Timeline: 1998 - Now
1995
Birth of the Commercial World Wide Web
On hearing a radio article explaining this new phenomenon will become the most revolutionary event to happen this century, I decided to explore.
1997
Built my first website
Running a successful mural business for almost 20 years I decided to put my work online with my first website. But on referencing it to a large international architectural practice, was told that no one in the office used the internet, as it was way too slow.
Too early! But I really enjoyed the process and decided to make it a business.
1998
Started creating my first commercial websites
Houseworks Ltd: Agents for Siematic, high end German kitchens.
Artists: Graham Knuttel, Patrick O’Reilly and Rasher for NK Management.
Metro Eireann: Multiracial News Publication
National Guild of Master Craftsmen
Veldon Tait: Accountants
2002
Wins semi state contract with the NDP (National Development Plan)
Along with my colleague Luke Ash-Browne who now works as a DevOps consultant engineer for WeShape in London, we responded to an advertisement for an information website for the roll out of broadband in Ireland for the a consultancy firm Norcontel for the The Department of Communications, Energy and. Natural Resources (DCENR) as part of the NDP.
To our surprise we won as we were the “only” applicant who offered a Content Management System!
2006
Introduction to the IT sector
Begins working with Adrian Kelly of Unitech Systems Ltd, (now of DNA IT Solutions) to extend and improve the limited Content Management System, thus began a long term relationship that introduced us to the IT sector where we now run and manage a number of high end IT company websites including Data Centre installers to Cyber Security firms.
2014
Starts developing with WordPress
Finally WordPress becomes a trusted complete CMS and we can now create fully functional CMS websites for a fraction of the cost of creating our own system. Now approx 90% of our sites use WordPress and we now develop our own custom plugins. We are now considered WordPress experts.
2016
Focusing on Brand
Many web design businesses will eventually incorporate Brand development. We extended ourselves to this essential aspect of our clients needs by working with graphic designer David Haverty who has a long history in the print industry. We now offer full brand development.
2017
Start managing our own servers
As Cloud hosting costs became more reasonable, we partnered up with Digital Ocean, who are often described as the “Developers Cloud”, due to its low cost and simplicity. Now we manage around 14+ servers for our clients.
2018
Build custom websites using Laravel
We win a contract with a brand agency BrandFire to develop a site for Texaco Support for Sport which requires a customised system, so we turned to the Laravel framework.
We used the same framework for another customer, app.fog.ie – a national waste database system for local authorities and waste contractors to monitor waste compliance from food establishments.
2020
Lockdown and a rise in online business
Many of our e-commerce customers benefitted from lockdown as people couldn’t visit actual stores. Some seeing a 400% increase in sales.
Keeping these online stores open for business and working smoothly was essential during this time as the increased traffic often posed a challenge.
2022
Time to focus on business
Like with many of us, lockdown provided a unique opportunity to focus on ourselves. With this in mind we wanted to look at our core message and offerings.
To help frame this we turned to long term friend and mentor Florence Irwin, who has a wealth of commercial experience and knowledge and now helps with our clients messaging.
2023
Security and Disaster Recovery
For our e-commerce customers keeping the shop open for business is essential, and if something goes wrong due to fraudulent outside attack a quick and reliable response is essential. We then sourced the skills of Andrew Grantham our server expert. With him we have developed disaster recovery methods to protect our clients online stores.