Turning spreadsheet IP into a market-ready asset prioritisation product

insideEDGE, a sport and recreation planning consultancy, built a sophisticated asset prioritisation model in Excel to help councils answer a persistent question: with limited budget and an overflowing list of renewal needs, what should be done first, and how do you balance asset condition and risk with demand, community outcomes and strategic priorities? As the model grew, the spreadsheet became brittle, harder to share and difficult to reuse across clients.

In a one-month build window, DiUS translated the model into a web application designed for early pilots, so insideEDGE could test demand with councils without committing to full platform features upfront. AI-assisted development accelerated the translation of complex spreadsheet logic and shortened iteration cycles, with software engineering review and testing maintained. To make that workable under tight constraints, the pilot was built on a deliberately minimalist technical stack, reducing moving parts and keeping changes straightforward.

insideEDGE is a specialist sport and recreation planning consultancy with nearly two decades of experience supporting communities across Australia. They are focused on community infrastructure and on helping governments plan, program, and invest in facilities that enable better community outcomes.

A key part of insideEDGE’s approach is helping councils justify investment decisions with evidence. That means building models and tools that support transparent recommendations, especially where public investment and community expectations are involved.

Moving beyond brittle spreadsheets, without losing decision-making nuance

insideEDGE’s model captured the real-world trade-offs councils need to balance, combining asset condition, safety and compliance, patterns of demand and participation, longer-term community outcomes, and alignment with council policy and strategic priorities. It gave councils a more structured way to weigh immediate risks against long-term value when deciding where limited funding should go first.  

That nuance matters because councils rarely choose between one or two options. They try to stage a long list of renewals and projects across multiple years, with competing needs and under constant scrutiny. A prioritisation model needs to reflect trade-offs across condition, risk and strategic value, and it needs to be explainable in a political environment across council wards and departments.

Spreadsheets have limits at scale. Workflows become brittle, collaboration becomes harder, and it is difficult to turn a one-off model into something repeatable across multiple clients.

insideEDGE also did not want to invest in a full platform build before they had evidence of demand. They also wanted to avoid being locked into a proprietary vendor platform, so they focused on a pilot-ready version they could take to councils quickly, learn from, and validate whether it could be licensed.

Built a pilot-ready product councils could test

insideEDGE came to DiUS with a working spreadsheet model and a clear intent: move the method out of Excel and into a product that could be trialled.

DiUS translated the spreadsheet logic into a web application, focusing on usability and credibility rather than building platform features that were not yet proven to be needed. The goal was to get something councils could use, so feedback came from real scenarios rather than abstract feature debates.

To keep onboarding lightweight, the first version supported a spreadsheet-to-CSV upload workflow. Councils can export their asset data, including condition and risk inputs, upload it, and run the model without a heavy implementation project.

With a one-month window, the pilot was built on a deliberately simple stack to keep momentum and reduce operational overhead. AI-assisted development was used to accelerate the work, particularly when translating spreadsheet logic and speeding up iteration cycles. It was applied with discipline. Outputs were guided step-by-step and reviewed as part of normal engineering practice, so the team could move faster without sacrificing quality.

Working software was delivered early. That changed the dynamic immediately. Instead of discussing asset prioritisation in theory, insideEDGE could show a usable product and learn what councils needed in practice.

DiUS also collaborated with design in a tight loop to improve user experience. Practical UI cues made results easier to interpret and discuss, especially when people need to understand not just what the ranking is, but why it is that way.

Most importantly, the work lifted the value of the model out of Excel and into a maintainable product foundation. The goal was not to recreate a spreadsheet with a nicer interface. It was to embed the methodology into a structure that insideEDGE can reuse across clients, extend over time, and grow into a product offering if the market validates it.

A market-ready product, and a new pathway to commercial growth

The outcome was a web-based asset prioritisation platform that insideEDGE can now take to market. It is easier to demonstrate, easier to adopt, and built to evolve into a future multi-tenant model as demand grows.

Early council reactions were strong, with immediate recognition that this kind of tool doesn’t exist in the market, and interest in applying it beyond the initial use case.

Just as importantly, the platform supports transparency. Users can understand the inputs, adjust weightings, and see how outcomes are produced. It replaces a black box with a model councils can engage with confidently.  It helps councils bring their local knowledge into the model, understand the trade-offs, and explain decisions in a way that stands up to scrutiny.

This first phase achieved what it was designed to do: validate demand fast, create a credible foundation for pilots and licensing, and ensure the next stage can be an extension, not a rebuild.