Benefits of Using an App Development Company from Scotland
In the fifth episode in this series, we will take a look at the advantages of choosing an app development company from Scotland and why choosing a Scottish development company or freelancer is a great choice for projects of all sizes.
App development company Scotland
We will briefly go over the main industries of Scotland, the talent pool here and the benefits of working with a team based in Scotland, regardless of where your company is based.
Industries in Scotland
There are three major industries in the UK, energy, food & drink and tourism, and all of these industries can really benefit from the right apps. We have worked on so many apps in all three of these key sectors and are glad to be playing a small but increasing role in the growth of Scotland’s economy.
Energy
The energy sector is one of the biggest industries in Scotland and currently employs around 15000 people and provides crucial energy for the rest of the UK. This includes the oil & gas industry but also an increasingly large green energy program for wind and solar. Aberdeen, Scotland hosts the largest offshore wind farm in the UK and is going to be the location for the headquarters of GB Energy, the new government energy company.
We have worked with energy companies in providing productivity apps to assist with managing torque on flanges, helping with inspections, and ensuring staff are trained safe and capable.
Food & Drink
The food & drink industry is vital to Scotland’s economy. From within Aberdeen and the wider Aberdeenshire area, Scotland manufactures are producing large amounts of fish, whisky, shortcakes and even haggis.
Scotland also has a large number of chain and independent restaurants that rely on a frequent stream of customers. These restaurants have increasingly modernised for the digital age providing customer’s a hand’s free experience when required for a quick lunch dining experience. This is also a really popular approach with younger diners who often prefer to interact with their phones than real servers (for better of worse!). It’s important to cater to customers in the way they prefer and also understand the benefits a serving app can have on mistakes being taken when ordering.
We have worked on a large number of app projects for food and drink companies within Scotland and beyond, these include Nando’s, Irn-Bru, Pepsi, Dr Noodles and many more.
Tourism
Tourism is one of the proudest aspects of Scottish culture. With access to the largest mountain range in the UK, Scotland has some of the most spectacular views and really provides a breath of fresh air from the buzz of modern life.
What really excites us about working in mobile apps, is the ability to take our technical experience in technology to bring more tourists to our beautiful part of the world to enjoy the outdoors. Apps can be a great conduit between the digital world and real life, providing insights and history to bring things to life.
We’ve worked on a number of tourist app projects in Scotland, including for the Snow Roads project of the Cairngorms.
Talent
There are lots of areas of Scotland where app development is being done with great enthusiasm; each of these areas have their own unique selling points and tend to focus on a slightly different discrete area of app development, but of course there is a lot of overlap too.
Dundee
Dundee is the on the global map for technology due to it’s early footing in the games industry. Some of the most important games were built there including Grand Theft Auto, Lemmings, Football Manager and much more.
Dundee has since moved a lot of its focus into the mobile gaming arena, being behind some huge titles such as Bloons, Bloons Tower Defence and Angry Birds Action.
Having worked in the early mobile games industry 12 years ago in Dundee myself, I know the level of talent that is available in Dundee, especially with apps that might need some gamification or gaming aspects.
Central Belt
The central belt of Scotland has the two largest cities in Scotland with the largest population densities. This obviously creates big industries around them such as financial services in Edinburgh and the Engineering industry in Glasgow for app development company Scotland.
There are some large technology development studios in the central belt that may cater to larger projects with bigger budgets. In Edinburgh specifically, there are a number of talented digital media agencies that are great for providing marketing material, websites and sometimes apps. Edinburgh is also host to a number of successful technology startups, such as Skyscanner, that give back to the startup community and assists with incubators to find the next unicorn startup.
Aberdeen
Aberdeen is the third largest city in Aberdeen with a population of around 220,000. Situated in the north east of Scotland and situated nearby the cairngorms, Aberdeen has a thriving tourist industry, as well access to great water and fishing for food manufacturing, whisky production, tourism and a powerful energy industry.
Cog Mobile is based in the heart of Aberdeen, Scotland and surrounded by a lot of high-level technological talent. Cog Mobile is perhaps the longest standing app development company based here, and while there are others, there aren’t any truly app dedicated teams that we know of. Aberdeen (and Aberdeenshire) has been known as the Oil capital of Europe, but also has a big tourist industry and hosts much of the food and drink manufactures that Scotland is worldwide renowned known for (whisky, haggis, shortcakes, Irn-Bru etc.)
Aberdeen has had a lot of investment into growing it’s technology industry primary through programs like Opportunity Northeast and the OneTech hub which aims to pull different technology companies and founders together to solve problems in the local Oil and Gas and tourist industries, Scotland and the wider globe. This has made Aberdeen one of the leading technology hubs for working with and alongside startups.
We have worked from our base in Aberdeen for 12 years, developing apps for global players like Nando’s and Pepsi as well as working with lots of national and local companies like STV, Irn-Bru and many others.
Aberdeen is in a great location as its international airport provides direct links to many locations around the UK and Europe. From our base in Aberdeen, we can be in the centre of London in a couple of hours.
App development company Aberdeen and app development company Scotland
Benefits
So what are the benefits of choosing a Scotland based app development team. These fall into three main categories, ability, location, cost.
Ability
As laid out above, Scotland has some of the best developers in the world; whether that’s leveraging the games developers of Dundee, the financial services developers in Edinburgh or the tech startup talents in Aberdeen.
Having been deeply embedded in the mobile industry for over 12 years, Cog Mobile has been crucial in helping bring mobile app expertise to companies all round the globe.
Location
Location is another big reason Scotland is great choice for your next mobile app development project. Scotland has the benefit of being an English speaking location in a GMT timezone. This means we can work well with remote teams based in Europe. This helps with outsourcing larger projects but also assists with working on development projects in the wider market.
Obviously, if your app project is focused on Scotland, there’s even more reason to use a Scottish app development company. The local knowledge and being available for face-to-face meeting can be key.
Cost
Often not mentioned, but there is a big benefit to working with a UK based company or freelancer who has English as their first language but doesn’t cost the same price as something like a London or USA based company. This is really important as communication is the number 1 reason that projects fail. Speaking the same language, while not mandatory, is really useful in being able to make sure technical details are critically understood. App development company Scotland
Collaborative Approach
Scottish app companies are famed for their personal, collaborative approach to client development work. If you are looking for a company that will just take a direction, build it and throw it back over the wall; Scotland probably isn’t the place for you; App development companies based in Scotland, tend to want to work with their clients like partners, and Cog Mobile is no different!
Contact
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At Cog Mobile, we specialise in building high-quality apps and websites for our partners. With over 12 years of industry experience, we cater to organisations of all sizes.
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