Member Article

Leeds firm demonstrates that Agile thinking gets IT done

A Leeds-based company which has risen from start-up status to a staff of 65 and a £10 million annual turnover is celebrating its third birthday this week.

Burendo, meaning “blended” in Japanese, specialises in Agile business transformation which involves teams tackling software development challenges in short “sprints” or iterations and reviewing results to address a client’s digital needs more quickly and effectively.

The company was established in 2018 by Glenn Crossley, Austen Bell and Gary Green who previously collaborated to launch the Blended Agile Delivery (BAD) Toolkit. Created on a not-for-profit basis, their motivation behind the toolkit – which remains available online - was to allow open access to the benefits of Agile techniques and processes.

In its short history, Burendo has worked with numerous well-known clients in the United Kingdom and United States including Equifax, Yorkshire Building Society, the NHS and William Hill.

Over the last 12 months, coinciding with the Covid-19 pandemic, the company has had teams working with NHS Digital on a new data collection platform which is improving efficiency levels whilst gathering information that assists decision-making in areas such as commissioning, resource allocation and patient choice.

Glenn Crossley, director at Burendo and co-founder of the BAD Toolkit, said: “We are celebrating our third birthday with a week-long programme of online activities but hope to get the team back together in our Leeds head office in the summer.

“The past year has been challenging but our client base continues to grow, and we have ambitious plans for the future.

“Working alongside Austen, Gary and the rest of the team, it is really satisfying to have taken Burendo from an idea to an Agile consultancy that is valued and respected far beyond our proud Yorkshire roots including, for example, in Atlanta where we are currently delivering Agile training to 65 people each week.

“The strength of the Yorkshire tech sector is no longer a hidden secret, as the depth of talent now available to employers such as Burendo clearly demonstrates.

“We look forward to building on our foundation for growth by demonstrating what Agile people can do and empowering businesses to achieve their digital aspirations.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Barry White .