Ribbons of cobalt blue and teal light arranging into a precise grid pattern

Build working agents, with code, no-code, or both.

AI-first development, anchored in classic DevOps. Custom software, AI engineering, and AI-native delivery alongside no-code and low-code on the correct hyperscaler or private platform, whichever path is shortest to the outcome.

Activity · Develop

Develop.

46% of First Digital clients already either build production solutions with no-code or AI-assisted code.

What we build

Representative offerings.

Build with code

Code-led delivery, AI-native by default, when the problem is the kind only software can answer.

AI first code

Full delivery discipline, analysts, PMs, testers, domain-experienced developers, change control. Backed by the Innovation practice, a Microsoft Advanced Specialist Partner in AI and App Modernisation.

AI engineering

AI strategy, agents, RAG systems, ML, MLOps, built across multi-cloud and silicon stacks. A Microsoft Advanced Specialist Partner in AI and App Modernisation.

AI-native delivery (Apex)

Transcript → proposal → BRS → scaffold → code → test, with every step AI-enhanced. Shorter cycles, the same accountability.

Build without code

If we can deliver it without writing code, we will. Faster, easier to maintain, easier for your team to take ownership of.

Power Platform

Power Apps, Power Automate, Power Pages, citizen-developer-friendly, IT-governed, and connected to the systems your business already runs.

Process automation

Long-running processes, system-to-system orchestration, and exception handling, automated without re-platforming. Cross-vendor where the Microsoft estate is not the right fit.

Activity · Deploy

Deploy.

Test, release, ship. The bridge between the build and the run, release management, environment strategy, hand-over.

What we build

Representative offerings.

Security

Secure coding practice with GitHub Code Security and continuous production risk monitoring with See.tech (BUI).

Practice

How we work

AiPEX

Framework

AI-native delivery, every step of the engagement

From Envision

Brief

Build-ready brief

with ROI attached

Stage 01

Architecture

Design it for code, no-code, or agentic build

Stage 02

Develop

Build working software with the right delivery model

CodeAI & no code

Stage 03

Deploy

Release into production

cloud-native, auditable

Vendor funded

To Evolve

Live

Deploy securely and observable

Featured approach: APEX, turning SDLC into AI Development Lifecycle.

AI-native software development, every step. Our APEX framework is modular, relies on cloud or private token factories, and automates the software lifecycle from discovery transcripts, to feature backlogs, to architecture, build, and delivery. Secure, quality-driven, and fast.

See the framework

our work

Our customer stories from your world.

Modernising enterprise service management with a SaaS-first, omnichannel platform

Fashion Retailer

Fashion Retailer

First Digital runs a major fashion retailer’s enterprise service management on Freshworks Freshservice, from Azure single sign-on to WhatsApp live chat, across roughly 1,400 agents.

Enterprise Service Management

Freshworks logo
FreshserviceFreshchatJourneysSelf-service portal
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A generative-AI sales assistant for Eurolux

Eurolux

A bespoke, Azure-hosted RAG chatbot called Lighty that helps Eurolux sales reps match a client’s requirement to the right products in seconds.

Capability

Practice

Modernise Apps with Azure AI

Azure AI ServicesAzure AI FoundryCosmosDB
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A generative-AI knowledge assistant for African Alliance

African Alliance

African Alliance

A company-grounded AI assistant that answers policy and procedure questions and turns messy Excel reports into consolidated management accounts.

Capability

Practice

Modernise Apps with Azure AI

Azure AI ServicesAzure AI FoundryCosmosDB
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Harvey, a generative-AI assistant for First Technology’s legal team

First Technology

First Technology

A cloud chat assistant, Harvey, that lets legal and paralegal staff check contract terms, dates and notice periods in seconds instead of digging through documents.

Capability

Practice

Modernise Apps with Azure AI

Azure AI ServicesAzure AI FoundryCosmosDB
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Bringing home-office inverters into view with IoT and AI

A financial services provider

A low-cost device that retrofits to home-office inverters and, with generative AI on top, gives a financial services firm a live view of agents’ backup power and battery health.

Modernising Apps with Azure AI & IoT

ESP microcontrollerMQTTAzureAzure AI
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Smart monitoring and agentic alerting for WFS’s backup-power fleet

WFS

A custom ESP device that retrofits to thousands of basic 24V inverters, giving WFS live visibility of its remote backup-power fleet and an AI tool to interrogate the data.

IoT and Agentic Alerting

FDX - Custom Electronics logo
ESP microcontrollerInverterBackup PowerSaaS BI
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Keeping pharmaceutical fridges in spec at Capital Hospitals

Capital Hospitals

Capital Hospitals

A bespoke, five-year-battery monitoring device that watches pharmaceutical fridge temperature and humidity, and reports breaches to the right people automatically.

First Digital IoT

FDX - Custom Electronics logo
ESP32MQTTInfluxDBGrafana
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Keeping Frey’s Foods running with submersible water-level sensors

Frey’s Foods

Frey’s Foods

Submersible LoRaWAN sensors that keep Frey’s Foods’ on-site water tanks topped up, so a plant of more than 2,000 staff never runs dry.

First Digital IoT

FDX - Custom Electronics logo
LoRaWANInfluxDBAzureGrafana
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Private inference, local currency, global impact

International Marketing Group

We moved an international marketing group’s generative-AI inference off public cloud onto our private NVIDIA GPU cluster, so their data and token generation stay local, they pay in local currency, and they run cheaper after hours.

Private AI Inference

FDX - Apex (GPU) logo
NVIDIA CUDAPyTorchOpen-source LLMPrivate GPU Cluster
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Private token, no per-seat cost, company wide impact!

First Technology

First Technology

We gave First Technology staff local AI chat and agentic desktop agents running on our private NVIDIA GPU cluster, so the data and token generation stay local, the bill is in local currency, and responses come back fast.

Private AI Inference

FDX - Apex (GPU) logo
NVIDIA CUDAPyTorchOpen-source LLMPrivate GPU Cluster
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Cutting a two-month NPC model training run down to size for Vector Gaming

Vector Gaming

Vector Gaming needed serious GPU horsepower to train a custom 350-million-parameter model for smarter game NPCs. We put our private GPU cluster behind their Vulkan-based distributed trainer and cut a two-month run down to a fraction of that.

Capability

Practice

Distributed Model Training

FDX - Apex (GPU) logo
C#Vulkan350M-parameter LLMDistributed GPU Training
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ISP automates routing diagnostics via AI

Urban Connect

Urban Connect’s agentic diagnostic agent works a network fault out for itself, pulling the logs, querying the routers and upstream providers, then writing the call-centre ticket, so support is proactive instead of a manual scramble.

Agentic Diagnostics

FDX - Apex (GPU) logo
Private Hosted ModelGemma 3 27BQwenHigh-speed NVLink
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First Digital creates a full digital experience for blood donors

WCBS

Over five years, First Digital turned Western Cape Blood Services into Africa’s first fully digital, end-to-end blood-donation ecosystem, a Microsoft-recognised, AI-powered platform that registers donors 60% faster and answers them around the clock.

Digital & App Innovation

.NET MAUIAzure OpenAIAzure Cognitive ServicesAzure
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A life-recovery mobile app for Project Exodus

Project Exodus

A cross-platform mobile app that brings Project Exodus’s life-recovery methodology to a potentially global audience, on both the App Store and Google Play.

Cloud-native app development

.NET CoreXamarinAzureAzure DevOps
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One App for a national shoe retailer’s 400+ stores

Leading Shoe Retailer

A modular, cloud-based One App that rolled out to more than 400 stores at once, pulling stock takes, sales tracking and ticketing into a single place.

Cloud-native app development

Azure.NETAzure SQLBlob Storage
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A full e-commerce channel for Staffwear in three months

Staffwear

A full online shopping and fulfilment experience for Staffwear, built on nopCommerce and Azure and live in three months to keep sales moving through lockdown.

Cloud-native app development

AzurenopCommerceAzure SQLPayGate
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Modernising line-side quality control for MAHLE

MAHLE

A modern .NET solution that prints product labels from automated quality checks on MAHLE’s South African lines, with central configuration and full traceability.

Application modernisation

.NETBespoke IoT
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A DevOps blueprint for a hospital group’s project teams

Hospital Group

A disciplined virtual team and a custom Azure DevOps blueprint that brought consistent delivery to one of South Africa’s largest hospital groups.

Azure DevOps

Azure DevOps
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A Microsoft Teams colleague gateway for a leading bank

Leading Bank

Leading Bank

A personalised colleague portal that lives inside Microsoft Teams, giving the bank’s staff across Africa one place to find news, company services and the people they work with.

Microsoft Viva employee experience

Microsoft TeamsMicrosoft VivaSharePoint OnlinePower Platform
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A Microsoft 365 Fast-Track rollout for the NHLS

National Health Laboratory

National Health Laboratory

A Fast-Track rollout of Microsoft 365 across the NHLS, getting a traditionally on-premises national lab service ready for secure remote work during the pandemic.

Microsoft 365 Fast-Track

Microsoft 365Exchange OnlineSharePoint OnlineMicrosoft Teams
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Consolidating PPC onto one Microsoft 365 environment across five countries

PPC

An Active Directory consolidation and Exchange Online migration that brought PPC’s separate country domains and mailboxes onto a single Microsoft 365 environment.

Microsoft 365 & Exchange Online

Microsoft 365Exchange OnlineActive DirectoryEntra ID
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Listening to patients at Busamed with a Power Apps discharge survey

Busamed

A custom Power Apps solution that captures patient feedback at discharge across Busamed’s hospitals, with SAP integration and live Power BI insight for managers.

Power Platform

Power AppsSharePoint OnlinePower BISAP
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A low-code vaccination management system for Sasol, in four weeks

Sasol

A Power Platform system that ran Sasol’s staff Covid-19 vaccinations end to end, from consent to follow-up, built with low-code in four weeks.

Power Platform

Power AppsMicrosoft FormsPower AutomateDataverse
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Automating policy creation for Assupol with Nintex K2

Assupol

A low-code Nintex K2 workflow that automates policy creation from end to end, with level-based approvals, reminders and escalations, across Assupol’s business systems.

Capability

Practice

Nintex Process Automation

Nintex logo
Nintex K2K2 SmartForms
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Tightening audit and governance with Nintex K2 and ServiceNow

International petrochemical

A Nintex K2 and ServiceNow integration that gave a petrochemical company a full audit trail of every change from development to production.

Capability

Practice

Nintex Process Automation

Nintex logo
Nintex K2ServiceNow
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Enabling scalable integration through ESB rationalisation and phased decomposition

A logistics provider

A structured ESB rationalisation that untangled a logistics provider’s organically grown BizTalk estate, cutting duplication and technical debt while keeping the business running.

Application Innovation

BizTalk ServerEnterprise Service BusOrchestrationAPI exposure
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Modernising operational workflows with a low-code enterprise application platform

Global Agri & Supply

A low-code OutSystems platform that digitised complex multi-geography logistics workflows end to end, giving field and office users one governed system for web and mobile.

OutSystems Low-Code Platform

OutSystems logo
OutSystemsReactive Web & MobileRBACIntegration
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A Microsoft Fabric data warehouse for Talksure

Talksure

A secure, scalable Microsoft Fabric data warehouse on Azure that gives Talksure a single, accurate view of their data to drive decisions.

Data & AI

Microsoft FabricPower BIAzure SQL
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A central data warehouse for Belgotex on Microsoft Fabric

Belgotex

A central, modelled data warehouse that pulls Belgotex’s scattered data into one place to report from, with room to take in factory IoT data later.

Power Business Decisions with Cloud Scale Analytics

Microsoft FabricAzure SQLPower BI
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Automating data enablement for GroupM

GroupM

An end-to-end pipeline that automates GroupM’s data gathering and reporting, so their teams spend their time on analysis instead of assembling spreadsheets.

Power Business Decisions with Cloud Scale Analytics

Power BIAzure Data FactorySSISAzure SQL
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A modern data warehouse for an agricultural supplier

Large food to fork biz

A modern, centralised data warehouse on Azure that gave an agricultural supplier a single, trusted source of data and a way off QlikView.

Power Business Decisions with Cloud Scale Analytics

Microsoft FabricAzure SynapsePower BI
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Trusted reporting for South African Parliament’s catering division

South African Parliament

South African Parliament

A governed reporting pipeline and Power BI dashboards that gave Parliament trusted, timely point-of-sale insight to manage its catering division.

Power Business Decisions with Cloud Scale Analytics

Azure SQLSSISPower BIOracle
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Get in touch

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