Software company in Leicester.

• Local Leicester or East Midlands developer

  On UK hours all day, able to stand on your warehouse or production 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.

• A UK digital agency

  A project team billed for a fixed engagement, usually strong on design and weaker on the operational software that runs a warehouse or a production line day to day. Best for a marketing site or a customer-facing app, less often the right fit for internal systems.

• 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 screen, a data model and an integration, rather than hardware or a physical rollout.

• 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 warehouse cutover, new scanning hardware, a production-line change.
  • ✓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 engagement is really staff augmentation under your own architect, in which case a contractor will serve you better and cost you less management.

• 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 distribution business often needs someone on the floor.

  A warehouse-management-system rollout, a new pick line or a piece of scanning hardware benefits from someone physically present for the cutover. We plan around that rather than pretending it away, and we will name the point in a project where local hands genuinely matter.

• 03

  An agency and an engineering partner solve different problems.

  A digital agency is usually strongest on a customer-facing brief. Internal operational software, the kind that runs a warehouse or a production line, is a different discipline, and worth checking a supplier has actually shipped before you sign.

• 04

  Work-location clauses are binary.

  If a client contract or a public-sector 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.

• Warehouse

  Warehouse and distribution systems

  Pick, pack, dispatch and stock reconciliation for operators running out of the distribution parks along the M1 and M69, replacing a phone call and a paper sheet with a screen a picker actually uses.

• Production

  Manufacturing and production tracking

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

• Traceability

  Food and drink traceability systems

  Batch, allergen and supplier-chain records for food producers, built so a recall can be scoped to the affected batch in minutes rather than a day of phone calls.

• Portals

  Supplier and customer portals

  A portal on top of the system you already own, with role-scoped access and an audit trail, so a retailer or a customer can check an order without phoning your office.

• Mobile

  Mobile apps for people away from a desk

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

• Integrations

  APIs and integration engineering

  Wiring a warehouse management system, an ERP or a carrier API 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 a warehouse or production manager 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 operations 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 warehouse

  Stock and dispatch tracking held together by a phone, a whiteboard and one person who knows the exceptions, rebuilt as a system with roles, scanning and a history of who moved what. For distribution and logistics operators along the M1 and M69.

• 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 manufacturers and producers stuck on a system nobody supports any more.

• Traceability

  Bringing batch and supplier records up to standard

  Adding allergen tracking, supplier records and an audit trail to a system that predates the paperwork a modern retailer or auditor now expects. For food and drink producers facing a supplier or safety 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.

1. 01

   Logistics, distribution and warehousing

   Yard, dock and pick-face work for operators running out of the distribution parks along the M1 and M69 corridor: pick and pack, dispatch, proof of delivery and stock reconciliation across sites. The hard part is rarely one warehouse. It is keeping a stock figure consistent across three systems that each think they own it.

2. 02

   Manufacturing and textiles

   Job costing, work orders and quality records for manufacturers and garment suppliers, many of them running a supply chain with several tiers of subcontracted production. Cost accuracy usually depends on decisions made steps upstream, so that is where we start.

3. 03

   Food and drink production

   Batch, allergen and traceability systems for producers whose paperwork has to answer a retailer or auditor’s question in minutes, not a day of phone calls. We design the audit trail into the data model rather than adding a report at the end.

4. 04

   Retail and e-commerce fulfilment

   Order, inventory and returns systems for retailers whose online channel now moves as much stock as a shop floor once did, with card data kept out of your systems entirely by tokenising at the processor.

5. 05

   Professional services and property

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

6. 06

   Higher education and research

   Internal tools, data pipelines and the first commercial platform a research group builds when a tool made for itself turns out to be worth extending for others.

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 Leicester 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 rather than assume the worst and notify broadly. 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

   Modern Slavery Act 2015 supply-chain transparency

   Manufacturing & apparel. A business with UK turnover above the threshold set by the Modern Slavery Act 2015 must publish an annual statement on the steps taken to prevent slavery and human trafficking in its own operations and its supply chain. Leicester's manufacturing and garment sector has had this scrutiny applied directly to it, and a system that cannot show who supplied what, and when, makes that statement harder to write honestly. We build the traceability that supports it: supplier records, tiered subcontractor visibility where it exists, and a change history that shows the statement is backed by data rather than assembled once a year from memory. The statement itself, and the judgement calls behind it, belong to your board and your legal advisers. We provide the supply-chain data behind it. Sources: Modern Slavery Act 2015, sections 54 · UK Home Office.

3. 03

   Food Information Regulations and traceability

   A food business must be able to identify its suppliers and the businesses it has supplied, under the general food law traceability requirement, and must provide allergen information accurately under the Food Information Regulations 2014. In practice this means batch numbers, supplier links and allergen data have to be structured in a way a system can query in minutes during a recall, not searched for across paper records. What is legally required for your specific product and process is a question for your food-safety adviser and, where applicable, your local authority environmental health team. We build the record-keeping and query tooling behind the answer. Sources: Food Information Regulations 2014 · Food Standards Agency general food law guidance.

   Food & drink

4. 04

   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

5. 05

   SOC 2 vendor questionnaires

   Larger Leicester buyers, particularly ones supplying national retailers, 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 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 Leicester office and nobody who can be on your warehouse floor 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 scanning events, 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 picker uses 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, carriers and warehouse 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 Leicester 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 warehouse floor, you hear it on the first call. It costs us a project and saves you a year.

• Services

  • Custom Software Development→
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  • Backend Development→

• Case studies

  • Snappy Stats · 80% Fewer double bookings→

• Plan your project

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