SPA — From Custom Build to Multi-tenant SaaS
The story of how one custom project for the Defence Agency (ADIMS) became a multi-tenant platform now serving 2 production clients: defence agency and SAINS NS. The pivot from custom build to SaaS was our most important business decision in the last 2 years.
Month 1: The Original Brief
Defence agency briefed us: build a system to manage their thousands of ICT assets. Computers, printers, network equipment across all formations. Mandatory compliance with KEW.PA and KEW.PS, two official Malaysian Treasury circulars for government asset lifecycle. Before this system, asset officers spent hundreds of staff hours monthly compiling KEW.PA and KEW.PS forms manually from Excel. When auditors arrived, panic. When assets went missing, no audit trail. Classic government asset management problem.
“Treasury circulars are maps that many vendors do not read carefully. If you understand KEW.PA and KEW.PS deeply, you understand the Malaysian government enterprise market. Not just reading the circulars. Understanding the operational implications of every clause.”
Insight from the research phase
Project Timeline
18 months divided into 4 major phases:
Months 1-6: Build for anchor client (ADIMS)
6 months custom build for defence agency. Asset registry with QR per asset, lifecycle workflow (acquisition → in-use → maintenance → disposal), auto-generate KEW.PA and KEW.PS forms, integration with finance modules for budget tracking. Production go-live at . Hundreds of thousands of enterprise assets now trackable. Asset officers stop spending hundreds of hours on manual work. Client happy. Most vendors stop here.
Months 7-8: Discovery — KEW circulars are universal
After ADIMS go-live, we researched KEW.PA and KEW.PS more deeply. Realization that changed strategy: Treasury form formats, asset lifecycle, audit requirements are STANDARD for EVERY Malaysian government agency. Not defence-specific. The newly built ADIMS has 80 percent functionality reusable for other agencies. Only 20 percent is truly custom per agency. We had just solved one client's problem and could solve the entire market with the same platform.
Months 9-12: Multi-tenant pivot
4 months refactoring. Database tenant isolation via row-level security, scoped routing per tenant, isolated file storage in S3. Each tenant gets their own sandbox but shares the same infrastructure. Per-tenant cost drops drastically. We continued supporting ADIMS as the first tenant during refactor. Zero downtime for existing client. Multi-tenant architecture ready, but no second tenant yet to validate flexibility.
Months 13-18: Validate with SAINS NS
Onboarded SAINS NS (Sistem Air Negeri Sembilan) as second tenant. Utility sector, asset workflow slightly different from defence agency. Pumps, pipes, water treatment equipment instead of ICT assets. System flexed to handle different asset categories without custom code. Onboarding took 2 weeks (vs 6 months for custom build). SPASAINS go-live at iams.sainswater.com. Multi-tenant architecture proven. Now ready to scale to third, fourth, tenth tenant.
Before vs After
Before SPA
- Excel files scattered between asset officers
- KEW.PA and KEW.PS forms manually typed every month
- When assets went missing, no audit trail to verify
- Custom build per agency cost RM 100K to RM 300K and took 6-12 months
After SPA
- Single source of truth, real-time, accessible by all asset officers
- KEW.PA and KEW.PS forms auto-generated from database, just sign
- Full audit trail for every asset change, not just last edit
- SaaS subscription with onboarding in 2 weeks, no custom build needed
Multi-tenant Architecture We Built
Foundation is Laravel 12 with multi-tenant isolation at database level. Each tenant has tenant_id scoped on every query, plus row-level security in MariaDB as second layer protection. Authentication via Laravel Sanctum with tenant-aware tokens so a user with access to multiple tenants stays bound to one tenant context per session. Queue jobs (Laravel Horizon) tag every task with tenant_id for properly isolated async processing. File uploads (asset photos, KEW forms, audit documents) stored in S3 with per-tenant bucket prefixes, providing storage isolation at filesystem level too. Vue 3 with PrimeVue for dashboards. Complete modules: Budget, Storage, Assets, Transfers, Maintenance, Disposal with KEW.PA and KEW.PS auto-generation from a template engine reverse-engineered from official Treasury circulars.
Stack We Used
Results After 18 Months
Impact for Each Stakeholder
A product serving many stakeholders. Each in a different way.
Field Asset Officers
- Audit prep from months to hours
- QR per asset for phone scan and real-time info
- Mobile-first for field work, not desk-bound
- Complete audit trail for every asset change
Agency Management
- Cost drops 5-10x vs custom build per agency
- New tenant onboarding in 2 weeks
- KEW.PA and KEW.PS compliance audit-ready always
- Vendor management with financial reconciliation built-in
Tech Lead Management
- Recurring SaaS revenue, not one-off custom builds
- Product-market fit confirmed with 2 production tenants
- Knowledge moat from deep KEW circular expertise
- Low marginal cost for third, fourth, tenth tenant
Malaysian Industry
- Sets new standard for government asset management
- Reduces burden on asset officers across adopting agencies
- Promotes Treasury circular compliance systematically
- Makes the case for Malaysian vendors to productize, not just custom-only
What I Learned From This Pivot
- →A single anchor client provides validation. Productize after the pattern emerges, not before. Many vendors try to build speculative platforms without a first paying user. They usually fail.
- →Treasury circulars are maps that many vendors do not read carefully. Each circular reveals universal patterns common to all government agencies.
- →Multi-tenant architecture is earned, not assumed. Start with one, validate, then refactor once the pattern is confirmed.
- →Pivoting from custom build to SaaS requires substantial commitment. 4 months of extra effort we invested refactoring ADIMS into multi-tenant. But cost economics changed drastically. Second and subsequent clients cost 5-10x cheaper, and revenue model became recurring instead of one-off.
- →Vendor management in asset systems is underrated. Government clients need vendor screening, financial reconciliation tracking, audit for every transaction. Asset systems that ignore vendor management are asset systems that fail on day one of audit.
Is your agency still using Excel for asset management?
SPA is ready to onboard. 2 weeks from contract to production. 30-minute demo where I show how the system handles KEW.PA and KEW.PS for your agency size.
