Software and web application development
Our partners get a full team of specialists who understand business and tech alike.
Tech nerds with business brains.
Our in-house team is made up of tech experts who have a proven record of success in business. So, if you partner with us, you get the best of both worlds. We can provide easy-to-use tech solutions and software built specifically to make your business grow. Ask us how this compares to an off-the-shelf package.
Let us do the nerdy stuff
Our aim is to free up your time so that you can focus on what you’re best at.
Tech, made effortless
Companies who work with us through our business partner scheme get our full tech team who can look after everything tech for you.
If, though, you are interested in our angel investor funding, then we are still here as your tech sounding board for advice and guidance.
Not any old tech team though. We pride ourselves on being tech nerds with business brains.
The first job of any tech team is to properly understand the business they are working with, and we pride ourselves on doing this like no other.
Only by really understanding your business can we make solutions to make your life & business a whole world both more efficient and more enjoyable, too.
For small companies, too
Yes, we do the big complicated stuff. But we also do the little simple stuff too, for small business and start-up companies.
Let’s be frank - you probably didn’t start your company so you can worry about what the best accounting system to use is. Or how to share data. And data security, yeah…
It doesn’t matter if your needs are big or small, our tech team is here to make the computer side of things effortless.
Our aim: to free up your time for where it’s most valuable - with your products, your staff and your clients.
Custom software, web application development and tech support
We love solving problems that call on our technical ability and our business acumen. Here are a few of the areas we particularly enjoy. And, we’ve done them all before, for our successful business partners.
Choosing and setting up software systems
You probably didn’t start your company so you could choose web development and accounting systems….
Email systems. Website systems. VoIP phone systems. Data backup and sharing systems. Computer security systems. The list of software you need to pick can seem never-ending. And choosing the wrong systems can set you back months or more.
We are here to help our partners with those countless decisions in selecting and setting up IT systems. Working with us, you can just tell us what your business wants to achieve, and we’ll sort out this whole side for you. None of your precious time wasted in selections, no worry of consequences if the wrong selection is made.
Developing custom software
Where off-the-shelf software won’t cut it, we can build a one-off software solution just for your business.
When your business has outgrown off-the-shelf systems, that’s where we excel. We have a proven track record of producing fully custom software solutions to transform how a business is run.
Our favourite technique is developing web applications. One system that works for everyone, everywhere. You, your staff, your suppliers, your clients. On mobile, on desktop, on anything. Giving the right information to the right people.
Making systems talk to each other
A system for this, a system for that, argh! We can make your systems talk to each other, effortlessly.
You have lots of great tech systems, but they don’t talk to each other. You spend too much time shifting information from one to another and dealing with clashes. We can help, integrating your information and passing data back and forth between systems seamlessly.
Making your data useful for decision-makers
Lots of data, but no oversight? Can’t see the wood for the trees?
In this data-driven age, data overload and distractions are common issues. We are here to help bring clarity and useful insight into the Business Information world. We have the technical skills to bring all your data together, and the business brains to work with you to bring the clearest, most useful insight from it all. Less noise, more actionable information.
Cloud-ification and Azure
Data on servers, but thinking about stepping that up to the cloud? We’ve done that before.
Azure is our favourite tool here. Rock-solid reliability, scale up and down effortlessly (or even automatically) to match your demand. Reporting, logging, back-up systems and much, much more. If you are thinking of taking that step, we can help.
Overhauling outdated systems
Your business has outgrown your tech systems, but you are unsure where to go next. We can help.
It’s a common problem. The project has grown and grown, and suddenly the old systems are like a millstone, holding growth back. But you are not a tech company, so what to do next?
Making that next step can be daunting for small and medium-sized businesses alike. Expand the tech team? Outsource your web application development? What’s even possible? We’ve taken projects from the age of paper to the age of cloud computing. Why don’t we have a chat?
What could we do for your business?
The above is by no means a complete list. It’s just some examples of things we’ve done for some of our great business partners. There’s a whole world of tech possibility beyond those, too. What could we do for you?
Tech experts who understand your business.
There’s a lot more than knowing how to code in making awesome software systems for your company.
To make the ultimate solution, we need to know and understand your problem inside and out. We need to know your business like you do. We need to be business people too.
If you just want some coders, we are not for you.
If you want code that’s written by business people, who are here to solve real-world problems, then we should talk. If you’re looking for a business partner, right here in Cork, who happens to have a full tech team on standby, then drop us a line…
What we can offer you in just 18 words
Tell us what info you need to handle, and what headaches you want solved, and we’ll solve them.
In plain English. The long version of what we can offer a growing business that needs software.
We make custom systems to handle any information.
If you are handling information, and somehow a computer is involved, we can help.
Any info at all
Handling your sales, online payment systems, inventories, order lists, appointment scheduling, supplier details, or anything else.
Via any system
On a computer, through your website, on a mobile, a server, in the cloud. Or all of the above.
Your clients can buy on your website, your team then see that on their desktops, your suppliers get an email, and you oversee it all from your mobile, on a yacht somewhere….
If you’ve got great systems already, we can make them talk to each other, passing the data back and forth automatically. And where there’s no system for your needs, we can develop something to plug that gap.
If you want to handle information better, and a computer’s somehow involved, we are your people.
For any problem
Tech systems can mean headaches. Our software development and web applications make those headaches go away.
Problems scheduling appointments? Takes ages? Mistakes happening? People don’t know what’s going on? No problems, we’ll design something to make it a breeze.
“Taking payments from our clients is just slow”
- Leave it to us, we’ll make it fast.
“I’ve one system for this, one for that, and another over there. Nothing talks to each other and we spend half our lives moving info from one system to the other…”
- how about we make them all talk to each other for you, or we could even make you your very own custom software.
Where off-the-shelf will not cut it.
Off-the-shelf web applications are great and are much cheaper than getting your own custom software developed.
But as businesses grow, sometimes off-the-shelf systems will just not cut it anymore. You end up running your business to suit your computer systems. It should be the other way around.
That’s when you should talk to us. And we’ll make a system to work for your business.
The four questions we always ask before agreeing to a partnership
We are not here to take your money. We are here to make your business better. And if we can’t do that, we won’t take on your project.
What is your business trying to achieve?
We are here to help your business hit its goals. We are business people too. We will only go ahead with a partnership if we are convinced that we understand your problem and that our solutions can help.
Is there an off-the-shelf system you can use?
Off-the-shelf software solutions are always cheaper. Want an accounting system? There are tonnes out there. How about a lovely CRM? No shortage of them. We’ll not waste your time to re-invent the wheel. We’ll just suggest you go to the wheel shop.
Where are you going next?
One problem at a time, most definitely. But if we understand where your project is going next, we can make sure we don’t tie you in knots if you want to make that next step. After all, we are here to help, to partner, to make something you’ll love both now and in the future.
Who’s going to use it? Tell us more, please.
Custom web application development is about making people’s lives easier. Who’s this for? What are they like? What’ll make their experience faster, easier and just more enjoyable? We need to understand your users first, only then we can plan something wonderful for them.
How this fits in our investor services.
SquareFish is a business angel investor company. We invest in companies, both start-ups and established alike, through one of two methods. And we bring our tech team with us, too.
Option 1: Angel Investor
When we angel invest your company, we bring both the funding for your company and support, advice and guidance too. We are your sounding board for everything tech.
It’s your business, and you and your team run everything.
But as an investor in your business, we are always here should you need advice or just someone to chat through tech ideas with.
Option 2: Business Partner scheme
Companies in our business partner scheme get the investment and advice just like the angel investor service, and then some more.
We become full business partners, and will often look after the tech side completely
We don’t have to though.
If you have a great in-house tech team, with all the skills you need, then that’s great. We don’t have to be hands-on involved in that side at all. We can still work together in the other areas of our business partner scheme.
But if it appeals for us to not only invest in your company but also look after all the tech side, then our business partner scheme could be just the ticket.
Contact us
As things stand, we are not looking for new partnerships or businesses to invest in. Should this change, we’ll keep you posted here.
The tech side.
What technologies do we use?
Quick translation - when we coders talk about “technologies”, we mean what software/programming languages are we using.
The answer depends entirely on the project at hand. We’ve used all sorts of technologies, depending on what’s best suited. That said, we operate most often in the Microsoft sphere. Reliable, stable, tonnes of resources, widely known.
Where possible, we sway to working in popular, commonly known technologies. If one day you want to get your in-house team to maintain a system, it’d be kind of handy if it’s built within a well-known technology.
Enough fence-sitting. What’s the current favourite?
We love web application development. The interface is a website - so it just works well, everywhere. Desktop, tablet, mobile. Internal applications and external client-facing ones too. The current favourites for web application development would be:
Angular front-end
Google’s offering to front-end development. Angular gives great UI's and is completely cross-platform. Mobile, Tablet, Desktop—one system that works wonderfully on all.
dotNET Core back-end
Microsoft’s lightweight back-end option. Fast & lightweight, yet all the power you could wish for.
SQL Database
It’s hard to beat what’s one of the most popular and long-lived database systems. Huge resources, and vastly capable at any scale.
Azure Hosting
Microsoft’s offering to cloud hosting. Rock-solid stability. Wonderfully easy to scale up and down. Automated backups, logging, reporting, and much, much more….
Sound Familiar?
Stereotypical Business Project Life Cycle
The Start-up Phase
The new project needs to be fast, flexible, and valuable. Big custom software solutions are just not on the list. We’ll use a spreadsheet here, an accounting package there, maybe an off-the-shelf CRM too.
It’s fast, it’s cheap, and it works. Happy days.
The Growth Phase
The project is taking off. Clients are loving the product. More team members, more clients, more products, more data. Things are really cooking now.
The Millstone Phase
It’s grown now so the systems just cannot keep up anymore. We’ve a different system for everything and none of them talk to each other. There’s no oversight either. It feels like we spend our lives working for the systems, just moving info around. I thought they were supposed to work for us.
If this is you, we can help.
Let us Integrate your systems. We can make them talk to each other and pass data back and forth, effortlessly.
Let us develop business information applications to gather and analyse this data-overload. Clearer, simpler, actionable insights.
Or we can even design a fully custom solution, just for you.
If you’re looking for a business partner in Cork, who’s got a great handle on the tech side let us know…
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