Insights
Projects & News
News, insights and technical write-ups from the Quaytech Systems team.
Strategy is the hard part: AI for social, SEO and GEO
How we rebuilt a client's social strategy, found the gaps in their SEO and set them up for AI search, with a person in front of everything that ships.
Read more
One platform, many brands: building white-labelling that actually holds up
How we made one client's platform look and feel like many: custom sign-in pages, per-firm branding and a master overview across every tenant.
Read more
From inbox to ticket, automatically: event-driven email intake
Our client's customers still email their queries, so we built an event-driven pipeline that turns those emails into support tickets automatically.
Read more
AI agents are here. Can they actually reach your data?
2026 is the year AI stopped chatting and started doing. The businesses getting value aren't the ones with the best AI; they're the ones with the best plumbing.
Read more
Giving payroll teams one place for every customer query
We built a query hub for a payroll services client, turning scattered queries from email and phone into one searchable, accountable workflow.
Read more
26 ransomware attacks a month, and more than half hit smaller businesses
New police figures show UK ransomware victims averaging £270k in losses, and over half are SMEs. The defences that matter are boringly achievable.
Read more
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is live, and quarterly filing has begun
MTD for Income Tax went live on 6 April, and quarterly updates are now part of the rhythm. The real challenge isn't the software, it's the data.
Read more
The EU AI Act deadline that didn't move: what applies from 2 August
The AI Act's high-risk rules were delayed, but the chatbot and AI-content transparency duties were not. Here's what applies from 2 August 2026.
Read more
When Integration Breaks: Why a migration strategy matters and how Quaytech can help
Recently, we saw a LinkedIn post that sparked considerable discussion around the fragility of certain technology integrations and how quickly operational…
Read more
2025 at Quaytech
As we look back over the last 12 months at Quaytech, one thing stands out more than anything else: it’s been a year of progress, collaboration, and no…
Read more
Designing a payroll management platform shaped by real operational pain
At Quaytech Systems, we’ve always believed that the best technology solutions come from lived experience. The Changepen platform is no exception. From…
Read more
Eliminating manual customer onboarding with a HubSpot to Epicor integration
At Quaytech, we love finding ways to simplify business processes and cut down on repetitive admin work. Recently, we partnered with a client who wanted to…
Read more
Can AI Really Replace Software Developers?
Artificial Intelligence has quickly become a buzzword in the software industry. From generating code snippets to writing entire functions, AI coding…
Read more
Smooth Data Migration: Moving from SelectHR & SelectPay to Dayforce
Overview Our partner, LitE Consulting , was helping a client transition from Access’ SelectHR and SelectPay software to Ceridian Dayforce , a modern HR…
Read more
Seamless Route Optimization: Connecting Epicor P21 with Descartes
Overview Our client, a distribution company , relied on Epicor’s Prophet 21 (P21) to manage their orders. However, they wanted to optimize their delivery…
Read more
Seamless Integration: Moving data from Epicor’s Prophet 21 to Slim4
Overview Our distribution client had been using Slim4 alongside Sage 1000 to manage their inventory and supply chain. However, with Sage 1000 reaching…
Read more
Employee Onboarding Workflow
Overview When a company transitions to a new HR platform, ensuring a smooth and automated employee onboarding process is crucial. Our client was migrating…
Read more
Automating Product Lifecycle Management: A Smarter Approach
Project Overview Managing a product's lifecycle efficiently is crucial for maintaining inventory accuracy, optimizing stock levels, and making informed…
Read more
Automating Batch Scanning for Schools’ Artwork
Overview Our client needed a custom software solution to streamline the batch scanning of artwork produced in schools. Using a mix of flatbed scanners and…
Read more
Creating a Bespoke Online Store for Custom Furniture Orders
Overview Our client specializes in highly customizable furniture , offering customers the ability to mix and match options for kitchens and bedrooms.…
Read more
From A-Level Results Day to Building Quaytech: My Journey
A-Level Results Day, 2003 Fifteen years ago, I nervously walked up to my school to collect my A-Level results. Physics was my biggest concern, no matter…
Read more
Building a Dynamic Online Store with Full ERP Integration
Overview Our client wanted a more dynamic and customized online store to sell their products effectively. Instead of using an off-the-shelf eCommerce…
Read more
What is Azure API Management?
Well? If you’ve ever had to connect different software applications together, you know that APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) play a crucial role…
Read more
Hybrid or Native Apps
When asked to develop an app there are two main routes that we can choose to go down either a hybrid app or a native app. But this choice all depends on…
Read more SendGrid API Integration
We have recently built a bespoke ecommerce website for a client. As part of any such application, smooth email communication with customers is vital. Our…
Read more Sprint to the finish
Have you ever visited a website and thought ‘is my internet slow?’. Your internet is probably fine, it’s just a slow website. Recently we had a client…
Read more
It wasn’t me!
We recently announced a new release of one of our software solutions, it was a big one that introduced lots of new and exciting features to our customers!…
Read more
Getting in a state
We recentlyworked on a react web app, like a lot of react applications out there we choseto use Redux to handle the state within the application. For…
Read more To CTE or not to CTE
Requirement Not long ago, I was working with a client to put together a SQL query to extract sales figures, by month, for the next 5 years. I began…
Read more Lockdown Projects
Along with most of the work force, I spent some time over the last few months in lock down and away from work. Left twiddling my thumbs, I saw this as an…
Read more SQL Indexes
SQL indexes are used to speed up the retrieval of data rows, from a table or view, to return results for a SQL query. The two types of indexes that are…
Read more Fetch! – Learn about APIs with Dogs
I know I’m not alone in thinking that dogs are the best people. If you’re like me, you can’t get enough of our four-legged friends. So why not combine…
Read more
Production Process Integration Project
Weare kept busy here at Quaytech Systems! One of our clients had ordered asizeable piece of machinery to be used in the manufacturing industry. With…
Read more
Waiting for the beat to Devop - Part 1
I've read a book. Crazy I know. It's called 'The Phoenix Project' and it's basically a novel about IT DevOps, which basically stands for Development…
Read more The Sunday Scaries
Everyone gets “The Sunday Scaries” at some point in their life and for anyone who doesn’t know what this is, “The Sunday Scaries” is a condition where the…
Read more 7 ways to use your Raspberry Pi
Raspberry Pi is a "charity that works to put the power of computing and digital making into the hands of people all over the world." With the latest…
Read more jQuery for the script guy
jQuery is the most used Javascript library in the world. It’salso one of the most hated. jQuery like all libraries has it’s advantages: it’ssimple to use,…
Read more Unit Testing
A unit test is an automated test that makes calls to your code to check that they are returning output or working as expected. For example say I had…
Read more JWT - If your name's not on the list...
I love a good metaphor when learning a new topic. I recently started using JSON Web Tokens (JWT) to protect an API making calls to a database. I imagined…
Read more A little bit of Import/Export
You've been tasked with getting data from a SQL server table into a CSV file. There are many options available, each with their own benefits and…
Read more Who Gives a Functional Spec?!
Picture this. You've been tasked with developing a new feature for a client. Depending on the size of the project, you have a niggling feeling that you…
Read more File Upload in Ordering System
We wrote an Online Ordering system (ASP.NET, C#, MySQL) for our client, allowing their national customer base to place furniture orders via a portal they…
Read more
CRM de la CRM
The Problem Our client came to us with a problem: they were paying a lot of money to use their previous Customer Relationship Management software but…
Read more
Constant or ReadOnly?
ReadOnly properties andconstant fields may seem to achieve the same results. However, there are manydifferences which must be taken into consideration…
Read more NoSQL because we made that Prequel
A SQL database is a database that has relational data. For example Phil is in the database table Person, Phil has a car, Phil’s car is stored in the…
Read more A Brief History of Cryptography
Nowadays, most of us take cryptography for granted. In every email we send, online purchase we make, every WhatsApp message we send, we are benefiting…
Read more 5G - The Next Generation
The fifth generation of mobile network (aka 5G) is on its way. How fast will it be? What will be possible? Will I need to get a new phone?! When 5G…
Read more Driving me round the trend
Virtual Reality Virtual Reality or VR for short is going to be taking a massive advancement into the year especially with more computing power being…
Read more Now operating from our new office in Faversham!
BIG NEWS - NOW OPERATIONAL FROM NEW OFFICE in faversham! What a start to 2019! We are delighted to announce we have moved into our new office in…
Read more Mind your language
Today I am going to outline to you the current popularity of different programming languages in 2018. I’m going to be using an index put together by…
Read more Choose List, Choose a Job, Choose a Career …
There are two types of collections: generic and non-generic. A non-generic collection is one which can contain any data type, whereas the generic…
Read more iWatching you
That computerised watch on your wrist is more powerful than the computers that sent a man to the moon. Madness right. From the first Apple iPhone to the…
Read more It was only a typo, it was only a typo!
We all make mistakes - it happens. Luckily for most of us, these mistakes may only result in a minor inconvenience. From getting your "There, Their,…
Read more Scratch and the BBC Micro Bit - Get Coding!
P rior to working in software development, I was a primary school teacher specialising in Computing. While not the traditional route into programming, I…
Read more Bohemian Rhapsody
Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? We are entering an age of immersive technologies. Virtual Reality, 360 degree videos, real life simulators…
Read more Not as Smart as a 5-Year-Old
Life is a highway … or a roller coaster … or is it like a box of chocolates ? In software development, metaphors can be very useful when trying to…
Read more The PURSUIT of APPYNESS
We have recently been tasked to build an app for one of our clients. So I am going to provide you with a basic outline of creating a Xamarin android app.…
Read more Shameless Plugin
Over the past few weeks, I have been working with WordPress to create a new website for a client. As you may know, WordPress is an open-source Content…
Read more Stop, It's Login Time
We've recently set up a server that needed to be accessible via Remote Desktop from anywhere, so we had to get a bit more creative with security. The…
Read more Doc or Doc not, there is no try
If I were to create a list of the 'Top 50 Things Every Customer Service Team Knows is Important Yet Spends No Time On', Documentation would be top of the…
Read more MapQuest - Lost in migration
On the 5 th June 2018 MapQuest are retiring their JavaScript Maps API which is currently being used by a major client of ours to handle all of their…
Read more
Totally Unclutchable Part 2 - Attack of the Tester
A lot has happened with Totally Unclutchable since my last blog entry. After weeks of work, I thought that I had created a fairly robust application. How…
Read more Automation - "Domo Arigato"
We use automation every day, from grocery shopping to entertainment systems. We rely on algorithms and automatic processing more than we realise, and…
Read more Totally Unclutchable - Part 1
The best way to learn to code is to actually code. I have read this in many places in recent months and now, over two months into my apprenticeship, it is…
Read more 10 command(line)ments of being a good developer
Thou Shalt add Comments Who knows what is going on in your code if you don’t tell anyone. A good developer will make sure they add descriptive comments to…
Read more Stayin' live polling datatables
We've got Saturday night fever here at QuayTech! One of our clients requires a live sales dashboard that would essentially be 'staying live' ensuring it…
Read more Secure File Transfer Party - FTP vs SFTP?
At QuayTech, we're currently in the middle of a migration containing a few million files, so I've had plenty of time to think about File Transfers over…
Read more
The One with the Apprentice.
Friends is back on Netflix and what better way to celebrate than to start a blog on being an Apprentice, and complete one of my first IT exercises to…
Read more New Starters - Will and Ben the QuayTech men
We are delighted to welcome Will and Ben to the team at QuayTech, and look forward to their contribution on all forthcoming projects. Will - IT Apprentice…
Read more Like a BATch out of hell
LIKE A BATCH OUT OF HELL Today's Blog, Like a BATch Out of Hell, has been written based on some experience I've recently had with building and debugging a…
Read more Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Merry Christmas Well, here we are again - the end of another great year and Christmas is just around the corner. We have finished our 4th year of trading…
Read more DIY SOS at QuayTech
We are using the rundown to Christmas to do some DIY and get new desks assembled, in and organised for the New Year, as we have New Recruits joining the…
Read more Christmas Jumper Day 2017
A big well done and thank you to all the team for taking part in Christmas Jumper Day!You can still donate to the team using TEAMQTSLC .Rolo won Best…
Read more We are Recruiting!
Exciting News! We are RECRUITING! We are looking to expand our current team, therefore if you are an enthusiastic individual, with a great love of…
Read more Getting the most out of Dynamics 365 Activities
Our client wanted to extend the use of how they were using their Dynamics 365 application. Their sales team actively record appointments in 365. 90% of…
Read more IQueryable Friday!
IQueryable It can be useful to allow operations on an IQueryable without exposing the IQueryable itself. For example if you want to allow the vast amount…
Read more We are here! New Office in Whitstable!
Well, we are here - New Office in Whitstable! All moved in, set-up and raring to develop from our new office in Whitstable!It was a busy weekend, with a…
Read more Exciting News - We are moving!
We are Moving! We are very excited to announce that we are moving to a new office location, in May!The business will continue to offer the same friendly…
Read more
Dynamics 365 Training
WOW, what a day! Following on from application development work we completed on Dynamics 365 for our client. Quay Tech Systems were asked to deliver a…
Read more WPF User Controls in WinForms App
Yes, we really did this! If you have to maintain a legacy WinForms app, but want to start using WPF components in a legacy application ... this is how you…
Read more Query Data in Dynamics 365 using Web API
We were recently tasked to write a Web API for one of our clients to retrieve data from their Dynamics 365 (formerly Dynamics CRM) system using the…
Read more Private Cloud Hosting - First Customer System Live !
WOW! What a week it has been ... Private Cloud Hosting We recently mentioned on a Private Cloud Hosting solution we have been working on. Since December…
Read more Install RCP command Windows 7
I have just spent a good hour or two trying to figure out how to install RCP command Windows 7. Stack Overflow had the answer, and I was so happy to find…
Read more
Updating the Mobile Account Form in Dynamics 365
We've recently deployed Dynamics 365 for a customer, including a release of the new mobile app to their Sales Team. This post shares what we did to the…
Read more Why Visualise your Data?
I came across an article in the week, discussing the reasons why data visualisation is better than the notorious static crystal report, or excel…
Read more Responsive Website - Nursery School
Responsive websiteS for Nursery Schools Nursery schools are using their websites to deliver more information. The information is about their settings to…
Read more Dynamics 365 (formerly CRM) - Account Update Tool
Having recently deployed Dynamics 365 (formerly CRM) for our client, their Account data is held in their internal ERP system. This needs to be pushed into…
Read more Barcode Readers - Wireless Networking
Wireless Networking Our client needed to improve the wireless network across their warehouse. They were having frequent drop-out issues, causing their…
Read more Distributor - Custom Stock Check Module
Our client required a custom stock check module. This was to give them the ability to get their warehouse to perform a stock count by Product Grouping. So…
Read more Interface from HR to Payroll Software
A client upgraded their HR system and had a requirement to create a changes only export file. This was based on the audit trail within their new HR…
Read more Architecture Firm - Office 365
Our client required a new email solution. They didn't want to invest in servers, hardware and software - just wanted a simple email solution. They wanted…
Read more Online Ordering System
Bespoke Software Application A Manufacturing company required a completely b espoke software application, to act as an online ordering system. This was in…
Read more Property Developer - New Website
Having been recommended to this client, we carried out the work to deliver a clean and simple website which would showcase their upcoming property…
Read more LitE HR - New Website
LitE HR offer a Cloud based HR application, that required a strong website to launch and market the product on-going.LitE approached us with a fairly…
Read more Lite Consulting - New Website
Following the success of the LitE HR website, Lite Consulting wanted a re-brand of their existing website to tie in with the new LitE HR website.With some…
Read more Architecture Firm - New Website
We were originally approached by this client to create their Brand. They had some clear ideas of what they wanted to achieve, which was a very simple…
Read more Property Developer - Office 365
In addition to the website work, our client approached us to recommend a new email solution.There existing email solution was temperamental, and our…
Read more Playbox Day Nursery & Pre-School
Playbox approached QuayTech looking for a refresh to their current website.They wanted to approach their website design a little differently, and ensure…
Read more