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Applications

Application Development

AI-powered, security-first application development

Partner with OnX to design and build custom, cloud-native, AI-enabled, and low-code applications — from a single workflow to a full enterprise platform.
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When off-the-shelf doesn’t hit the mark

Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions are often but not always sufficient. Sometimes an application is too core to your business or too integral to your competitive advantage, or your needs are simply too different from what the market offers. As customers expect more and AI reshapes what’s possible, choose a development partner who can help you decide what’s worth creating, build it well, and stay with you as the application evolves.

 

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The OnX approach

Build what the business needs.

OnX starts by understanding what an application must do, who it needs to serve, what it must integrate with, and what “done” means for your business. After all, a custom application built on the wrong architecture becomes tomorrow’s legacy problem. A cloud-native application built without governance becomes an unbudgeted cost line. And a low-code application built without thought to integration becomes the next shadow IT headache. 

When you partner with us, the same engineering bench that builds your application can support it in production through OnX Application Management & Support. That way, the institutional knowledge stays with the system after go-live.

Application Development capabilities

OnX development engagements span these primary capability areas, and most projects draw on more than one.

Discovery & Design Workshop


Our Discovery & Design Workshop brings your business and technical stakeholders together to define future-state vision, surface requirements, and translate priorities into an actionable path forward. We align before a single line of code is written, so your application is built right the first time.

Custom Application Development


We offer end-to-end design, development, and deployment of applications purpose-built for your business. Our integrated scrum teams handle front-end and back-end work across the frameworks your environment requires, along with mobile and integration work. Automated testing, CI/CD pipelines, and deployment automation are built into the development cycle, so quality scales with velocity. We also design integrations with your ERP, CRM, identity, data, and partner systems for resilience and observability.

Cloud-native Application Development


We architect applications so the cloud platform does the heavy lifting your team would otherwise have to handle. That means containerized, microservices-based architectures that let teams ship faster, scale selectively, and isolate failures without taking the application down, plus cloud-native databases, event-driven services, and serverless compute that reduce infrastructure overhead and tie cost more directly to actual usage. We also incorporate identity, encryption, policy enforcement, and runtime monitoring into the architecture from the first design session.

Low-code/No-code Development


Low-code and no-code platforms let business teams build custom workflows and applications faster and at lower cost, with OnX guiding the architecture, governance, and integration. We build Power Apps, Power Automate, and Copilot Studio applications for line-of-business workflows, automate the manual, repetitive processes that consume hours of capacity every week, and connect them to the systems where the data already lives.

AI-enabled Application Development


AI changes what applications can do and how they get built. OnX develops applications with AI embedded in them, and increasingly, applications built using AI to compress timelines without compromising quality or governance. On the product side, that means custom applications with GenAI capabilities, agents, or intelligent workflows integrated into the user experience and built in partnership with our AI & Data team, so the data foundation, model selection, and ethics review are solid from the start.

Where to start

Advisory engagements

A CBTS advisory is a time-bound, fixed-fee engagement designed to give you a clear answer to a specific strategic question — fast.  

Discovery & Design Workshop

Best for: Organizations grappling with a business problem, such as lack of in-house resources, end-of-life challenges, or multi-faceted risks related to existing applications. 
You walk away with: 
•    Expert analysis of your current state, including insights on application condition, cost, risk, and business value 
•    Recommended actions for solving the business problem  
•    Executive readout deck for leadership alignment

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What success looks like

Three outcomes show up most consistently in OnX Application Development engagements.

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Revenue growth

New applications support innovation across product/service development, data monetization, and customer experience. OnX-built applications routinely power revenue programs whose business case wasn’t feasible on the legacy platform.

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Improved productivity

Processes that used to take days or weeks of manual effort completed in minutes. Workflows once spread across spreadsheets and email handed back to the business as a managed application with associated reliability and audit trail.

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Business agility

 Applications that put your customers at the center and are designed for greater speed, reliability, and usefulness.  

“We’re defining what AI-first development looks like in practice by making AI part of the process from day one, not adding it later. From requirements gathering through testing, our teams work with AI as a true collaborator, helping clients deliver faster and rethink what’s possible.”

Ari Steinberg

Ari Steinberg

 Director, Application Solutions

Don’t take our word for it

“OnX has been an incredible partner and really takes the time to understand our needs and our culture. They have been fantastic throughout and represent OnX professionally and with curiosity about our technology landscape.”

DirectorHealthcare

“Onx is exceptionally agile partner, consistently attentive to our needs and always quick to adapt. Their customer focus and responsiveness truly set them apart as a top-tier service provider.”

Deputy CTOBFSI

“OnX is a reliable and trusted partner whose deliberate focus on understanding our environment, challenges, and business outcomes helps us advance complex initiatives with confidence.”

ManagerGovernment

“The OnX account team consistently demonstrates professionalism, expertise, and a strong commitment to service. They translate customer requirements into practical, cost-effective solutions, making them a valuable partner.”

 Sr. ManagerBFSI

“The OnX account team consistently demonstrates professionalism, expertise, and a strong commitment to service. They translate customer requirements into practical, cost-effective solutions, making them a valuable part.”

DirectorUtilities

Development is one part of the application lifecycle.

 OnX covers the full lifecycle, so the handoffs between phases happen within a single accountable team.

What makes the difference

National expertise with local accountability.

For 40+ years, OnX has helped Canadian organizations solve complex technology challenges. Our national reach provides access to deep technical capabilities, industry specialists, and leading technology partners, while our local teams remain accountable for outcomes and invested in your success. We listen before we recommend and stay engaged throughout delivery.

Industry knowledge that matters. 

Regulatory requirements and operational realities shape your technology decisions. OnX brings deep experience supporting complex, highly regulated organizations through modernization, cybersecurity, cloud transformation, and AI adoption. With a deep understanding of governance, compliance, and security, we know how to deliver outcomes within those constraints.

Partnership that goes the distance.

Technology initiatives succeed when the right partner stays committed after implementation. OnX works alongside you from strategic planning and procurement to modernization, managed services, and AI transformation. We strive for partnerships built on trust, accountability, and a shared commitment to long-term success.

Related insights 

Frequently asked questions 

Why would a business choose custom application development? Custom application development is the practice of designing and building software tailored to a specific business problem, rather than buying a packaged product and adapting the business to it. It’s the right answer when an application is core to your competitive advantage, off-the-shelf options don’t fit the workflow, or the cost of working around a packaged solution exceeds the cost of building one. OnX custom development engagements typically include requirements work, architecture, design, build, testing, integration, and deployment, all delivered by integrated scrum teams. Custom development is a popular path for our government and enterprise clients whose applications must meet strict accessibility requirements.
What is cloud-native application development? Cloud-native application development is the practice of designing applications specifically to take advantage of cloud platforms. Usually, that involves containerized or microservices architectures, managed databases and services, serverless compute where it makes sense, and continuous deployment built into the development lifecycle. The benefit is the operational and cost flexibility that cloud-native architecture makes possible. Applications can scale automatically with demand, deploy more frequently with less risk, and integrate more cleanly with the rest of your environment.
What is no-code/low-code development, and when does it make sense? No-code and low-code platforms let teams build applications with minimal hand-written code — using visual development tools, pre-built components, and configurable workflows. They’re a fit for line-of-business workflows, internal applications, automation of repetitive processes, and rapid prototyping. They’re not suitable for applications with complex business logic, heavy integration requirements, or unusual user experience needs. OnX builds on Microsoft Power Platform (Power Apps, Power Automate, Copilot Studio) and helps clients establish the governance, integration, and lifecycle management that turn one-off low-code apps into a managed portfolio.
Can you build applications with AI integrated into them? Yes, and this represents one of the fastest-growing parts of our development work. OnX builds applications with generative AI (GenAI) capabilities, agents, and intelligent workflows integrated into the user experience. The technical work is only part of the engagement. The harder work is designing the guardrails: data loss prevention, model boundaries, hallucination controls, audit logging, and human-in-the-loop patterns that make AI-enabled applications safe to run in enterprise environments. We partner with the OnX AI & Data team on the data foundation, model selection, and ethics review for every AI-enabled application.
How is the OnX approach to application development different? Three things distinguish the OnX approach to custom application development. First, our development teams aren’t the same teams that did the discovery and architecture work, but they’re sitting next to them. That translates into a clean handoff where the original intent doesn’t get lost. Second, we cover the full development spectrum (custom, cloud-native, low-code, and AI-enabled) under one roof, so we don’t shape recommendations based on what we do or don’t offer. Third, the team that builds your application can continue supporting it in production through OnX Application Management & Support. That way, the institutional knowledge stays with the system after go-live.

Strong foundations start with building the right thing well.

Every new application is a long-term commitment. OnX helps you make it a good one, with discovery work that gets the scope right, architecture that keeps options open, engineering discipline that holds up under pressure, and the option to stay with the application after launch.