Custom software development
Bespoke software, engineered to fit, built in-house on .NET.
We're a UK bespoke software development company, and .NET is the stack we build on. Line-of-business systems, customer portals, internal tools and the integrations between them, scoped, designed and coded by our own team in Wakefield and Liverpool, then supported long after launch. No offshoring, no hand-offs, no disappearing at go-live.
What Blacklight delivers
Not "software" in the abstract. These are the shapes of system we build most.
Customer and client portals
Internal tools and mobile apps
Integration
Legacy replacement and modernisation
Proof: built to fit, measured after go-live
Airbus: absence halved in six months
Problem
Airbus UK had an absence rate of up to 8% across its manufacturing base. It needed the rate down without extra staff. Airbus considered an SAP-native build and rejected it on timeline and cost.
Build
RETURNS: a five-stage absence-management workflow on .NET and SQL Server. Automated absence reporting by IVR. Workflows that notify managers and occupational health. Electronic return-to-work assessments. Automatic SAP integration.
Result
Absence fell from 8% to 4% in six months, across all Airbus UK manufacturing sites. Each 1% reduction is worth £1 million in productivity.
Sulzer: one system for engineering data in 150 countries
Problem
Sulzer's engineers designed custom pumps across global sites with dispersed spreadsheets. Their accreditation required tight version control and an audit trail. Spreadsheets could not deliver that.
Build
OED: a central web system on .NET and SQL Server. It standardised all 88 engineering sheet types, converted units automatically by country, and controlled access by role through Active Directory.
Result
Engineers across 150 countries work from one controlled system, with versioning and an audit trail to support accreditation.
Proveca: exactly what the study needed, nothing more
Problem
Proveca needed a data-capture system for a paediatric clinical study. Off-the-shelf clinical trial databases were too complex and too costly for what the study required.
Build
A bespoke .NET web portal on Azure, with GCP-compliant role-based access, a clean interface for clinician data entry, and a self-managed admin and reporting suite.
Result
The secure hosted portal replaced paper case-report forms, with full study data visibility.
Why we build on .NET
If you searched for a .NET development company, this is the part you came for.
We've been building bespoke systems since 2009, and Microsoft .NET has been the engineering backbone throughout, we've been a Microsoft partner since 2010, today a Microsoft Solutions Partner.
What that means in practice:
It runs where you need it. With .NET and .NET Core we build applications that run on Windows, Linux and Mac, on-premise or in the cloud.
It covers the whole range. The same stack has carried everything from Dynamics 365 plug-ins to entire mobile apps and bespoke customer portals.
It lasts. .NET is Microsoft-backed, openly documented and actively developed, which means your system can still be maintained and extended in ten years, not just shipped today.
You own it. The systems we build for you are yours, including if you later choose to take them elsewhere.
How we work
Understand first, build second, then stay for the long run. Every project is delivered in-house and onshore by our own UK team of business analysts, project managers and developers, the people who scope the work are the people who ship it, and they're still here long after go-live.
Are you not ready to talk yet?
Should you build at all?
Talk to us
Bring us the process that hurts.
Thirty minutes, no pitch deck, you'll leave knowing whether a bespoke build is worth it, roughly what it would take, and what we'd do first.