Bespoke software development in Birmingham.

• Local Birmingham or West Midlands developer

  On UK hours all day, able to stand on your site or shop floor the same week. You are buying proximity. Best when the work needs hands on site, or a stakeholder group that wants someone in the room every week.

• Systems integrator or ERP consultancy

  Strong on configuring a large commercial platform, usually billed by day rate against a statement of work. Best when the job really is configuring an existing ERP or CRM rather than building something bespoke.

• Remote engineering partner

  A small senior team that owns a defined build, works your morning from outside the country, and hands over the repository at the end. No local entity, so the contract and the security questionnaire have to be handled properly at the start. Best when you know what the system must do and want it built well the first time.

We are the third. Where one of the first two is the better answer for you, we say so on the first call rather than after the deposit.

• Hire a remote partner when

  • ✓You can describe what the system has to do, and someone on your side can decide without convening a committee.
  • ✓The work is a defined build or a defined rebuild rather than an open-ended programme with a moving sponsor.
  • ✓Six hours of live contact each day is enough, and the rest of your day can run on a written handover.
  • ✓You want the source, the deployment pipeline and the documentation in your own hands when it is finished.
  • ✓The build is mostly software: a portal, a data model and an integration, rather than a factory-floor cutover.

• Hire locally instead when

  • ✓Your procurement rules, or a clause in one of your own client contracts, require a supplier based in the United Kingdom.
  • ✓People have to be physically present: a quality audit, a hardware install, a site-based workshop.
  • ✓Your security policy forbids any access to production data from outside the country and the work cannot be done against masked data.
  • ✓Delivery has to run inside one time zone all day because the stakeholders who decide are only reachable in the afternoon.
  • ✓The job is really configuring a large commercial ERP or CRM platform you already own, in which case a systems integrator is the better fit.

• 01

  The "No" rows are the point.

  A comparison table where one supplier wins every row is a brochure. Rows above are reasons to hire someone else, and you should find them here rather than in month four of a contract you cannot exit cleanly.

• 02

  A quality audit or a hardware rollout usually wants someone on site.

  Where the work is a factory-floor cutover, a hardware install or a client-facing workshop, a local developer with people in the room genuinely is the stronger fit, and we will say so rather than scope around it.

• 03

  An integrator and an engineering partner solve different problems.

  A systems integrator is the right call when the job is configuring a large commercial platform you already own. Building something the platform cannot do is a different discipline, and worth checking a supplier has actually shipped before you sign.

• 04

  Work-location clauses are binary.

  If a client flow-down or a procurement rule requires the work to be performed in the United Kingdom, no amount of engineering quality substitutes for it. Ask us at the first call and the answer comes back the same day.

• Supply chain

  Parts tracking and supplier portals

  Traceability across tiers of suppliers for automotive and manufacturing supply-chain firms, so a part’s origin and quality record can be answered in minutes rather than a day of phone calls.

• Job costing

  Job costing and production systems

  Work orders, wastage and job costing for manufacturers, so a quote is based on what a job actually costs rather than what the last one did.

• Logistics

  Logistics and distribution systems

  Pick, pack, dispatch and proof of delivery for operators moving freight through the motorway box and the NEC, replacing a phone call with a screen a driver or picker actually uses.

• Portals

  Client and supplier portals

  A portal on top of the system you already own, with role-scoped access and an audit trail, for a professional-services firm or a manufacturer’s customers.

• Mobile

  Mobile apps for people away from a desk

  One Flutter codebase across iOS and Android for site engineers, drivers and inspectors, built offline-first because the signal on a site or a yard is not their problem to solve.

• Integrations

  APIs and integration engineering

  Wiring an ERP, a warehouse system or a supplier platform to the tools around it, with queues, retries and a reconciliation view so a failed message is visible rather than silent.

1. Discovery and written scope

   One call to walk through how work moves through your operation today, who touches it and where it breaks, then a written scope with the exclusions named. The document is yours whether or not you hire us.

   A scope, a first-phase price range and the name of the engineer who would lead the build.

   48 hours

2. Prototype and architecture

   A clickable prototype in week one, so an operations or quality lead argues with real screens instead of a requirements document. Alongside it: the data model, access control and hosting region, agreed in writing before anyone opens an editor.

   Approved screens and an architecture your operations lead or CTO can read.

   1-2 weeks

3. Build in fortnightly slices

   Working software demoed every two weeks, live in your morning, against real records rather than dummy data. Each slice is checked against the scope in front of you.

   Working modules validated against real operational scenarios, and a backlog you have shaped as you went.

   6-14 weeks, scope-dependent

4. Harden, then release

   Permissions, load behaviour, backups, monitoring and a tested rollback are signed off before anything reaches your users.

   A release your quality or compliance reviewer can accept, with the evidence attached rather than described.

   2-3 weeks

5. Run and extend

   Monitoring, a support window that matches UK hours, and the next slice of roadmap chosen from what people actually use.

   A platform that keeps earning its place, and a team that can hand it to yours whenever you want it.

   Monthly, 30 days notice

• First build

  Replacing the phone call that runs the supply chain

  Parts and stock tracking held together by a phone, a spreadsheet and one person who knows the exceptions, rebuilt as a system with roles, traceability and a history of who moved what. For manufacturers and supply-chain operators around the West Midlands.

• Modernisation

  Rebuilding software you have outgrown

  An old desktop tool or an early spreadsheet system rebuilt as a maintainable platform, without losing years of job history or retraining everyone in a weekend. For companies stuck on a system nobody supports any more.

• Traceability

  Bringing supplier records up to standard

  Adding tiered supplier visibility, quality records and an audit trail to a system that predates the paperwork a modern buyer or auditor now expects. For manufacturers facing a supplier or quality review.

• Extension

  Extending what you already own

  Custom modules, portals and integrations layered on top of an ERP or a warehouse system, so you keep the system of record and lose the retyping around it. For companies extending rather than replacing a core system.

• Automotive and manufacturing supply chain

  Parts tracking, quality records and supplier portals for firms operating within tiered automotive and manufacturing supply chains, where a component’s origin and inspection history has to be answerable on request rather than reconstructed from paper.

• Logistics and distribution

  Yard, dock and dispatch work for operators moving freight through the NEC and the motorway box: pick and pack, proof of delivery and stock reconciliation across sites.

• Professional and financial services

  Case and matter management, client portals and reporting for firms around Colmore Row whose growth has outpaced a shared inbox and a spreadsheet, with the access controls a client review now expects.

• Construction and property

  Project, defect and document tracking for firms working on developments connected to the city’s ongoing infrastructure and regeneration programme, where a decision and its supporting evidence has to stay retrievable years later.

• Retail and e-commerce

  Order, inventory and fulfilment systems for retailers whose online channel now moves as much stock as a store once did, with card data kept off your systems entirely by tokenising at the processor.

• Education and training providers

  Internal tools and reporting systems for colleges and training providers whose administrative process has outgrown a spreadsheet and a shared inbox.

If your sector is not on that list, the question we will ask first is the same one: what does a day of this work look like, and where does it break?

1. 01

   UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018

   Personal data processed by a Birmingham business is governed by UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, enforced by the Information Commissioner’s Office. It requires a lawful basis for processing, data minimisation, rights of access, correction and deletion, and notification of a qualifying breach to the ICO within 72 hours of becoming aware of it. The engineering consequence is a design decision, not a policy one: a data inventory, consent state where it applies, deletion that reaches backups, and access logs detailed enough to scope a breach quickly. Whether a given process is in scope, and what a lawful basis should be, is a question for your data-protection contact or counsel. We build the machinery: the inventory, the request workflows and the logging behind it. Sources: UK General Data Protection Regulation · Data Protection Act 2018 · Information Commissioner’s Office.

   General

2. 02

   Building Safety Act 2022, digital golden thread

   Construction & property. For higher-risk buildings, the Building Safety Act 2022 requires a "golden thread" of digital information: accurate, accessible records of a building’s design, construction and ongoing safety information, held in a form that can be retrieved and handed over as the building changes hands or use. For a construction or property client that means the system holding project, defect and inspection records has to be built for retrieval and audit years after the record was created, not for a single handover meeting. Whether a specific building or project is in scope, and what the golden-thread record must contain, is a question for your building-safety adviser. We build the record-keeping and retrieval system behind it. Sources: Building Safety Act 2022 · Building Safety Regulator, golden thread guidance.

3. 03

   PCI DSS scope, kept out of your code

   The cheapest way to handle card data is to never hold it. We tokenise at the processor, so the card number is captured by the processor’s own hosted field and your platform stores a token, the last four digits and a brand. Your application never sees, transmits or stores a primary account number, which keeps the bulk of PCI DSS scope out of the code we write for you. Your PCI obligations remain yours, and the right self-assessment questionnaire depends on how you take payments. We build to keep the scope small and say plainly when a requested feature would widen it. Sources: PCI DSS v4.0.1 · PCI Security Standards Council.

   Payments

4. 04

   SOC 2 vendor questionnaires

   Larger Birmingham buyers, particularly ones in regulated supply chains, will send a vendor security questionnaire before a contract is signed. We complete it ourselves rather than returning a brochure, and we answer with what we operate: named access with least privilege, change management through pull request and review, environment separation, logging and retention, tested backups, staged releases and a documented offboarding step when an engineer rolls off. Where an answer is no, it is written as no with the compensating control next to it. A questionnaire padded with paragraphs is how a supplier gets removed from a shortlist late. If your policy requires an attestation report from the supplier itself, raise it at the first call. We will tell you our current position plainly. Sources: AICPA Trust Services Criteria for Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality and Privacy.

   Vendor risk

We build systems that produce this evidence natively rather than bolting a compliance module onto software that resists it. Where a supplier audit or a regulatory deadline is driving your timeline, that date is where we start planning backwards from.

1. 01

   The contract

   We sign your master services agreement under English law, with the jurisdiction, liability and termination clauses your counsel prefers. We do not ask clients to contract under the law of another country, and we do not run engagements on an exchange of emails.

   Governing law

2. 02

   Tax paperwork and invoicing

   We are a non-UK entity, and invoices are issued in pounds sterling against the milestones or the monthly rate written into the contract, with the purchase order reference your finance system needs on them. Whatever VAT treatment applies to a supply from outside the UK is a question for your accountant.

   Invoicing

3. 03

   Intellectual property

   Code, designs, documentation and infrastructure definitions are assigned to you as they are created, not on final payment. Repositories, cloud accounts and domains are opened in your name from the first commit.

   Assignment

4. 04

   Confidentiality

   An NDA is in place before you share anything sensitive. Use yours or use ours, either is fine, and mutual is the normal case. Nothing about your project or your name is used as a reference without your written agreement.

   NDA

5. 05

   Insurance and security questionnaires

   Certificates of insurance are provided on request. Security questionnaires are completed by the people who would do the work, not by a sales team, and the answers describe what we actually operate.

   Vendor risk

6. 06

   No local entity, and what that rules out

   QalbIT has no UK entity, no Birmingham office and nobody who can be on your site on Tuesday. Where a procurement rule or a client contract requires a domestic supplier or work performed in the UK, we are not eligible, and you will hear that on the first call rather than after a proposal.

   The limit

None of that is a reason to avoid a remote partner. It is a reason to handle the paperwork properly at the start instead of assuming it away. We raise this before the estimate, not after the contract.

• Backend and business logic

  • ✓Laravel (PHP 8) for modular business systems with strong audit trails.
  • ✓Node.js and NestJS where integrations and event-driven flows dominate.
  • ✓Queues, schedulers and retries for scans, alerts and report generation.

• Interface and usability

  • ✓Next.js and React, server-rendered where search traffic matters.
  • ✓Keyboard and scanner-first data entry for screens a site or shop-floor user relies on all shift.
  • ✓Flutter for one mobile codebase across iOS and Android, offline-first.

• Data and integrations

  • ✓PostgreSQL and MySQL with constraints that protect stock and financial integrity.
  • ✓Versioned records and append-only audit trails where traceability is required.
  • ✓REST and GraphQL integrations with ERPs, warehouse and supplier systems.

• Security and delivery

  • ✓AWS accounts in your name, defined in Terraform rather than by hand.
  • ✓Least-privilege access, logged, with break-glass reviewed after use.
  • ✓Staged releases through GitHub Actions, every one reversible.

• A note on sourcing

  A note on sourcing

  We do not quote market figures on this page: not local salary bands, not agency rates, not the failure-rate statistics that circulate without a traceable primary source. The only numbers here are our own, and each one names where it comes from. If a figure matters to your decision, ask for the source and we will send it or withdraw the claim.

1. 01

   Building this kind of software since 2018

   120+ engagements delivered for 50+ clients since 2018, across web, mobile and platform work. Clutch 5.0 from 8 reviews, Google 4.9 from 18 reviews, and 100% job success on Upwork. Those are the four figures we can evidence, and they are the four we quote.

2. 02

   We work your mornings, properly

   Six hours of live overlap every working day, 09:00 to 15:00 UK time. Calls, demos and decisions happen in that window, and a written handover lands before our day closes so nothing waits for a status meeting.

3. 03

   We say what we are

   No Birmingham office, no UK staff, no United Kingdom entity and no implied presence anywhere on this site. The compliance and paperwork sections exist because we would rather lose a deal at the scoping call than at a supplier audit.

4. 04

   The named engineers are the ones who build it

   Whoever appears in the proposal writes the code. No part of your build is handed to another firm, nobody is quietly swapped mid-sprint, and you can reach the founder without going through an account manager.

5. 05

   We will tell you to hire locally

   When a firm nearby is genuinely the better answer, for example because the work needs hands on your shop floor, you hear it on the first call. It costs us a project and saves you a year.

• Services

  • Custom Software Development→
  • ERP Development→
  • Backend Development→

• Case studies

  • Bloomford→

• Plan your project

  • Our Process→