About us in more detail

FoCul is unusual for an IT company. FoCul was started in 2000 by practising Engineers who were frustrated at the lack of good software for managing knowledge and collaborative processes.

Our whole approach is around our team of experienced Engineers and IT Developers delivering the excellent service and solutions that we would have wanted as manufacturing professionals.

We understand what it is like to be you and how to deliver projects into your busy environments.

We also understand that our role is as a long term partner ensuring that your software solutions continue to be both effective and efficient as your needs change.

Why our customers recommend us

We have extensive experience of manufacturing, business, operational and engineering environments and use this combined with our technical expertise to work with our clients to provide the right solution for them. Through customer feedback we have been able to build on our strengths and underpin our core principles;

We will always take the time to understand your needs so that we can offer the best solution. We won't be happy until we have addressed the issues that you need us to address.
We have a particular knack for getting to the nub of a problem and finding the best practical solution. We will spend time at the beginning of the project to ensure the scope is fit for purpose. Investing that time upfront will pay dividends as the project proceeds. We often receive feedback that we are particularly good at understanding clients needs.
We understand the importance of regular communication, and engaging with key users so that they become experts and feel comfortable in asking us anything. We understand the need for our solutions to be a good fit against your IT policies and strategy. We will work with your IT function to ensure this happens. We don't walk away when the application has been deployed. We support our clients and we have continued to develop many applications as the needs of our clients have developed too.
We use an agile project methodology to accommodate your feedback as the project progresses. We recognize that urgent needs within your business can mean that milestones need to move and will always do our best to accommodate these.
What is best for you is best for us in the long term. We often provide multiple options as solutions so that we can work with you to identify the best balance of cost and functionality. As a company we are collaborative, internally and externally. We will work with you in partnership. Our aim will always be to give you the most cost effective solution. We work to a fixed price or subscription basis and will support you as long as you need us.
Our applications are built to last. We are solution not commercially driven. We work on a fixed or subscription pricing structure depending on our client's needs.

Our Management Team

A Manufacturing and Management Engineering graduate, Sean worked for 8 years within the chemical industry as a maintenance, asset management and work execution engineer.

He wrote his first Lotus Notes database (ICI Critical Machines Incident Database) 20 years ago, realising how I.T. could be successfully used to better manage business processes.

Continuing to specialise in the delivery of I.T. systems, Sean founded FoCul in 2000 and became an IBM ICS Champion in 2012.

Sean enjoys building, flying and crashing model aircraft and sailing on Lake Coniston.
A Mathematics graduate, Andrew has been developing software solutions for the last 20 years. Primarily working with companies in the chemical and steel making industries, he has significant experience delivering applications to manage business processes on platforms from IBM Lotus Notes through to modern web frameworks and Java.

Andrew works with various web technologies but has a particular soft spot for the IBM XPages framework.

When he's not writing code, Andrew enjoys performing with the Marske Brass Band and being soundly beaten on the golf course by his 12 year old son.

Martin’s first exposure to “proper computing” (not Pac Man!) and the joys of Turbo Pascal was during his Industrial Chemistry degree, the benefits of computer based control systems and workflows to the chemical industry were further reinforced during spells working for ICI Fibres and Unilever.

Since then Martin has built a 25 career in the IT sector initially as a Senior Technical Trainer specialising in Database Development and the Lotus Notes systems before moving into consultancy and software design. He progressed to senior positions responsible for software delivery at both Active Intranet plc (Research and Development Manager) and Italik Ltd (Software Development Manager).

Martin has built up a wealth of experience and knowledge in system design, software development, infrastructure and delivery working with many household names including Bradford & Bingley, Cussons, Corus, HBOS, Help-Link (now Homeserve) and Yorkshire Water amongst others. Whilst Martin’s main technical speciality and focus has been the IBM Notes/Domino platform he particularly enjoys the challenges of system integration and the creative thinking coupled with exposure to new technologies required to help ”glue” disparate systems together.

In his spare time Martin is an enthusiastic church bell ringer holding the position of Ringing Master at Ripon Cathedral. He also enjoys long distance running and has completed a number of Marathons.