The Model

The first three sections below set out our commitments on engineering, ownership, and training and handover. The rest of the page describes how projects are scoped, priced and governed, and the company’s legal structure.

Engineering

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. Each project is led by an experienced engineer who decides what is built, checks what the tools produce, assesses the security and compliance risks, and checks the system against the needs of the people who will use it. The engineers are responsible for those decisions.

Ownership

We do not build on proprietary platforms, we do not charge licence fees, and we do not make your system depend on access that another company controls. 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 the software yourself or have another supplier maintain it.

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 you own the software, you can move it to another host if you choose.

Training and handover

We plan the handover from the start of a project. Your staff are trained in the tools and methods we use while we work alongside them. Handover is the point at which a named person on your side can run the system day to day; our support continues after that for as long as you need it. Training, handover and ongoing support are described in more detail below.

How it works

We take on work from government departments, health bodies, local authorities, commercial organisations, charities and defence bodies. During Phase One we also start some projects ourselves, where we have identified a clearly defined need that no existing product meets.

We then agree the scope, bring in the associates the project needs, build a prototype with agentic development tools and take it through to a working, documented system that meets the relevant security and compliance standards.

The client owns the finished software outright. During the project, client staff are trained in the methods we use, so that they understand what has been delivered and can extend it themselves. We support the system for as long as the client needs us, and the documentation and training let the client’s own staff take on more of the day-to-day support over time, at a pace the client chooses.

When several organisations face the same problem

Many small public bodies, charities and community organisations cannot afford to commission software on their own. Where several organisations have the same problem, we help them form a group that funds the work jointly.

Examples include several charities that need the same case-management system, smaller councils that need the same compliance software, or housing associations responding to the same new regulation. Each member of the group receives the same handover terms as a single client. The group’s agreement also sets out how changes to the shared software are decided and how costs are divided if more organisations join.

A small organisation on its own is often too small to be a profitable customer for a software supplier, and too small to pay for software built to its needs. A shared budget can be large enough to pay for the work.

Project shapes

Small build: one to two months

Small builds suit well-defined problems with a clear boundary, one decision-maker on the client side and few connections to other systems. A typical example is a tool that reads incoming correspondence and sends each item to the right department. The engineering work takes a few days; the rest of the time is spent on scoping, review sessions with you, testing and handover.

Small builds are capped at a fixed price agreed before work begins. If scoping shows the problem is larger than estimated, the project is reclassified before build work starts.

Medium project: three to six months

Medium projects suit problems that need to connect to existing systems, or that need user research, compliance review or hardware. Documentation, staff training and recruitment support are included. Work is delivered in two-week stages (increments), with a working demonstration at the end of each. You can stop after any increment and keep everything delivered to that point.

Large project: six to twelve months

We will take on large projects from Phase Two onwards, once the organisation has the staff to deliver them. They may include defence work, systems shared between government departments, or projects that need formal security clearance. Large projects are delivered in increments in the same way as medium projects, with a formal review every three months.

The handover process

Documentation is written during the project, for the person who will maintain the system. Where a client has no staff with the right skills, we help them recruit or identify someone to take responsibility for the system. Time spent on handover is billed at project rates as part of the work.

Handover is complete when a named individual on the client side has been identified as the solution owner, has received a full walkthrough, and has confirmed in writing that they can run the system day to day. If a client is unwilling to commit to identifying that person, the project does not proceed past scoping. If the client is willing but has nobody suitable yet, we help them find or hire someone.

Throughout development we keep a record of every change made to the software. At handover the client receives that full record along with the software. Any earlier version can be recovered, so a change that causes a problem can be undone. It also means the client’s own staff, or another supplier, can pick up further development where we left off.

Ongoing support

We support every system we build for as long as you need us. Support covers answering questions, fixing problems, advising on changes and providing refresher training when staff change. We also document the system and train your own staff, so that over time more of the day-to-day support can be handled in-house, which reduces your costs. You decide how quickly that happens.

The time it takes for your own staff to take on most of the day-to-day support depends on the system and your team. For a small system going to an existing technical team it might be a couple of months; for a larger system that needs a new internal team, it can take several years. Over that time our work usually moves from building the system to advising and training your staff. For larger clients, we can help recruit, train and set up an internal team to run the whole system.

Staff turnover is common, particularly in the public sector. A solution owner trained at handover may move on, and their replacement will need to learn the system. Each handover therefore includes written guides, explanatory videos and step-by-step walkthroughs that a new member of staff can use to learn the system. Where further training is needed, we provide it.

Intellectual property

All intellectual property (IP) created during a project is assigned to the client on completion and final payment, formalised in the project agreement before work begins. During the build phase, IP is held in trust by Common Interest Computing and licensed to the client for testing and review. At handover, full and irrevocable assignment takes effect.

Where a project builds on existing open-source components (freely licensed software written by others), those components keep their original licences. You receive clear documentation of every third-party component, its licence terms and any obligations arising from its use. We do not include undisclosed proprietary components.

Associates engaged on projects sign IP assignment clauses in their engagement terms. Work created during an engagement belongs to Common Interest Computing and is then assigned to the client.

Pricing

All projects are billed at 125 percent of actual costs. The costs cover staff and associate time, equipment, hosting and overheads, and the additional 25 percent is an operating margin, described below. There are no hidden fees and no licence charges. You pay once for the build and own the software. Hosting and support after handover are charged on terms agreed with you.

The margin pays for reserves to cover gaps between projects and for finding new work. As a Community Interest Company we have no shareholders and do not distribute profit. The margin is reviewed annually and will be changed only if experience shows it does not cover the organisation’s costs.

Small builds are priced at a fixed figure agreed during scoping. Medium and large projects are priced per increment, with a total estimate given at the outset. If costs start running above the estimate, we tell you as soon as we see it, and you can adjust scope or halt the project.

In some cases, a system costing fifty thousand pounds to build and fifty thousand pounds a year to maintain in-house can replace a supplier contract costing hundreds of thousands of pounds a year. The saving varies by sector and comes from replacing ongoing licence and support fees with a one-off build cost and in-house maintenance.

Controlling overruns

Technology projects often overrun, and we use three controls to limit this.

The first is agreeing a firm scope before work starts. We decline problems whose boundary cannot be agreed.

The second is incremental delivery: each project produces a working increment at regular intervals, so problems become visible early, while there is still budget to correct them.

The third is pricing: small builds are capped at a fixed price and longer projects are priced per increment, so you know the cost of the next deliverable before it starts. Where we underestimate effort, we absorb the extra cost on that increment and revise the estimate for later ones.

Liability and insurance

Common Interest Computing carries professional indemnity insurance appropriate to the value of the projects it takes on. We maintain at least one million pounds of cover in Phase One, increasing with project values from Phase Two onwards.

Project agreements include clear limitation of liability clauses. For a warranty period of ninety days after handover we are liable for defects in the delivered solution and fix them free of charge. The warranty covers defects in the software and documentation we delivered. It does not cover changes made by the client after handover, or failures caused by changes to the client’s own systems. After the warranty period, support continues on the agreed terms. Where we host a system, the hosting agreement sets out what we are responsible for.

Safety-critical work in health, emergency services and defence carries additional risk assessment and sign-off processes. These are set out in the projects section.

Standards and compliance

Every project meets the requirements of Cyber Essentials Plus, the UK government-backed cyber security certification, as a minimum. Websites and online services meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 at level AA. Anything handling personal data is designed and documented for compliance with applicable data protection law, with a Data Protection Impact Assessment provided where one is required.

Health sector projects must comply with the applicable clinical technology assessment standards. Where a solution has clinical safety implications, it is assessed against the applicable clinical safety standards and a suitably qualified clinical safety officer is engaged as an associate on the project.

For projects involving government data classified at OFFICIAL or above, we work within the client’s existing security framework and comply with the relevant conditions of the Government Security Classifications Policy.

We intend to hold Cyber Essentials Plus certification from the start of Phase One. We plan to work towards ISO 27001, the international information security standard, in Phase Two, when the organisation is large enough to maintain it.

Legal structure

Common Interest Computing is incorporated from day one as a Community Interest Company (CIC) limited by guarantee.

As a CIC, the company’s community purpose is a legal requirement. The statutory asset lock prevents anyone taking accumulated value out of the organisation, and if the company is ever wound up its assets transfer to another community interest company or charity. We chose this structure so that the company cannot be run for the benefit of owners or investors.

Limited by guarantee means there are no shareholders, dividends, equity or investors expecting returns. Members guarantee a nominal one pound. The 25 percent operating margin stays in the organisation as reserves and pays for improving our tools and methods.

The community interest test requires us to show that the company exists for community benefit. We file an annual report with the CIC Regulator setting out what the company has delivered for the community, and grant funders recognise that report.

Public grant bodies and innovation funders recognise CIC status as a social enterprise structure, and it records the company’s purpose in law, which a standard limited company does not. The company can still pay staff, engage associates, carry insurance and trade commercially. Director remuneration has to be reasonable and is disclosed in the annual report.

What we are not

To avoid misunderstanding, Common Interest Computing is not: