Our History
The Ever-Growing Expert Team
Dephic Solutions began as a collaboration between two research students in the School of Computing Science at the University of Eastchurch. Anxious to supplement their grant income, John Harris and David Williams joined with Dr. Mike Brooke, a senior lecturer, to establish a spin-out company with the sole purpose of helping local businesses develop IT systems and expertise.
A particular interest in web developments and the profileration of ‘open source’ software, led the three to specialize in building alternative platforms for IT-based solutions than those based on the proprietory products of big software companies. “It was apparent, that there was stuff out there, in the public domain,” says Mike Brooke (now MD of Dephic Solutions) “ which was as suitable for SME use as expensive big house licensed software. All it needed was for some knowledgeable folk to front-end and integrate it, and make it safe. That was us.”
Close links were built with several businesses in the booming Eastchurch area. “The Business Park became our domain, with almost all the companies on it taking us on as their locum IT department. We forged networks across the Park and throughout the Eastchurch area, creating an i-community of companies which would not otherwise have come together. The synergies were immense. We were able to help them with accounts, production and stock systems, client relationship management as well as communication software, all at minimal cost. What we did for one company, we could replicate for another, albeit customized.”
With demand, the business grew, initially by taking on Eastchurch graduates, but then through mergers with some like-minded consultancies in other localities. “One of our clients had a head office in Birmingham; they had us over to talk about developing a web-based booking system. Their FD took us aside and said “look, you ought to meet James Walker and Pete Woodger of SiWeave. You’d get on; you do compatible things and talk the same language.” These guys were developing open source web-based solutions for local businesses, and already had a network of associated consultancies in Manchester and Newcastle. We became associated with them too, and beyond mutual referrals for work, soon found we were sharing clients and projects” The upshot was that in 2003, Delphic hosted a get-together of all associated practices at Centre Parks, and over a fun-filled weekend proposed a protocol for closer working, which within a year had resulted in 48 IT professionals merging into a new, enlarged Delphic Solutions.
“Suddenly, we were running a sizeable operation. I thought…well, we’d advise clients on how to run such a diverse and distributed business. If we can’t do it, who can?” Everyone would admit that the next year was traumatic. In less than twelve months, Delphic was forged into a cohesive business with offices in Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester, Birmingham, Eastchurch, Bristol and Oxford. Press coverage and the clientbase were becoming so big, that soon large plcs were knocking on the door, looking for help in setting up new web-based systems. “Suddenly, we found we were in competition with the consulting groups of the big software houses and IT consultancies. But where they were quoting six figure prices, we were quoting five-figure, and demonstrating that we could deliver.”
Demand put further pressure on the business. “We couldn’t find enough of our kind of people. The pressure, simply got too much.” (Dr.John Harris). “I suddenly realized that I’d had enough. I wanted to do great things with open source and what I actually did was problem solve the operations of my own, sizeable business.”
At this stage, the owners of Delphic were approached by Capstan Publishing, an international publishing house with growing interest in web distribution. In 2005 the owners agreed to sell Capstan the majority of their shareholding. Delphic became part of the Capstan group.
The association with Capstan was of considerable benefit. The parent company elected to run Delphic as 50% an in-house consultancy, establishing the Group as one of the one of the leading international e-publishers, and 50% as an external consultancy, maintaining its dynamic clientbase and growing its size and expertise. A professional management team re-forged Delphic as an efficient business with good planning, budgetary control and HR protocols as well as efficient state-of-the-art systems.
In 2009, it was recognized the mutually beneficial relationship between Capstan and Delphic had reached maturity. In 2009, a consortium of venture capital houses funded a management buy-out, which re-established Delphic as an independent consulting business.
