You have a specific Excel problem. We'll scope it, build it, and deliver it at a fixed price.

No ongoing commitment required. Just a well-defined project, delivered by senior Excel specialists with deep financial services experience.

At de Havilands, we design and build custom Excel solutions for mid-tier financial services firms that eliminate manual effort, reduce operational risk and free up your team to focus on high-value work.

Holly C.

Principal Consultant

I wanted to thank you again for all your help and advice... [it] has really been a gamechanger.

You know exactly what the problem is. You just need someone to fix it.

Your team has a specific Excel challenge — a manual process that takes too long, a model that needs rebuilding, a tool that needs to be built from scratch.

You don't need a consultant who will spend three weeks scoping it and six weeks building it. You need someone who understands financial services Excel, can define the scope quickly, and delivers a fixed-price solution that works.

That's exactly what Bespoke Development is.

What Bespoke Development Is

  • Manual Excel-based processes can be automated to run in a fraction of the time with increased accuracy and reduced operational risk
  • Solutions are delivered faster than traditional desktop or web-based alternatives
  • We build to your exact specification — no off-the-shelf compromises
  • Every solution is documented, maintainable, and designed for your end users

Who We Work With

de Havilands is a specialist Excel consulting firm led by Marcus Syben, a 25-year industry veteran and Microsoft MVP. 

We specialise in helping mid-size financial services firms—typically with 20 to 100 staff, lean IT support, and operations that are heavily dependent on Excel. 

Many of our clients have a stable of Excel workbooks and processes upon which entire business processes, rightly or wrongly, depend.  

We have worked with:

  • Asset managers, options traders, FX traders, insurance brokers & underwriters amongst others
  • Fund managers, COOs, CTOs and CFOs who have inherited "Excel spaghetti" and "Frankensheets"
  • Underwriters, trading desks, compliance officers, and risk teams with tight deadlines

We specialise in:

  • Building custom Excel tools, models, and automation solutions from scratch
  • Rebuilding or refactoring fragile legacy workbooks and macros
  • Integrating Excel with external systems — databases, APIs, trading platforms
  • Automating manual reporting and document generation processes

What We Deliver

Every project is custom scoped and built. No off-the-shelf tools. No bloated systems. Just fast, reliable Excel-based solutions that reduce risk and reclaim your time.

Here’s what we build:

  • Automated reporting tools with built-in data validation
  • Dashboards integrating SQL, Power Query, or Power BI
  • Legacy macro upgrades to modern, maintainable formats
  • Modular financial models with robust user controls
  • Automated document and report generation from Excel data, including Word and PowerPoint outputs.

Our solutions are:

  • Fully documented: we can provide, documented code, user documentation and video walkthroughs
  • Designed with your end-users in mind for ease of use and ease of maintenance
  • Built using Excel best practices from 25+ years in finance

Free Download

Discover How We Saved One London Asset Manager 4 Days a Month Automating 1 Process

With a 631% ROI, this case study shows how simple Excel automation saved one London asset manager 4 days, every month (that's 48 days a year) producing the client performance reports.

How it Works

Our process is structured but flexible—because no two clients are the same.

Call

Discovery Call

We take the time to understand how your team works and where the pain points are.

Scope

Scope & Proposal

We provide a fixed-priced quote (or hourly if preferred), based on clearly defined outcomes.

Build

Build & Test

We work iteratively in short sprints with regular check-ins to ensure alignment and usability.

Deploy

Deploy & Support

We hand over clean, documented solutions—or transition to Excel on Tap for ongoing development and maintenance.

Free Download

See What's Possible: 30+ Real Excel Projects for Financial Services Firms

From automated reporting packs to risk model rebuilds, this portfolio shows the kind of work we do and the results it delivers — including ROI gains of up to 631% and time savings of over 99%. 

Download it to see real examples from firms like yours.

Why Choose de Havilands?

We’re not generalist developers or offshore freelancers. We’re specialist Excel consultants with deep domain knowledge of financial services.

Led by Marcus Syben, a Microsoft Excel MVP with 25+ years of experience, we know what matters:

  • Clean architecture, not messy formulas
  • End-user design, not just developer convenience
  • Documented, maintainable, audit-ready work
  • Business value, not just “finished” files

We’ve helped clients:

  • Eliminate thousands of hours of tedious, "soul destroying", manual Excel tasks.
  • Reduce regulatory risk with audit-ready outputs
  • Cut costs by streamlining and automating multi-step workflows
  • Achieve a £170 million RWA reduction in one case
  • Save 4 days a month, every month - or 20% of one FTEs entire workload - automating client performance reporting with a 631% ROI.

Most of our clients operate in regulated financial services. While we don’t name names, we’ve helped firms across asset management, investment banking, retail & commercial banking, FX trading, insurance, private equity and risk management transform their Excel landscape.

What Our Clients Say

I didn’t appreciate how easy it was to work with Marcus until I had to work with other developers

Jamie C. ● Management Consultant

Very rarely can someone interpret ideas so well as Marcus has.

Frank F. ● Company Director

I wanted to thank you again for all your help and advice .. [it].. has really been a gamechanger.

Holly C ● Principal Consultant

Is this for You?

We often hear:

  • "It takes us days to compile a month-end report".
  • "The Excel workbook this process depends on was built by someone who left 3 years ago and no one really understands it."
  • "One formula breaks and we lose half-a-day trying to figure out why."

If this sounds familiar, you're not alone.

You might be a good fit for a Bespoke Development project if:

  • Your Excel files are slow, crash-prone, or huge
  • You rely on a few "spreadsheet heroes" who built key Excel tools (and have since left)
  • Staff are copy-pasting between reports or reconciling by hand
  • Your macros were written years ago and no one dares touch them
  • You need to integrate Excel with databases, APIs, or other applications
  • You want automation—but not a full IT rebuild

We’re not here to sell you software you don’t need. We’re here to fix what’s broken and build what works.

How We Price Projects

We offer two pricing models depending on your needs:

Fixed-Fee Projects

For clearly defined solutions with a measurable result, we provide a transparent, fixed-price quote.

Hourly Projects

For evolving requirements, we bill in 10-hour blocks, with regular checkpoints so you’re never surprised.

Many Bespoke Development clients go on to use Excel on Tap

A project gives us deep familiarity with your Excel environment — your workbooks, your processes, your team. For many clients, that naturally surfaces a broader, ongoing need.

If you find yourself wanting continuous Excel development capacity after your project is complete, Excel on Tap is designed exactly for that.

Learn About Excel on Tap

Ready to stop managing Excel and start improving it?

Book a 30-minute discovery call.

We'll look at your current Excel environment, identify where the biggest risks and inefficiencies are, and tell you honestly whether Excel on Tap is the right fit.

No sales pitch. No obligation. Just a straightforward conversation about your situation.

Book a Discovery Call
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