Full Metal Software Ltd

I work with growing businesses to design and deliver custom software that solves real operational problems. We don’t need the unnecessary guesswork. With 20+ years of experience, I lead projects end to end, from discovery through delivery, ensuring every build fits the way the business actually runs.


Having successfully delivered a number of key critical project platforms that help improve productivity and efficiency, I have vast experience in helping companies achieve their goals.

Director and Process Improvement Specialist

RedTie Ltd

RedTie is a software developer with a difference. Grown originally from a calendar print company, we are printers first, software developers second. 

We understand that software is just a tool and as such needs to be used correctly to get the most out of it. We therefore put as much effort into growing our customers’ online revenue, with account managers experienced in business development, training, education and support, as we do into developing our software.

That’s why at RedTie we think of ourselves as an extension of your business.

Operations Director

Sportal

Web Engineer

Hi, I’m Ben. I’ve been building software solutions for over two decades, helping businesses simplify their software and solve complex problems with tailored technology.

My journey began in the '80s. I was super excited by the possibilities of programming and the idea of making a computer do something new. That curiosity led me to pursue Computer Science, and eventually to co-found (with my brother) Full Metal Software in 2004.

At Full Metal, we specialise in creating bespoke software that fits seamlessly into existing business processes. Our approach is grounded in understanding the unique challenges each client faces and developing solutions that are both effective and sustainable.

Over the years, I've worked with a diverse range of industries, from logistics to retail, always focusing on delivering software that makes a tangible difference. I believe in building long-term relationships with clients, ensuring that the software evolves alongside their business needs.

The love of problem-solving is what gets me up in the mornings, except on the days when I’m coaching my son’s football team. 

In fact, as a father, I see a lot of parallels between kids and developers. They’re all very individual personalities with unique points of view!

If you're looking for someone who can translate complex requirements into practical software solutions, send me a message.

fullmetalsoftware.com | info@fullmetalsoftware.com | +44 (0) 1604 664 390

Here's a question: Why are so many businesses using the exact same off-the-shelf AI tools as their direct competitors and expecting to gain a unique advantage?





A real, sustainable competitive edge doesn't come from a shared product. It comes from building your own intellectual property.

This is the fundamental difference between 'renting' a generic AI and owning a bespoke one.

When you build a custom AI, it’s trained on your most valuable asset: your proprietary data. Your internal process logs, your unique customer interaction history, your specific performance metrics. This is a goldmine that generic tools simply cannot access or understand.

Let’s make this practical.

Imagine a UK manufacturing firm struggling with machinery downtime.

They try a generic predictive maintenance tool. It fails. Why? Because it can't integrate with their proprietary sensors or understand the unique operational stresses of their specific machinery.

With a bespoke solution, you build an AI that:

✅ Integrates perfectly with their existing legacy SCADA systems.

✅ Is trained exclusively on their years of historical performance data (vibration patterns, temperature, etc.).

✅ Understands the specific failure signatures of their machines.

The result isn't a generic dashboard. It's a pinpoint-accurate prediction that a critical component will fail in three days.

Maintenance is scheduled, production isn't disrupted, and the business saves a fortune.

That is an advantage your competitors cannot copy. That’s your secret weapon.

Read more on our new blog:

 https://lnkd.in/eHk4tD42

If you could build an AI to solve just one unique, high-value problem in your business, what would it be?

#BespokeSoftware #PredictiveMaintenance #AIforManufacturing

Ben Thomson

Founder and Ops Director @ Full Metal Software | Improving Efficiency and Productivity using bespoke software

Open article: The Case for Bespoke AI Development in the UK | Full Metal by fullmetalsoftware.com

The Case for Bespoke AI Development in the UK | Full Metal

Buying an 'AI in a Box' solution is like buying a suit off the peg. It might look passable from a distance, but up close, the trousers are too short and the jacket pinches.



I’ve seen this exact scenario play out time and time again. A business gets sold on a 'one-size-fits-all' promise. It's fast, it's cheap (initially), and it looks the part.

But then the problems start.

That 'easy' integration turns into a mess of clunky workarounds. The tool doesn't quite speak to your legacy system, so you end up with data silos. It was never really made for you.

The real cost isn't just the subscription fee. It's the frustration. It's the opportunities you miss because the tool is rigid. You can't adjust the logic to fit your unique business rules. It's a black box, and you're stuck with its 'best guess'.

A bespoke solution is different. It's not about force-fitting a square peg into your round hole. It's about measuring twice and cutting once. It's designed from the ground up to fit your exact processes, your tech stack, and your data.

Here at Full Metal, we're big believers in this tailored approach. We specialise in building AI that becomes a natural extension of your existing Microsoft stack, not another problem to be solved.

No silos, just streamlined operations.

A generic tool gives you generic results. A solution built for your business gives you a genuine competitive edge.

It just... fits.

When was the last time a 'one-size-fits-all' tool didn't work for you?

#BespokeAI #CustomSoftware #DigitalTransformation

AI in box?

You've got 3 seconds.


Across the time I have spent running a software development company, I've seen trends come and go. 

But one constant is the user's total lack of patience.

We used to win battles by compressing images and minifying JavaScript. 

We’d cache everything, set up a CDN, and call it a day.

That playbook is now finished.

Today’s applications are complex, dynamic, and global. The old tricks just aren't enough. We've hit a performance ceiling, and I see many businesses feeling stuck.

They’ve "optimised" their site, but it still feels sluggish to users on the other side of the world, or even just on a patchy mobile connection.

That 3-second delay isn't a technical problem. It's a sales problem, a customer retention problem, and a brand problem. 

It's the digital equivalent of a high street shop with a slow, heavy door—customers will just walk on by.

The truth is, the methods that got us here won't get us where we need to go. We need to have a serious conversation about what "fast" really means today.

I’ve put together a short guide on why these traditional methods are hitting a wall and what the new frontier of web speed looks like. 

What's your biggest frustration with web performance right now—is it speed, or reliability?

#WebPerformance #DigitalStrategy #UserExperience

Are web speeds hitting a wall?

People often talk about APIs and middleware like they're black magic....







... spoiler alert - they're not.

Let me break it down with a couple of simple analogies I use.

After two decades in this field, I've found the best way to explain complex tech is to relate it to the real world.

Many leaders feel the pain of disconnected software but are sold confusing solutions.

Here’s how I see it:

1️⃣ An API is a waiter in a restaurant. When you sit at your table, you don't need to know how the kitchen works. You just need a menu (the API documentation). You tell the waiter (the API) what you want, and they go to the kitchen (the application) and bring you your food (the data). It’s a simple, rules-based messenger.

✅ An API is also a plug socket. It's the standard interface. You know your UK plug will fit any UK socket and get power. APIs standardise the "connection" between software.

✅ But here’s the bit people often miss: the socket is useless without the grid.

2️⃣ Middleware is the national grid. It's the complex, unseen infrastructure that generates the power, transforms the voltage, routes it across the country, and manages the load.

✅ That’s what middleware does for your systems. It’s the "software glue" that does the heavy lifting a simple API call can't.

✅ It transforms data (like a UN translator, making sure an old XML system can talk to a modern JSON one).

✅ It orchestrates complex, multi-step processes (like a customer order that has to check stock, take payment, and update shipping, all in the right order).

It routes information to the right place based on business rules.

You need both. APIs provide the standard connection points. Middleware provides the intelligence to manage the flow of information between them.

Getting this architecture sorted is the difference between a business that’s agile and one that's stuck.

You can read more in our latest blog here:
 https://lnkd.in/gk6CAdxy

Which analogy works best for you: the waiter or the power grid?

#APIs #Middleware #SoftwareArchitecture

Open article: How APIs and Middleware Make Your Software Work Together | Full Metal by fullmetalsoftware.com

How APIs and Middleware Make Your Software Work Together | Full Metal

There's a difficult conversation I often have with clients: when to stop optimising.





As software founders, we love the chase. Shaving another 100ms off a load time feels like a victory. But in a world where we're approaching the physical limits of web speed, that victory can come at a staggering cost. The law of diminishing returns is very real.

The initial performance gains are usually the low-hanging fruit: compressing images, minifying code, sorting out basic caching. That’s the easy part.

But what about the next phase.

When your team spends a month re-architecting a service just to gain 50ms, has that truly served the business.

Here at Full Metal, we try to be pragmatic.

We tie performance directly to business outcomes. If a specific bottleneck is causing a 5% drop-off in the payment basket, then yes, we get cracking and fix it. But if we're arguing over a 1.2s load versus a 1.1s load on a blog post, with no clear data showing it impacts behaviour, that's just an academic exercise.

Our resources are finite.

That same developer-month could have been spent building a new feature that genuinely delights customers or opens a new revenue stream.

Sometimes, the obsession with speed can throw a spanner in the works of real progress.

We explore this balancing act in our latest blog:
 https://lnkd.in/evNdraEi

As business leaders, how do you decide when "good enough" is genuinely good enough?

#TechLeadership #DigitalStrategy #SoftwareDevelopment

Open article: Are we Reaching the Limit of Web Speed? | Full Metal by fullmetalsoftware.com

Are we Reaching the Limit of Web Speed? | Full Metal

Radio Times / TV Times is dead... THE AI prompt to end your highlighting game



In light of the myriad of posts on here telling me my agency is dead as it can be replaced by a few AI prompts, I decided to kill off the annual Christmas movie scheduling routine.

The plot: my household usually embarks on a Christmas-movie-a-night marathon starting December 1st and taking us all the way to Christmas Eve. 

The issue: it's a bit slap dash usually, and we tend to miss out a few choice movies we all love. Never mind the amount of highlighting in the TV Times. 

The solution: ask Gemini to write the schedule. I fed it our preferred list of movies, gave it the start date (24th November this year due to a list of blackout dates where we are busy) and a few suggestions about starting with the less Christmassy, moving to the most Christmassy. 

I also suggested we could accommodate two films if there would be too little time, as long as the first film that night would be family friendly and the second more for adults. 

Of course, a few tweaks later (including where to stream) and we get the results below.

The result:

🎄 Week 1: The "Is It Even Christmas Yet?" Warm-Up
(Monday 24th Nov - Sunday 30th Nov)
Mon, 24th Nov: Die hard - Disney+
Tue, 25th Nov: Holidate - Netflix
Wed, 26th Nov: Christmas with the Kranks - Sky Go
Thu, 27th Nov: Deck the halls - Disney+ / Amazon Prime
Fri, 28th Nov: The holiday - Disney+, Amazon Prime
Sat, 29th Nov: (Double Feature)
Jack Frost (1998) - Plex (Free with ads)
Four Christmases - Sky Go
Sun, 30th Nov: National lampoons Christmas vacation - Sky Go

🎅 Week 2: Getting Festive
(Monday 1st Dec - Sunday 7th Dec)
Mon, 1st Dec: Fred Claus - Rent or Buy
Tue, 2nd Dec: (BLACKOUT DATE - No Movie)
Wed, 3rd Dec: Dear Santa (2011) - YouTube Free
Thu, 4th Dec: (Double Feature)
Red One - Amazon Prime Video
Office Christmas party - Rent or Buy
Fri, 5th Dec: Scrooged - Sky Go
Sat, 6th Dec: (BLACKOUT DATE - No Movie)
Sun, 7th Dec: Christmas chronicles 1 - Netflix

🦌 Week 3: The Final Run-Up
(Monday 8th Dec - Sunday 14th Dec)
Mon, 8th Dec: (Double Feature)
Spirited - Apple TV+
The night before - Rent or Buy
Tue, 9th Dec: Bad Santa - Rent or Buy
Wed, 10th Dec: Violent Night - Rent or Buy
Thu, 11th Dec: (BLACKOUT DATE - No Movie)
Fri, 12th Dec: The Grinch that stole Christmas - Rent or Buy
Sat, 13th Dec: (BLACKOUT DATE - No Movie)
Sun, 14th Dec: The grinch (2018) - Sky Go

✨ Week 4: The Big Family Movie Finale
(Monday 15th Dec - Monday 22nd Dec)
Mon, 15th Dec: Santa Claus the movie - Rent or Buy
Tue, 16th Dec: Home alone 2: Lost in New York - Disney+
Wed, 17th Dec: Home alone-  Disney+
Thu, 18th Dec: The Santa Claus 1 - Disney+
Fri, 19th Dec: Nativity - BBC iPlayer
Sat, 20th Dec: Elf - Sky Go
Sun, 21st Dec: PAIRED
The Snowman (1982) - CH4
The Snowman and the Snowdog- Rent or Buy
Mon, 22nd Dec: Muppets Christmas Carol - Disney+

How's that for good use of AI?! Have I missed any decent films?

#ChristmAIs #Technology #Innovation

After more than 20 years in the software industry, I've seen my fair share of tech buzzwords.



It’s easy to become cynical.

So, is Generative AI just this year's "metaverse," or is there something more to it?

In my opinion, this feels different. We're seeing a fundamental shift from AI that just analyses information to AI that can genuinely create something new.

It's not copying and pasting; it's producing original work based on what it has learnt, from code to complex product designs.

But here’s the trap many businesses are falling into.

They're grabbing the nearest off-the-shelf, generic AI tool and expecting revolutionary results.

The problem? Generic tools produce generic output.

They don't understand your brand’s voice, your industry's specific nuances, or your company's unique data. You get bland, one-size-fits-all answers.

The real opportunity isn't in using the same tool as everyone else. It's in building a bespoke solution. An AI that is trained on your data, learns your unique style, and fits directly into your workflow.

That’s when it stops being a novelty and becomes a powerful tool that frees up your team to focus on strategy, not just execution.

What's your biggest reservation about integrating Generative AI into your business right now?

#GenerativeAI #BespokeSoftware #UKTech

Is GenAI another buzzword?

Is your software stack a finely tuned team or just a group of expensive, talented individuals who refuse to talk to each other?



This is one of the most common and costly problems I see.

Businesses spend a fortune on "best-in-class" apps for CRM, finance, and marketing, only to find they don't play nicely together.

The result? Everything is a bit of a mess. 

You get project delays and budget blowouts. But the real, day-to-day pain is the manual work.

Your best people end up as human "copy-paste" machines, shuttling data between systems, which is a recipe for errors and enormous inefficiency. It's a major headache for everyone involved.

The thing is, the problem isn't the apps. The problem is the invisible engine between them that most businesses completely ignore.

This engine is built from two key parts: APIs and Middleware.

Think of them as the connective tissue that turns that chaotic mess of individual apps into a single, cohesive unit that actually works for you.

Without them, you don't have a system; you just have a collection of software.

We've put together a simple guide on this, breaking down exactly what this "Unseen Engine" is and how it works. No jargon, just clear explanations.

How much time do you estimate your team wastes each week manually moving data between systems?

#SoftwareIntegration #DigitalTransformation #BusinessEfficiency

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