Our History

After extensive market research into the competition, Inspire discovered that many agencies built websites with little to no aftercare - leaving clients to fend for themselves. 

Inspire carried out door-to-door canvassing across Perth city centre and local industrial estates, visiting every business without an online presence and handing out flyers promoting their website design and development services. 

Inspire learned that, while many in the UK claim to be highly capable LAMP stack web developers, the reality is quite different.

Many so-called web developers are actually designers using off-the-shelf templates, despite presenting themselves as developers.

This realisation marked the start of a long-term effort to educate client partners on the crucial difference between using aesthetically pleasing template solutions with weak technical foundations and ongoing maintenance challenges, and investing in a tailored website built to stand the test of time. 

To emphasise the pace of change, David coined the phrase, “One real month is the equivalent of one web year!”

By that measure, a website that’s five years old in real terms is effectively 60 years old in web terms. 

Inspire ended the year with a core team of four full-time staff: one designer, one developer and two business analysts/project managers, supported by a handful of trusted freelancers. 

Continuing efforts to strengthen business connections and raise awareness of Inspire as a trusted, credible partner, the team joined the Perthshire Chamber of Commerce. 

Inspire launch a range of Driving Instructor websites for UK based DIA, Driving Instructor Association.

Inspire move away from using freelance resources and finish the year with a growing in-house team of seven full-time staff: one designer, four developers, and two business analysts/project managers.

North East-based Indigo Crow appoint Inspire to provide “Facilities Management for Website” services for both the agency and its client base.

Client demand pushed Inspire beyond building websites and into building systems - from pricing engines and diary or calendar booking tools, to conference and event software and early workflow systems. This shift supports organisations dealing with diseconomies of scale and those looking to enable customer self-service through their website. 

Inspire end the year with the recruitment of four additional developers, marking the first time the team split into back-end and front-end development specialisms. The total number of full-time staff is now 11.

Inspire formalised the practice of having twice a year Website Reviews for every client.

To reinforce a closer working client relationship with every client, understand their current challenges and opportunities, as well as provide guidance on improving their online return, every client - regardless of what they pay - is offered a website review covering the following areas:

• Any Elephants in the Room
• Fit for Purpose
• Data Mountain
• What's Coming Next 

Inspire carry out a 5,000-flyer drop to businesses across Tayside, Angus, Fife, and Stirlingshire.

The outcome: one enquiry from a Stirling-based lady looking to launch a subscription webcam service.

Inspire chose to decline the opportunity to progress the project and revisit our marketing channels.

Stirling based Denvir Marketing appoint Inspire to provide Developer SOS support.

M3 Networks, who would go on to become one of Scotland's leading Cyber Security firms, recommend Inspire to their client, St Mary's Monastery, part of The Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, to re-design their website.

The last surviving monastery in Perth, Scotland, from what was six monasteries in Perth pre-Reformation, and the only Inspire client to have its own recorded miracle.

This becomes the first of Inspire's House of Worship website range. 

Hmmm.

Received website enquiry from London-based business, BuildYourOwnDungeon.com, requesting nearly the full suite of Inspire’s services - including Search Visibility (Organic and Paid Search), Paid Social, Facilities Management for Website and full design and development.

Coincidentally, this came shortly after Inspire had delivered several basement waterproofing website projects in Scotland. However, further conversation revealed this was not quite the same type of business.

The prospective client was looking to build an online store for selling adult merchandise.

Although the budget was attractive and the affiliate revenue tempting, Inspire declined to progress the project, advising that it was a “very niche sector.” 

St George’s School for Girls appointed Inspire to provide "Facilities Management for Website" services for their Silverstripe website, on the back of their previous partner existing development support for Silverstripe.

While Silverstripe was a new PHP CMS platform for Inspire to manage and develop upon, our proactive support and continuous professional development over the following eight years ensured a stable and secure presence.

Many version updates, third party integrations and new functionality would be added over the next eight years, ensuring the website was able to evolve in line with the schools marketing and operational objectives.

After eight successful years of support relationship, Inspire won the tender to rebuild the extensive website in CRAFT, in collaboration with their design partners, Platinum Creative. 

Inspire started using a Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey to gather quantifiable feedback from clients and better understand what’s needed to increase the number of “evangelical” advocates. 

Reflecting their growing client base within the hospitality sector, Inspire join the Association of Scottish Self Caterers to deepen their understanding of the challenges facing the industry and identify how best to support their hospitality clients.

Inspire support the local Perth community with the a House of Worship website for Our Lady of Lourdes, Perth, Scotland.

Ahead of the original deadline, all Inspire websites were fully compliant with the EC's GDPR.

Many websites across the EU do not meet compliance in time and, following lobbying, the official enforcement date is extended to 25th May 2018. 

Inspire reach a team of 16 staff, welcoming one new copywriter and one front-end developer, while saying goodbye to a project manager.

With new staff comes new ways of working and various requests to add new platforms for internal comms, task management and project management.

In advance of Inspire's application to become one of the first in Scotland to have Cyber Essentials accreditation, a review of all platforms used by Inspire staff is carried out.

This review leads to the creation of Inspire's platform ecosystem, customer journey, business process mapping, roadmap and two-year plan to migrate from so many different platforms.

Gone are Skype, Excel (which had been used for all time recording (billable and non-billable), holiday and absence tracking), Windows Explorer, Trello, Basecamp, PBWiki and Microsoft Project and hello to Microsoft Teams, OpenProject, Toggl, HubSpot and HR Breathe.

Teamworks is a late but powerful addition for what is now known as the Visibility team.

The exercise will take almost two years, but the benefits are significant, as it not only reduces licence costs but leads to improved productivity, faster access to client history and reduced time spent onboarding new staff.

For the first time, ALL staff can now see what their colleagues across the whole business have delivered that day via the MS Teams channel titled "End of Day" (EOD). 

Inspire staff begin holding morning "Huddles - Planned for Today" by department, with each team member sharing what they plan to accomplish that day and what a great day would look like for both the client and them.

Staff post what they've planned for that day on the new MS Teams channel and quickly competition grows between peers on what is delivered by the end of day.

An unexpected benefit is team members holding each other accountable for what a good day looks like. Improvements follow in morale, productivity and less time needed from management to check up on work status.

Two great ideas are quickly suggested and adopted:

• Copy/paste the entry posted at 0830-0845 during the "Huddle - Planned for Today" to the "End of Day" with a line through showing what was completed that day, along with what was added to their day, represented with a "+" to show it is an extra task.
• Fostering cross department collaboration. 

Inspire welcome their first two interns from Glasgow University, Josephine and Tom through the Santander Internship Programme for SMEs.

Scottish Digital Boost Development Grant (Silent Launch)

Business Gateway clients who had previously requested funding support were able to access funds through their local Business Gateway.

Inspire helped one client successfully claim £15,000 of a non-refundable grant to define, design and develop their e-commerce website platform. 

Scottish Digital Boost Development Grant

Inspire creates dedicated presentation materials to promote the benefits of the scheme to key influencers to share with their clients.

The first presentation of this kind is delivered at Henderson Loggie's Dundee Head Office, highlighting how valuable the grant could be for businesses aiming to improve their digital capability, digital skills and digital capacity. 

Another year impacted by COVID, Inspire entered with 23 staff. Plans to reach 30+ don't pan out and the year ends with 25.

Like many other businesses, Inspire experienced the “Great Resignation” period as five team members moved on.

Inspire look beyond the UK and, using the same salary package offered to UK staff, test the water to see what talent is available from Swedish, Filipino and displaced Ukrainian candidates.

Seven new highly capable hires follow, raising the standard of delivery and professionalism. 

Scottish Digital Boost Development Grant

Anticipating the scheme will run until August 2025, Inspire deliver presentations to WorldPay and Leytons, showcasing how valuable the grant is for businesses aiming to enhance their digital capability, digital skills, and digital capacity.

Scottish Digital Boost Development Grant (3rd Official Launch)

The scheme officially opens at 11:00 and closes the following day at 15:00, with all £14 million of funding claimed*.

A total of £1.1 million has been successfully claimed by 74 Inspire clients across each of the scheme openings.

*Confirmed via Freedom of Information request.

Scottish Digital Boost Development Grant

Anticipating the scheme will run until August 2025, Inspire delivered a presentation to the Law Society of Scotland, highlighting how valuable the grant is for those in the legal sector looking to improve their digital capability, digital skills, and digital capacity.

Encouraging legal firms to move away from using free or freemium email plans, as this is identified as a key cyber security concern, with many Scottish based legal practices still using email platforms that are regularly hacked. 

Gilson Gray appointed Inspire as their only Independent Witness Expert. 

At the time, there was no known or accepted expert witness standard specifically for web development projects. In response, Inspire developed their own expert witness methodology, along with the supporting materials, templates, processes and a lexicon aligned to Scots law and the Scottish judicial system.

The expert witness team includes six specialist staff from project management, business analysis, design, development, testing and visibility, and is led by David. 

Inspire entered 2022 with 25 staff and ended the year with 30 staff, strengthening the Visibility, Design, Project Management and Back Office teams.

We welcomed 12 new starts and saw 7 moving on, more consequences of the "Great Resignation" from Covid as some decide to give up work for a few years to travel. 

Scottish Digital Development Grant

Expectations of £62 million in funds being released over the remainder of the Scottish Parliament term are dashed as funding is re-allocated to public sector pay increases*. 

However, the successful delivery of individual client projects demonstrate the scheme’s strong return to the taxpayer, fostering hope that funding could be restored in a future Scottish budget. 

*Confirmed via Freedom of Information request.

One of the most turbulent years in Inspire’s history in terms of people, the year began with 30 staff.

The company hired 11 new team members and said goodbye to 17.

Even with a slower to hire process in place, 13 new hires lasted less than 6 weeks as improved packages elsewhere proved too tempting.

2023 ended with a total of 24 staff. However, more work was delivered than ever before with a reduced headcount, as practical and pragmatic usage of AI improves planning, preparation and non-delivery related productivity. 

Inspire welcome 2024 with 24 staff and end the year with 26, having brought in four new hires while two team members move on.