

Every company has a backlog of software it will never build.
IT builds the head of the curve: the ERP, the CRM, the core product.
The long tail does not get built: the client onboarding portal, the exception dashboard, the per-account report.
That work survives in spreadsheets, email threads and the memory of the one person who knows how it works.
It costs slower onboarding, a higher cost to serve, and processes that never fit what each client needs.

## What Substrait does

**The person closest to the problem builds the tool.**
Domain experts build with the AI model they already use, and Substrait coaches them step by step.

**Nobody starts from nothing.**
Every installation is seeded with templates of common business software, already wired to the company's cloud, sign-on and data.

**Requests become tools.**
Anyone can ask for a new tool, or a change to one they use, in plain words.
Requests sit in a backlog with status and decisions.
Build agents plan, build, test and ship each change under the company's own rules, and the tool's owner stays in charge.

**IT keeps control without building everything.**
Every tool passes the same security check and the same data grants, whoever built it.

## Questions and answers

### Why does the IT backlog never shrink?

IT builds the head of the demand curve: the ERP, the CRM, the core product. The long tail of small tools, such as a client onboarding portal or an exception dashboard, is too small for IT to reach, so it stays in spreadsheets and email.

### What can departments build on Substrait?

Per-client portals and dashboards, customer-facing forms and status pages, approvals and handoffs between systems, departmental admin tools, reports over existing systems, and quick experiments.

## Related

- [Agentic Builder: requests become tools](https://substrait.build/capabilities/agentic-builder/): Agentic Builder is the part of Substrait where anyone asks for a new tool or a change in plain words, and build agents plan, build, test and ship it under the company's own rules, with the tool's owner in charge.
- [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.
- [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.
- [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.