The recently published Tech Nation Report for 2016 has further solidified Dundee’s reputation as a hub of technical excellence. Dundee has a rich cultural history in terms of software development, and in 2016, technology services and particularly mobile app development, are playing a crucial role in the city’s ongoing economic rejuvenation. For many years Dundee has been widely acknowledged as a centre of excellence for console games development and biotech having produced some of the world’s biggest selling games such as Grand Theft Auto, Lemmings, Minecraft and many more. The Tech Nation report for 2016 further underpins Dundee’s strengths in gaming, but it also highlights new areas of expertise within the city in relation to mobile development, hardware, digital media and entertainment.

Dundee beats Edinburgh (and London) for mobile development

This matters for your business because increasingly big companies and brands are turning to software agencies in Dundee to design, develop and optimise large scale software projects. What’s particularly interesting about the report is the fact that Edinburgh is listed as the second most expensive place in the UK to develop software (with London coming in first place). This means that the cost of developing high end, enterprise grade software apps in Dundee provides better value than any other city in the UK. In fact, Dundee is listed as the best place in the country to develop software when you consider the cost of resourcing projects (particularly mobile) and sourcing high quality engineers.

Helping to fix the mobile app development backlog conundrum

Dundee is now uniquely positioned in a global software development market to continue to experience rapid growth, primarily driven through the ongoing demand of mobile technology. We recently published a post highlighting the damaging impact that the scarcity of mobile capability is having on big companies. A recent Outsystems Report suggested that 85% of enterprises surveyed have a significant mobile development backlog of between one and twenty apps, with 50% having a backlog of between ten and twenty app projects. This is damaging because 64% of the app development projects that are currently backlogged are designed to generate revenue. This means that big businesses are now in a tight (and potentially damaging) situation whereby they need to develop apps fast.

This is where Dundee will play an essential role in the ongoing evolution of the UK tech industry. The city’s two universities continue to produce some the best mobile engineers in the country, making it easy for tech startups to tap into high quality ‘app thinking’. As the Universities continue to produce high quality mobile engineers, Dundee is able to attract big businesses in order to help ease the pressure of an ever growing app development backlog.

Essentially, Waracle has grown to be a world beater when it comes to developing mobile apps and big companies struggling to cope with demand are increasingly looking to the city’s fastest growing software companies to create the technology.

Dundee’s journey from games to enterprise apps

Whilst Dundee has traditionally been considered a ‘games’ city, it’s now mobile software development that’s playing a key role in driving the cities economic growth. Dundee’s economic growth is now being driven by generating revenues throughout the rest of the UK (particularly London) and globally. In the digital age, Dundee’s companies, particularly software firms, are operating on a global scale as the city continues to punch above its weight.

The city scored highly as a hub for a multitude of different digital companies who work using a variety of technologies across multiple sectors.

Here are some of the stats from the report:

Since 2010 Dundee’s digital turnover has risen by 129%

Dundee now has the third fastest growing digital turnover in the UK

Since 2010 Dundee’s GVA (Gross Value Add) has grown by 42%

Dundee’s GVA now sits at £61.4 million

There are now 3,318 jobs in Dundee related to the digital tech economy

The Waracle team are delighted to have been included in the report. It’s an incredible feeling to know that the work we do is now being recognised on a national and increasingly an international scale. The Waracle development team are now working on projects for major banks and pharmaceutical companies, helping to play it’s own unique role in Dundee’s evolution as a recognised geographical cluster for excellence in technology and software. It’s nice to know that we’re helping to create a multitude of exciting new mobile jobs and are able to contribute to the third fastest growing digital city in the UK.

If you have a mobile app project you want to get going, Waracle’s a great place to start.