10 Reasons to Choose Us

Our customers are business people. They are managers in companies, or entrepreneurs starting new ventures. They have a requirement for custom software, but that software must fit into their business, and must meet their business goals. Most software developers have an unfortunate reputation for being a little isolated from the business world – but Blueberry is not a normal development company. Over the years we’ve been in business, we’ve been involved in several joint ventures (taking a shareholding in each business), developed complete accounting systems for clients, launched our own SaaS cloud product (CMM) and launched two sister companies – Blueberry Software (publishing software online) and Blueberry Systems. As a result, we’re very business savvy!

Including the MD, Blueberry currently has 10 project managers and over 50 full-time developers. We have enough people to handle the big projects, but we’re small enough to deliver a personal service. We have the resources to cope with unexpected problems – but we’re not so big that any customer projects become unimportant.

Delivering a modern custom software system requires more than just development expertise – you often need to think about firewalls, databases and system security. Blueberry has an in-house systems administration team, with full Cisco, Linux and Windows expertise. We also have very strong DBA skills on SQL Server. Having all these skills in one team eliminates communication problems that can occur when multiple companies are involved – and gives us a wider view of possible solutions.

All Blueberry’s managers – including the MD – are ex-developers – but also have strong communication and business skills. This rare combination of skills is at the heart of our process: it allows us to ask the right questions of customers early in the design process, which makes our proposals more accurate, and means our solutions fit customers’ needs more accurately.

And because our management team is highly technical, the whole company is stronger: it’s easier for us to inspire talented developers to join the company, and we’re more aware of the key technology trends so we can better advise our customers.

Blueberry has been developing custom software since 1997. We’ve delivered over 300 solutions in that time, using many hundreds of different technologies. Our experience is also wide: with 10 managers and over 50 developers, we have a lot of experts to call on. This is important because modern software development frequently involves buying-in solutions to specific problems. Perhaps a customer needs complex reporting, or we need to support on-line purchasing, or we need to build a system that works on many different systems. Whatever the problem, it’s likely that we’ll already know a good solution.

Good development requires strong internal infrastructure and tools. Blueberry has a server farm installed at a major UK Data Centre, which we use to host internal and customer systems. All the code we write is stored in a central version control system. We have invested in many additional tools to make our lives – and the lives of customers – easier: our logging system and FlashBack tools make it easier for us to solve problems during deployment.

Modern development tools have made systems development easier and faster – and new tools arrive every year. But we see a slight disadvantage: programmers are insulated from the details of how the computer systems really work. Most of the time, this does not matter – but occasionally technical problems appear that cannot be solved without digging deep into the system. In these situations, Blueberry’s depth of expertise becomes invaluable.

Blueberry’s deep technical skills sometimes allow us to find innovative solutions to problems that less technical developers might miss. We’re always happy to provide advice on a confidential problem, and welcome a challenge.

Unlike many software development companies, Blueberry has hands-on experience of exactly what is involved with creating a successful software-based business. In 2001, we launched Blueberry Software, a sister company to Blueberry Consultants. Blueberry Software develops and sells the highly successful “FlashBack” screen recorder product range. Developing this software has given us a wealth of practical experience on the problems of online sales – from search engine optimisation to localisation and the intricacies of European VAT handling. We also use FlashBack on all our custom development projects to help customers report any problems quickly and easily.

Blueberry has an extremely straightforward policy on Intellectual Property Rights (e.g. copyrights and patents): all IPR is assigned to the customer when the final payment is made. Other companies will sometimes try to retain copyright and later come back to charge “licence fees”. This is not our policy.

Blueberry has been in business since 1997. The company has been profitable throughout its whole history, and has never had debts. We now have a strong customer base with good levels of repeat business. Our sister company, Blueberry Software, provides additional revenue streams from sales and licensing of the BB FlashBack Software.

Blueberry has never had a project fail. On a number of occasions we’ve had to work far beyond the original brief to make sure the project completes successfully – losing money in the process.

Blueberry has worked on many multi-year projects. We’ve built long-term relationships with a number of customers – including one company who we started working for in 1997!