Most public bodies license their software rather than own it. Contracts often run for many years, and replacing a system that is in daily use is expensive, so organisations frequently renew even when they are unhappy with the supplier.
We take on clearly defined pieces of work and deliver software that is ready for live use, with documentation for the staff who will run it. Each project is scoped to be delivered within six months. Larger pieces of work are split into stages, and we agree this with you before any work is charged.
Why changing supplier is difficult
Systems are often bought on contracts lasting many years. Over that time, the staff who understood the original decision leave, more of the organisation’s processes come to depend on the system, and data is stored in formats that only the supplier’s software reads easily. Moving to a different system then becomes expensive and risky.
The Police National Computer went live in 1974 and has been supported by the same large supplier for many years. When the Home Office came to renew that support, it tested the market. No other supplier came forward, and the existing supplier was awarded a new contract worth £48 million in 2022.
Ownership
We arrange hosting for everything we build, so you are not left to set it up yourself. Depending on what suits you, it runs on our own servers, with a hosting partner, or on your organisation’s own servers. Because it does not rely on any one company’s platform, it can be moved to another host if you choose.
You receive the software, a record of every change made to it, and instructions for the staff who will look after it. You are free to change it yourself or have another supplier maintain it. Our income comes from day rates and hosting charges; our constitution does not allow us to charge licence fees.
How we build software
We use agentic development tools: software that writes and tests code under the direction of an engineer. These tools reduce the time, and therefore the cost, of building software. For well-defined problems, a small team of experienced engineers can now deliver work that would previously have needed a larger team.
Our engineers decide what is built, check what the tools produce, and are responsible for the security, compliance and design decisions.
Handover
We plan handover from the start of a project. Documentation is written during the project, and we train your staff, including in the development tools we use, so that they can make changes to the system themselves.
Handover is the point at which a named person on your side has been walked through the system and has confirmed they can run it day to day. If there is no such person yet, we will help you find or hire one.
We continue to support every system we build for as long as you need us. Over time, your own staff can take on more of the day-to-day support, which reduces your costs. You decide how quickly that happens; depending on the system and your team, it can take from a few months to a few years.
Why a Community Interest Company
There are no shareholders, dividends or investors expecting returns, and the statutory asset lock prevents anyone taking accumulated value out of the organisation. Each project includes a commitment to keep supporting the client for as long as they need us, and we hold reserves so that commitment can be met when new work is slow. We chose this structure so that the company cannot be run for the benefit of owners or investors.
What we will and will not do
- We deliver working software built to the standard needed for live use from the start, with security, accessibility and compliance included in the scope.
- You own the software we write for you.
- We support what we build for as long as you need us, and we will tell you when your own staff could take more of it on.
- We do not sell reports or pilots in place of working software.
- We will not take on work we cannot finish, build anything into our work that ties you to us, or start work on a problem whose boundary has not been agreed.
- If an off-the-shelf product or a paper form would do the job, we will say so before any money is spent.