About

About Blue Squirrel Software

The cost of bad software decisions is rarely obvious upfront. It shows up later — in the hours lost to workarounds, the frustration of systems that almost fit, the sunk cost of a platform that can't grow with the business, or the painful realisation that switching away from the wrong choice is going to cost as much as the original mistake. By then, what looked like the cautious, affordable option has turned out to be anything but.

We exist to help businesses avoid that. What clients spend with us is a fraction of what the wrong decision costs — and our job is to make sure the right decision gets made before anything gets built.

That means starting with honest, independent, but not free advice. We're not trying to sell a particular platform or maximise the size of a development project. We understand the technology, we understand business, and we'll tell you what we think — including when the answer is something other than commissioning us to build it.

The people behind it

James Edwards — Director & .NET Developer

James has been working in software and web development for over 20 years, delivering and maintaining systems for businesses across a wide range of industries. That breadth of experience matters — knowing what works in one industry often unlocks the solution to a problem in another, and having seen enough projects go wrong is the most reliable way to learn how to keep them going right.

Where James particularly excels is in understanding how a business actually operates and translating that into software that reflects it accurately. He has a sharp eye for business process — how work flows through an organisation, where the friction is, and how to design an application around the way people actually work rather than the way a system expects them to. That extends to the user experience: James cares about how software feels to use day to day, and ensures that applications flow logically and intuitively for the people who depend on them.

Outside work, James lives in Evesham with his wife and two young sons. In his spare time, he can be found out and about cycling, or in a signal box or guarding a train on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway — which, as it happens, is also one of our clients.

Ian Smedley — Director & Senior .NET Developer

Ian brings a background most development agencies can't match — he has spent time working for one of Europe's largest leisure businesses, building digital ticketing infrastructure for major UK exhibitions and live events. Systems that have to work reliably, at scale, with no tolerance for failure. That experience informs everything he builds.

Ian's particular strength is in infrastructure and platform reliability — making sure that what gets built sits on hardware and architecture that's solid, fast, and maintainable for the long term. Performance under load, availability, security, and the kind of underlying decisions that determine whether a system is still running smoothly in five years' time rather than becoming a problem to manage. Clients rarely see this work directly, but they notice when it isn't done properly.

Outside work, Ian lives in Redditch with his wife and son, and in his spare time operates the lighting for the Henley in Arden Amateur Dramatic Society.

Based in Worcester, working further afield

We're based in Worcester and work primarily with businesses across the Midlands, though the nature of what we do means location is rarely a barrier. If you're facing a software problem worth solving, we're happy to have a conversation wherever you are.