60 seconds with The Software Bureau

The Software Bureau was a management buy-out from Stralfors’ acquisition of DPS Direct Mail in 2005. Cygnus, its main data cleaning/preparation product, was initially developed for internal use, but after realising how good it was, “we decided to sell it to our competitors” says sales and marketing director David Murray (pictured).

Where are you based?

The Software Bureau's main office is based in Croydon at Airport House, however we operate a successful virtual office network with staff based far and wide

How many staff do you have?

Sixteen full-time and two consultants

What does your firm do?

We design and market two main data software packages: Cygnus and SwiftSort. These are used for data sortation, data cleaning, suppressions and data preparation for mailing applications

What’s your typical customer?

A mailing house, data bureau or printer in all shapes and sizes 

Which geographic areas do you serve?

We are national, covering all four corners of the UK

Who are your clients?

They include Pepper Communications, MBA Group, GI Solutions, Thamesdown, Howard Hunt and W8 Data. We have over 85 clients who license Cygnus alone

What’s your USP?

The functionality and speed of Cygnus and SwiftSort, and sheer volume of suppressions Cygnus can run

What’s been your proudest achievement in the past few years?

Apart from David completing the Wimbleball Ironman Triathlon this year, it would have to be Cygnus v3 and the updated suppression module – blisteringly quick! (The module that is)

Where do you see your business in five years’ time?

Working with all our of customers enjoying the continued resurgence in direct marketing! 

What’s your team’s favourite biscuit?

It would have to be the Jaffa Cake