Every so often, we like to remind ourselves what we do, what we love,  and where we came from. If you are thinking about buying anything from us, then you probably want to know our philosophy.

Just like you, we get bombarded with information from companies trying to sell us things. And just like you, we rarely want it at the same time we are being informed about the product. We have been in business since 1982 and are happy to wait until you are ready. When you are, then these few pages might help.

Much as we like computers, it's the software they run we really love. Some of the software we write and some we distribute for other software companies. Our aim is to provide you the software you need and not to re-invent the wheel. Our software products and services generally fall into one of the following categories:

• Distributed - "off-the-shelf" products developed by JPY or other manufacturers and sold via our reseller channel
• Customised - distributed products altered to provide customer-specific needs
• Bespoke - products developed from the ground-up for individual customers
• Software as a Service - hosted services
• Support - post-sales technical support
• Consultancy - advice and assistance on systems and networks

Software is like a suit. You can buy it "off-the-shelf" or you can have it "bespoke".  Buying off-the-shelf is cheaper and quicker, but every customer gets the same. Buying bespoke software generally costs more and takes longer, but you can get something unique which can totally matches your requirements.

Between the two, you can customise off-the-shelf software by writing modules to provide certain customer-specific functions.

Our aim is to offer the customer the most cost-effective option, be that off-the-shelf or bespoke. Off-the-shelf products are mostly supplied via our distribution agreements with other software manufacturers, while software development and customisation is undertaken by our in-house software engineers.

A large area of interest for us is the publishing industry - by far the most technically challenging of all market sectors. Publishing involves mixtures of Macintosh and Windows workstations, mail, web and file servers. File sizes are extreme. Printing and displaying graphical data involves a good understanding of physics too. If you can meet the demands of publishing users, you can meet the demands of anyone.

Our software products are primarily server based - which means they are designed to support many simultaneous users. In addition to the software, we provide all the things you need to get it working. That includes help with the specification, installation, customisation and support.

Occasionally, we do sell hardware. This happens when emerging technologies require hardware components that have not yet gone mainstream.

Customers often purchase a complete solution comprising hardware and software. They rightly want a single point of contact and responsibility. For this reason, we sell mainly through our reseller channel. However, some customers have their own IT departments and procure their own hardware. We can supply these customers direct.

Increasingly, organisations are reducing their dependence on in-house IT and using servers at a hosting facility or in "The Cloud". This has become viable because of the speed and reliability of the Internet.

JPY has an active research and development program for innovative service as a service based on our own development and our distributed products.

We love servers. Since 1982, when our first hard disk blew up, we knew that servers were the way to go. Invest in a great server, and your workstations are dispensable. And as the network has got faster and larger, this mantra has made more and more sense. We love servers and supplying server software to our customers so they can save money, time and effort. If they didn't, we wouldn't be here still.

We love networks. Servers rely on networks, so to understand servers is to understand networks. No one wants a fast server and a slow network.

We love workflow. To be of any use, servers must do something. Data moves between workstation and server and to devices such as printers and screens. Simply storing that data is no good if you can never find it or move it where you need it. 

We love small companies. We sometimes make a song and dance about sales to big companies - especially household names. However, it's a fact that the majority of our customers are small companies, sometimes with only one or two employees. Because all our software is scaleable, it can grow with the customer. Some of the big companies we sell to now, we first sold to when they were small. And employees from our big company customers sometimes leave and join small companies, and want to use the same JPY software. So the fact that the big companies get the most publicity doesn't take away our focus on small companies.

History is an important part of understanding the present. JPY was formed in 1982 by Dr John Yardley. John was originally a research scientist at the National Physical Laboratory, where he led software development in the Speech Recognition Group. John obtained his PhD for his work on Speech Recognition while at NPL.

Since 1982, JPY has always seized upon the latest and most demanding opportunities in computer science, working on innovative new technologies before they became mainstream. Along the way, some ground-breaking new products have been developed, including DataLock, the first commercial software implementation of the Data Encryption Standard and ISDNShare, the first commercial "spoofing" router for the AppleTalk protocol.

Since 2000, JPY has maintained its specialisation in server-based software for the publishing industry with the HELIOS suite for file and print services. The Canto Cumulus Digital Asset Management suite was added to the portfolio in 2004, and the Archiware PresSTORE range of backup and archive software in 2006.

For the last 2 years, JPY has been developing a major new SaaS development called Threads. Interestingly, this has brought the company full circle by incorporating many of the algorithms originally developed by John Yardley for Speech Recognition back in 1981. Except now, they just work about 1,000 times faster!

Last but not least, in 2009 we aquired Jvolution Limited to seed our CMS web-development group.

We hope that our long track record of trading and innovation demonstrates our commitment to quality and customer care. But if you are new to JPY, we don't expect you to take that for granted.

JPY is above all, a technical company. We try to provide you all the sales support you need, without the 'hard sell'. We expect customers will want good products with good support and we never sell refrigerators to Eskimos.

Like you, we buy things, so we like to treat our customers as we like to be treated.

• We like to speak to real people, and not be greeted with 6 levels of voicemail options - so if you phone us, you will speak to a human being.
• We like to use the products we sell.
• We like to try things before we buy them - so we let you do that with our products.
• We like to know what we have bought and when we need to renew support - so we send you timely reminders.

We want you to be totally satisfied that the products and services we sell you are completely fit for the purpose you intend. No amount of product description will cover every contingency of use, so will try to give you every opportunity to test our products and compare them with competing products. Come and see us for a demonstration. Let us come and see you. Ask for a reference site. Look at a case study. Install a "demo" version.

Finally, remember that large part of our time is devoted to looking at new technologies and products. Sometimes, if there is a need for a product that doesn't exist, we will develop it.

We have a general dislike of products that are difficult to understand and use. Many aspects of modern information technology are complex but we that is no reason they should be complex to use.

We hope you will like our philosophy.