Frequently Asked Questions

We’ll ask the right questions and give you meaningful answers, which will very quickly demonstrate the depth of our expertise. We’ve been in business since 1997, successfully delivering projects for clients across industries, from startups to multinational corporations. Your initial contact will always be with a senior project manager – or the owner, Martin Green – and they will always give you a frank and honest appraisal of the best way to deliver your project, drawing on our 20+ years of experience. We’ve thrived for this long because of our enthusiasm for the projects we take on, our client retention, our customer referrals and the positive reviews of the work we’ve done.

• Increasing efficiency by taking over routine activities from individuals.
• Reducing the risk of errors by removing human involvement from routine manual tasks
• Cutting costs in office materials by eliminating unneeded paperwork and manual administration
• Providing up-to-date information on your business by automating business processes.

• Having to re-enter the same, or similar data into multiple software applications
• Speed of response to customers and business needs – where data could be supplied by automatic electronic means
• Sending regular notifications to your clients manually
• Doing tedious calculations on regular intervals to get information out of your business activities

• Analysing your business’s needs and agreeing the objectives of the custom software
• Designing a software solution based on the results of the analysis and through client interaction
• Building the software in line with customer-approved milestones
• Testing the beta version in your working environment
• Delivery of the final custom software with all necessary documentation

Blueberry works to the rigorous standards set by the software industry, and we warrant all our software in accordance with accepted industry standards and practices. In addition, we offer a range of on-going support services. Contact us for more information.

Our fees are as set out in the Development Proposal and Cost Specification Documents before the start of the project. Invoiced amounts are payable within 30 days of receipt of invoice.
 

Our developers have been with us for a long time – some from the very start of the company – and they know their stuff inside-out. New developers are always rigorously selected by our MD for their creative flair, educational excellence and analytical skills. Equally importantly, they need to be able to function as an integral part of our existing team and demonstrate the ability to communicate well at all levels. In fact, our clients frequently tell us how much they enjoy working with us, partly because they get on so well with our developers.

Blueberry’s technical consultants have a very wide range of experience. However, a combination of commercial necessity and individual preferences has led to some tools and technologies becoming “company favourites”. Some of these are listed and briefly discussed under our ‘Expertise’ section. Blueberry also provides specialist I.T. consultancy in two areas: the migration of existing systems to the Microsoft .NET framework, and the upsizing of Access databases to server-based operation – and on to full web deployment.

You name it! Blueberry covers much of the spectrum of modern software development, as well as offering clear, considered technical advice. Years of experience with large client-server software systems gives us a real understanding of the power and possibilities of the Internet. In addition to Windows and Web/Database applications, we also develop mobile phone-enabled applications, image/audio processing systems, MS Office plug-ins and so on.

We can do both. If you like the flexibility and freedom of “do as I say” and “pay as we go” then we can charge by the hour. However, we also offer fixed bid pricing for very well defined projects. If the project brief is exceeded, then we can always re-quote for any late changes. For some clients, we can also offer a hybrid of both hourly and fixed bidding. In general, we do whatever makes the most sense for our client and the project in question.

That depends. If it is a modern technology that could be applicable to future Blueberry projects, then we will acquire the expertise at no cost to you. On the other hand, if it is unlikely that the knowledge will ever be useful for any other foreseeable project (such as a ‘dead’ language), then we reserve the right to charge you for the time spent learning it.

Blueberry is a small company, so we don’t scoff at small projects. Over the last 10 years our project portfolio has built up to cover a wide range of clients – from big, blue-chip multinationals, to small one-man operations with a great idea. To us, the viability of the project and its ability to excite us is what matters, not whether it is considered “small potatoes” by other developers. After all, happy clients sometimes grow and bring their friends…

Once the project is completed and paid for the software is owned by you. This means you get everything that is necessary to build, maintain, or extend the software, such as “executable” files, source code, scripts, graphics, audio, project files, etc. However, we do like to retain the right to reuse the source code in future projects, provided it does not contain any proprietary or protected information belonging to you. Obviously, if this is likely to cause a problem, we can customise the terms to your needs.

Of course! Some of our clients want to safeguard their project idea before proceeding with a development company. This is no problem. If you’d like an NDA, we have a good one we can send you.

Yes. We have skilled developers who can work with either the Windows or Mac platform.

We operate to normal UK working hours (8.30am to 5.30pm), unless other arrangements have been made in the terms of our contract or agreement.

There is no such thing as an average project length. Some of our projects are small, well-defined, and completed in two weeks, others can take nine months or longer – it all depends on the complexity and scope of the project, and whether revisions have been made to the original brief.

Provided the requirements and objectives of the development are clearly agreed with the client, there is no reason why contact by telephone, the Web and email should not be sufficient to successfully complete the project.

See our Project Management Process.