2021 marks our 20th year in the software development business, developing websites, web applications, databases and mobile apps.
With a degree in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence and 8 years’ experience in database development, Brian Horisk had just returned from three years working in New Zealand. He was looking for work in IT when a friend asked if he had any experience building websites. The friend’s publishing company needed someone to build a new database-driven website, but couldn’t find anyone qualified.
Brian had built his first commercial website in 1995, but because web technology and best practices change quickly, he spent some time ensuring he was up to date with the latest technology before starting work in the last week of January 2001.
That project led to others of increasing size and in 2004 that friend – Iain Leslie – joined the business. We have grown organically since then, building and training a small team of full-stack developers who work together to build user-friendly, secure, and reliable systems for our clients.
We started off working at home, then got an office, then got a bigger office – and now we’re all working at home again. We have a wide client base in the UK and Ireland and now have some international customers.
As the technology world has changed, so have we – very few systems now work alone so our systems integrate with third-party systems via interfaces or APIs. Many are now cloud-hosted, adapting to reap the benefit of scalable and serverless hosting. Where appropriate systems are designed to be mobile-first, or developed as mobile apps.
When he started out, Brian only had plans to be a freelance developer. Now he and Iain have built a web development company trusted by both small business and large public and third sector organisations to deliver and maintain business-critical systems over the long term.
What will the next 20 years bring?
What do Horisk do?
We work with businesses and organisations of all sizes across all sectors. We develop business critical systems for many purposes including
- E-commerce websites and business management workflows
- Booking systems for accommodation, training courses, appointments and more
- Payment systems
- Map driven websites for sharing location and route data
- Data-driven applications for carrying out research and websites to share findings with the public
- Customer portals
- Membership systems and websites
- Online forms and application processes
- Bespoke CRM and database systems
- Configuration and Costing systems
- Asset tracking and rota management systems
Who do Horisk work with?
Our current clients include specialist e-commerce retailers ChektAhora and InmunoChek; small businesses like Loch Leven Equine, Beyond Adventure and Transvercia; training organisations iTrainScotland and SSERC; tech companies like Cyan Forensics; universities including The London School of Economics and University of St Andrews; charities like the Scottish SPCA, DAPL, Rape Crisis Scotland and Helm; public sector bodies including Scotland’s Charity Regulator (OSCR), Scottish Procurement, Historic Environment Scotland and National Museums Scotland.
What do our customers say?
- “Horisk… were able to offer innovative solutions to our requirements and, despite the pandemic, continued to work with us to deliver our project on time.”
Lorraine Hook, Scottish Procurement - “The process of developing the online form was genuinely agile and collaborative. The result has been a form which our applicants tell us is easy to use, and gives us the capability to keep developing it in the light of user needs.”
Martin Tyson, Head of Casework, Scottish Charity Regulator - "Horisk have created an invaluable new resource for community co-production of rock art data. The website and data input system are very user-friendly, despite their complexity, and will underpin research and understanding of Scotland’s rock art now and into the future.”
Dr Tertia Barnett, Principal investigator, Scotland’s Rock Art Project - "Thanks very much for your help throughout, you have been wonderful. I would not hesitate to recommend Horisk to anyone in the future."
Agnieszka Nohawica, Secretary, Royal Odonto Chirurgical Society of Scotland - “All very easy and helpful” and “Excellent site - very user friendly”
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