Supporting role: Billy Webber and David Van der Velde

April 5, 2016

Sunderland Software City supports aspiring and established software businesses in the region. One company that has benefited is digital communication enterprise Consult and Design, which has grown its team and entered new markets with support from the Wearside-based technology hub

Billy Webber
Chief operating officer
Sunderland Software City

Sunderland Software City supports software companies in many ways. Our core offering includes market research and technical support. We also pride ourselves on helping companies make connections – locally, nationally and internationally – and we draw on our own vast network to provide specialist expertise and guidance.

I first met Consult and Design in 2013. At that stage, the company was looking to expand the business and it moved into the Software Centre in Sunderland, where we could support the team and they would be surrounded by likeminded companies.

Sunderland Software City has since helped Consult and Design with recruitment and supported the growth of its focused Drupal events and the establishment of the North East Drupal Hub, which launched last year.

The company has continued to grow and has become the go-to organisation in the North East for expertise in open-source technology.

David Van der Velde
Managing director
Consult and Design International

Consult and Design’s partnership with Sunderland Software City has evolved over several years. Initially, we engaged with it as recipients of its SME support programme. More recently, Consult and Design has delivered free software consultancy to other SMEs on behalf of Sunderland Software City and has collaborated with the team to share knowledge about the Drupal open-source software, setting up the UK’s first Drupal Hub in Sunderland.

When our company was in the very early stages of growth, Sunderland Software City helped us to accelerate our recruitment of new tech talent. At each stage, the initiative has offered us support, information and networking. It has helped us with ground-breaking projects around innovation and we are now an international business with clients in eight different countries.

Being part of the Software Centre is really exciting. There’s a real buzz abut the place as the Sunderland software cluster is starting to get recognition outside the region.

Sunderland Software City
www.sunderlandsoftwarecity.com

Consult and Design
www.consultanddesign.com