A growing Hull smart tech company is now working in close collaboration with a range of leading businesses as their long-term digital partner to make them more efficient and effective.
Sauce has established relationships with blue chip companies across different sectors to help keep them ahead of the curve and achieve their business objectives using digital solutions. The C4DI-based team specialises in developing Internet of Things technologies and delivering serverless infrastructure, and has enjoyed significant growth as more businesses have woken up to the opportunities presented by digital transformation.
It is now providing long-term, scalable collaborations with a variety of major companies, with user experience expertise brought to the fore beside its testing and quality assurance.
Matt Weldon, co-founder and chief executive, said: “We’ve developed significantly over the last two years. The evolution of the business, including our widened skillset, means we’re now able to offer a long-term, full-service package to our clients, drawing on all of our expertise.
“Previously, we’d become involved when a company already had their own digital transformation plans in place, but needed us to come in and deliver them. Now, we’re coming in much earlier and, in many cases, we’re delivering business consultancy up front, in order to help the client – and us – fully understand what their digital needs are. We’re then positioned to deliver the vision, essentially working as an extension of their team.
“Each relationship is different, but the common threads are establishing strategic priorities and exploring efficiencies and different revenue opportunities through digital solutions. We’re engaging with our partners earlier, and over a longer period of time, meaning we can deliver greater results and help them achieve their business goals.”
High profile clients include Ideal Heating, Nestle, GXO and Bytes Software Services. Alongside the cutting-edge tech deployment sits digital design and branding, ongoing technical support, and in-house staff training.
Sauce has worked with Ideal for four years on specific projects, helping create intelligent, responsive heating controls driven by real-time data. The two companies have now agreed a long-term partnership to further explore and deliver Ideal’s digital development objectives.
The ongoing collaboration involves members of Ideal’s software development team working alongside Sauce’s experts at the Fruit Market tech hub on a weekly basis. They benefit from Sauce’s specialist knowledge, improving their own professional development, and each team acts as an extension of the other.
Jason Hookey, chief digital officer for Ideal’s parent company, Groupe Atlantic UK, said: “Our relationship with Sauce goes back quite a number of years now, initially on specific projects. As we continue to invest in digital services, this has moved to a long-term partnership.
“Working with Sauce, we’re able to co-design and then develop rapid enhancements to core customer and market-facing platforms, as well as remain current with new and emerging technologies. This has been evident across a number of vital platforms, from IoT, to homeowner apps and our new digital interface platform.
“Sauce have provided us with a responsive, agile development service, able to work alongside our changing market needs to deliver new digital products and services. Although the core service has been around development, the team also provides us with user design, quality and testing services, which results in us delivering a high-quality product to market first time.
“We’re now looking at ways to further develop the relationship. We’re working towards a strategic partnership with a combined resource model, based on agile principles that will accelerate our delivery capabilities.”
SMEs are also core to the growth plan for Sauce, which now has a team of 35 full-time staff and also runs a successful intern programme to identify and nurture young talent.
Matt said: “We have a really strong portfolio of clients, including some of the leading businesses in their sectors, but we also remain committed to helping companies that are at earlier stage of their development.
“The pandemic undoubtedly accelerated digital transformation and a lot of businesses and organisations have woken up and realised they can’t rely on paper-based solutions. We’re proud of where we’ve come from and we want to provide value where we can to help other businesses achieve similar success.”
