Many business people are quite wary of IT experts – and it’s understandable, as many technical people can be naive about the true needs of business. This page explains how Blueberry manages to combine serious technical skills with a strong understanding of the needs of business.

All of Blueberry's management team have 20 or more years experience of working in software development. The MD ran a previous company for 10 years before starting Blueberry, and grew that company to 35 employees. Blueberry’s managers have past experience working in a wide variety of industry sectors.

During its 10 year history, Blueberry has worked with both large and small companies, including organisations such as Carillion, Chubb and the NHS. We understand management processes such as Prince 2, and we know how to work with customers internal departmental structures.

Blueberry is not just a software development company. The group includes Blueberry Software, which develops and publishes a range of software products. The management team have had to solve business problems such as developing the marketing; creating a reseller network; establishing online payment and invoicing systems, and understanding the European VAT rules for online trading.

Blueberry is often approached by people with a new business idea that is based on (or requires a large amount of) software. We’ve probably seen a hundred such ideas in the past 10 years. Unlike the TV experts, our advice is free, and given politely. If we think an idea won’t work, we explain our reasons and decline to be involved.

We created the first software product for WhiteSprings Inc – now a successful company with offices in the UK and USA. We developed the business infrastructure for ChinaOneCall Ltd – including developing call centre software for their office in China.

Blueberry has been involved in three joint-venture projects, where we create the software and a business partner runs the marketing / sales operation. Of these, two companies are still running – one is now completely independent, and the other still relies on Blueberry for all product development. In both cases, Blueberry took a shareholding in the joint-venture company.

We have been involved with raising finance for new ventures on three occasions – we understand the routes to finance, and we have some contacts in this area – although we also appreciate just how difficult it can be.

On all new projects, we always consider the business issues as well as the development issues.

For internal systems within companies, this might include human-factors considerations – will the system really deliver the benefits hoped for? Are there ways to make the system more effective within the organisation? Often, we identify requirements that the system proposers have not considered.

For new products, we can advise customers on issues such as search-engine optimisation, product pricing and localisation into foreign languages.