up and running software

We value long-term customer relationships, building custom software in support of those

We create custom web software. We partner with clients to solve important technical problems by building, implementing, and servicing complex software solutions for customers of any size in any industry. We've been here since 1995, designing and rolling out custom enterprise and web-based solutions across the world.

Up and Running Software began in 1995 as a technical services firm and evolved into a developer of custom software solutions after just a few years of existence. Customer happiness and open communication have been the focus since day one, plain and simple, resulting in long-term relationships with any type of client, from non-profits to startups to the Fortune 10. Thanks to this mindset, we are fortunate to have served an impressive array of clients, including giants such as General Electric, JYSK, Sanofi, Alliance Data (Epsilon), Hearst (First Databank), US Army, Yahoo! (Xobni), Heineken, Gerber, IEEE, Gap, Xerox, and Henry Schein directly and indirectly (through agencies).

Our over 25 years of custom software development, legacy system support, and migrations drive the engines of solutions that thousands of businesses and millions of people rely on daily. That experience has resulted in hands-on depth in most software development stacks, from the command line systems in the back office to ones that gracefully handle any screen size worldwide. A commitment to QA and process improvement drives scalable results, producing long-term software assets with high ROI. Our work passes FDA & DEA audits, rolls up global treasury data, manages nuclear assets and railroads, delivers vaccines, and enables neuroscientists and researchers.

A Silicon Valley-area client praised our being "nice and courteous" and having "hardworking Midwestern values," and being a firm that "could build something that was functional, quickly deliver an MVP, and was cost effective."

We are known for our communication, commitment to the customer, and our ability to creatively and accurately translate business needs into working software.

Key information about Up and Running at a glance:

• Technical Focus: any programming language, development stack, or framework. We adapt to your approach and needs. In terms of how we help, it can be as minimal as adding a single programmer to an existing internal programming team or as extensive as moving all technical work to an external team, including architecture, front-end design, back-end development, QA, DevOps, etc. (what we think about outsourcing).
• Core Technologies Known: PHP, Ruby, Python, Java, C++, ASP.NET, Android (Java), iOS (Objective-C and C), SQL, NoSQL, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, XML, Apache, Amazon Web Services, and more. This includes all mainstream frameworks in each of these technologies.
• Other Services Provided: anything technical directly related to software development, including QA, architecture, DevOps, and systems administration.
• Customer Focus: business results, communication, and customer service.
• Our Mission: help you use technology.
• Our Vision: be your partner at solving important technical problems by building, implementing, and servicing complex software solutions.
• Our Values: communication and transparency.
• Goals:
  • We want to build great things with 20 clients or less at volume. To maintain the level of quality and ensure simplicity and speed in operations, we seek equilibrium in volume or slight growth, not rapid scale.
  • We seek to work with 5-10 more clients who have established SaaS businesses (5M+ in revenues/year).
  • We want to help 2-4 more startup clients during their early-stage and growth phases. We've served startups funded by Idealab, Khosla Ventures, Softbank, Tencent, and more to date.
  • We have developed core competencies in blockchain, AR, VR, ML, and AI thanks to our service of an innovative artificial intelligence startup from 2015 to 2020. We seek 2-4 more clients who want to leverage these technologies for their growth and innovation.
  • We seek to create relationships with 2-4 more large digital, UX, IA, or marketing agencies who don’t compete with each other. Our agency partners generally double or triple our rates so we know we can cost-effectively provide stable and long-term support for their Fortune 2000 customers (we’ve done so in the past, can prove that, and will do so in the future).

Company:

• Company Size: we currently have over 115 team members.
• Physical Location: we are a virtual organization with offices across the country.
• Financial Stability: we are financially strong. Revenue doubled or tripled for a while after 2004, and now it’s been growing at a steady 10-25% even when there was a recession.
• Principals: Ian E McKilligan, CEO and owner, supports the business operations, and Timothy J. Chamness, VP of Software Development, supports all technical operations. Any of the principals can be reached for any reason using the communication methods available on the Contact us page.
• Team Structure: we have a unique team structure in the software development business that reduces opportunities for errors. We’d enjoy talking through what makes us different.

Experience:

• Years of Experience – By Team Member, On Average: the majority of our lead developers have over 10 years of software development experience. The majority of our developers have over 5 years of software development experience. We seek to hire full-time team members who want to have a long-term position with a company that affords them opportunities to grow, lead, and achieve their professional goals, which we understand change over time.
• Contract Types: we operate under fixed bid, hourly, and mixed approaches designed to share or transfer risk as appropriate given the context of the work needed.

Types of work:

• Types of Work We Take On: new projects, projects in jeopardy, refactoring or rewrites, conversions, maintenance, ad-hoc service, and retained services. For some companies, we lead every aspect that relates to technology: do the work, contribute to mission and vision definition, define strategic and tactical goals as they relate to the organization’s vision and mission, solve management issues, implement management processes, build out the engineering team and supporting communication and work processes, and do anything that a CTO, Director of Engineering, Programmer, … is responsible for.
• What We Don't Do: we will never put a developer on your project that hasn’t been tested internally on our own work first. We will never contract your work out to the lowest bidder or an outside firm. We will never give you a low bid with the intent to break your bank account with change orders. We will never tell you we can do something that we don’t know with certainty we can do with our current, internal skills. We will not approach work to maximize billable hours. We will never take on more work than we can handle to our current customers’ detriment. We won’t play games or avoid tough conversations if there are issues. (Some of our best references have experienced these situations. That is, our largest fans have been hurt the most by unethical or ignorant software firms and contractors. After working with us, they experience how it is to work with someone who cares, because that’s the only way to go about enabling the long term.)

What our customers say matters:

• Customer Feedback and Testimonials: we hope you’ll please review our customer kudos and our customer testimonials.
• References: we have a list of standing references, and if you’d like to contact them, please just let us know.

Who we are:

• Community Work: we have and do support high schools, a local hockey organization, Rotary clubs, a local theater, artists, universities, entrepreneurs, future developers, and non-profits with money, time, and free technical services support. Our team members speak at industry events and schools about software, technical services, entrepreneurship, and more. We once technically supported pro bono a "green" blog designed to help businesses employ green practices. For more information about our community work please see our Community page.
• History: the company was founded in 1995 by Peter Hanson in Hancock, MI. Always curious about why things work as they do, he built a company focused on people, technology, and process. He’s still learning, and he still writes code today.
• Role Models: Bill Gates for his business skills and technical focus, Steve Jobs for his relentless pursuit of his vision of perfect products, Larry Ellison for his ability to design business structures and effectively use sales, marketing, and M&A to achieve greatness, Tom Watson for "THINK", Warren Buffet for his understanding the value of credibility and understanding people, Andrew Carnegie for funding Napoleon Hill’s research, Tom Peters for saying what he believes in strongly, Peter Drucker for his timeless wisdom, Lt. Colonel Jonathan Henkel, US Army, Retired and a Master Instructor in Tae Kwon Do, for his silent, rock-solid leadership, people who act more than they talk, and the people in our personal lives who support and teach us daily.

If you’d like to learn more about us, here is information about our team, our team’s resume, and our leadership.