Partner Article

Going with the Flow to improve survey software further

ONE of the region’s most respected tech consultants is working with a successful surveying software company to help take its product to the next level.

James Rutherford, founder of several tech start-ups and CEO of Kick Cards, a popular tool for start-up entrepreneurs, is working with brothers David and Paul King and their company Flow Software Solutions.

David and Paul have developed an easy-to-use software solution (Flow Mobile Surveying) for companies carrying out asbestos surveys.

“Our first customer signed in the month of the first lockdown – March 2020. Last November that figure had grown to 76 and this month we now have more than 130 customers across four countries and are expanding rapidly,” said Paul.

Now the brothers are working with long-time friend James to streamline the process of creating bespoke surveying templates for clients.

“I’ve known David for 15 years and I’m really enjoying working with him and Paul. They’ve got a great product and are so easy-going, working with them is a pleasure. At present the process of creating bespoke templates is done manually, which isn’t a problem, but the process could be automated,” said James.

“I’m using a mixture of front-end Javascript coding and the Svelte framework to meld tech together to produce an easy to use solution which will speed up the process and could, longer term, become a stand-alone product that could be taken to the marketplace,” he explained.

David added: “We’re doing so well and growing at an impressive rate, but we think James’s work will help accelerate this further by helping us to provide an improved, faster service to customers.

“Our annual turnover will soon be close to £350,000 which is great, but what’s important to us is retaining our valuable customers. We’re focused on building a strong community around us, so that’s why we produce regular knowledgeable articles – we released a well-received state-of-the-industry report a few months ago and more recently produced a handbook for our customers and the wider sector.

“We also keep in close contact with our customers, giving them the power to influence product development by suggesting or voting on features via our public roadmap, he added.”

It’s a sector that David knows well, having developed a pioneering cloud-based risk and management software for a previous employer.

“Our Flow Mobile Surveying software is a step-up from the solution I developed, the key improvement is the speed at which it can produce reports. Our software can give high-quality on-site reports using Android or IOS devices – and we’ve kept the app really simple to use, with as few clicks as possible,” he added.

“Our customer retention rate is 102 - a rate of more than 100 is considered the gold standard for Software as a Service (SaaS) companies like ours, because it means our business is healthy and can grown even without acquiring new customers.”

One of the strengths of the Flow Mobile Surveying solution is that it can be tailored to any compliance industry. Companies pay a monthly licence fee to use the software and prospective users can take a free trial to fully understand its capabilities.

“It’s relevant in any regulated sector where people are going into a building to carry out surveys,” said Paul.

“The software has huge potential across a wide range of sectors. We started by focusing on asbestos survey reports. Since then, we’ve had interest from people and companies carrying out fire risk assessments and Legionella surveys and we’ve recently signed up a customer who will use it to carry out Japanese knotweed surveys!” he added.

The company is based at Hoults Yard, Newcastle and such has been their recent success that Paul and David are considering moving their team to a larger unit – and recruiting in the area of customer success.

Both brothers have had long careers in the tech sector. Paul has worked at Sage, and Orchard. David has worked at Lucion Environmental Ltd and as a freelance full-stack software engineer. He has also worked for a Silicon Valley company called Accredible, producing accreditation and security software.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Hoults Yard .