Fewer surprises in production
28 years of post-mortems have taught us where systems break. We architect for the failure modes we've already seen.
Our story
The IT partner you wish you'd hired five years ago.
We've been building software since 1998 — long enough to know what fails, why projects stall, and what it actually takes to ship something that works. This is the story of why we started, who we serve, and how that history makes us useful to you today.
The problem we saw
Software projects keep failing in the same predictable ways.
Late nineties Lagos. A generation of bright local businesses were being sold expensive, off-the-shelf software by international vendors who didn't understand the market, didn't speak the language of the operations, and disappeared once the licence was signed. Projects ran over. Customisations broke. Support tickets vanished into call centres in other time zones.
We founded Core Business Technologies in 1998 to be the opposite of that — an engineering firm that builds, owns and supports its work, that treats its customers as long-term partners, and that brings international standards to local realities. Twenty-eight years and 200+ projects later, the same problem is still everywhere — just dressed in different software.
Today our headquarters sits in Manchester, our original branch is still in Lagos, and our customers span finance, retail, the public sector and education. The reason they choose us hasn't really changed: we ship the software, we own the outcome, and we're still there when something breaks.
Why we're credible
A track record built on the hard parts — not the slides.
28
Years trading — founded 1998
105+
Cumulative years of senior IT leadership
200+
Projects shipped to live, in production
99.98%
Average managed-service uptime
2
Continents · UK and West Africa
Our senior team carries certifications from the technologies they actually use, has shipped to regulated environments where downtime has a price tag, and has the scars from migrating legacy systems while customers are still using them. We work in fortnightly sprints with senior engineers in the room from day one — not a sales lead and a junior delivery manager.
And because we operate across the UK and Nigeria, we bring two markets' worth of context to the same engagement. Cost discipline from one. Engineering standards from the other. Coverage across time zones for the days when production isn't behaving.
How that helps you
What changes when you hire a team that's been here before.
Faster path to v1
Senior engineers from day one means clearer scoping, fewer rebuilds, and software in front of real users within weeks, not quarters.
A partner who's still here in year three
We've supported customers on the same platform for over a decade. Our managed-services arm keeps your software healthy after launch — not just at it.
Two markets, one team
UK governance, Nigerian engineering scale and a Holla retail ecosystem under one roof — so you can ship software, sell products and move stock without juggling vendors.
Let's talk
The shortest path to working software starts with a conversation.
Tell us what you're trying to ship. We'll tell you, honestly, where we can help — and where you'd be better off elsewhere.
Book a 30-min discovery call