HCOMS · Hethersett, Norfolk

UK web design, databases & software since 2001.

Websites, databases and operations platforms for organisations whose work doesn't fit off-the-shelf software: businesses, charities, membership bodies, landlords and dioceses. Designed, built and supported by a small UK team.

Founded2001
BasedHethersett · UK
SectorsBusiness · charity · church
SpecialismWebsites, databases & software
①Business systems

Systems for businesses in any sector.

We build and run back-office systems for all kinds of businesses, not only dioceses. Usually it is a company whose work has grown up across spreadsheets, Word templates and somebody’s inbox, and now needs to live in one place. Here are two examples of the kind of thing we mean.

Inspection services

Booking inspectors and running every job.

One company we work with sends qualified inspectors to factories to check goods on behalf of its clients. Their system holds each job from the first enquiry to the invoice. Coordinators use a qualification grid and a map to choose who to send, book them on a drag-and-drop calendar, and produce the job sheet in one click. Reports, photos and any faults found are filed against the job, and timesheets, expenses and purchase orders feed into billing.

  • Jobs & client projects
  • Inspector skills & certificates
  • Booking calendar & map
  • Reports & non-conformances
  • Timesheets, expenses & POs
  • Document control & sign-off
Energy broking

How a broker’s system works.

A business energy broker buys gas and electricity contracts for commercial customers and is paid commission by the suppliers. The system behind that keeps each customer’s sites and meters, their signed letter of authority, and every contract with its end date. Staff request usage data from the current supplier, price quotes from supplier tariffs and send them out as PDFs, then issue notice to the old supplier once the customer accepts. Commission is invoiced and forecast month by month, and as a contract nears its end the system flags the renewal so the cycle starts again.

  • Customers, sites & meters
  • Letters of authority
  • Quotes from supplier tariffs
  • Termination notices
  • Renewal alerts
  • Commission invoicing & forecasts

Other work we take on: membership bodies, event organisers, schools, landlords and start-ups. If your work runs on a cycle of enquiries, bookings, renewals or inspections, it will probably look familiar to us. We can build it new, or take over the system you already have and bring it up to date.

Tell us about yours →
Trusted by dioceses including
Diocese of Ely
Diocese of Chelmsford
Diocese of Lincoln
Diocese of St Albans
Diocese of Blackburn
Diocese of Leeds
Diocese of Carlisle
Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich
Diocese of Leicester
Diocese of Oxford
②Our platforms

Three platforms we built and still run.

Each one started as a job for a single client and grew into a product. All three are live today, on a flat monthly fee, with a UK team behind them. If the thing you need doesn’t exist yet, the same team will build it for you.

Diocese Management System

The operations layer for the Church of England.

A single platform that replaces the spreadsheets, Access databases and Outlook inboxes that diocesan offices accumulate over decades. It sits on top of the National CMS rather than replacing it.

  • Over 25 operational areas, one mental model
  • Safeguarding · DBS · faculty · finance · net zero
  • Two-way National CMS sync
  • Role-aware permissions out of the box
  • Live UK dioceses · monthly release cadence
  • Hosted on UK Azure · audit-trailed
DMS · LiveLive in production
Over 25 areas
People & Persons
Pipelines & Workflow
Cases & Initiatives
Safeguarding
Conduct & Discipline
Pastoral Schemes
Synod & Governance
Finance
Schools & Education
Mission & MAP
Person 360 · Faculty · Finance · …v6.4
Property Management System

For portfolios that have outgrown the spreadsheet.

Tenancies, repairs, inspections, gas and electrical safety, EPCs and fire risk, all tracked as compliance cycles rather than line items. We built it originally for diocesan housing, and it now runs for other multi-site landlords too.

  • Tenancy lifecycle · void to renewal
  • Compliance calendars · 8 cert cycles tracked
  • Repair workflow with contractor portal
  • Inspection scheduling · mobile-ready
  • Section 21 · arrears · risk register
  • Live in production, growing
Property Management System94%
Diocesan Property Management
House fabric record
Helpdesk & vesting dashboard
Data visualisations entities
Purchase order detail
Parish map
Contractor & house picker
Parish viability score
Workflow detail
Parish share table
Eco Church progression
Calendar
Workflow library
Pipelines library
Net Zero dashboard
RAG project overview
Success metrics
Live sync
③Websites

Websites, from the first sketch to the words on the page.

We have been building websites since 2001 and it is still a big part of what we do. We can take a new site from a blank page to live, write the copy for it, and keep it up to date afterwards. Or we can pick up the site you already have and look after that instead.

Stage · 01

Design

We start with who the site is for and what they come to it to do. Then we work out the page structure and a look that fits your organisation, and show it to you as a working draft you can click through on your own phone.

Stage · 02

Build

Fast pages that work on any screen, meet accessibility standards and are set up properly for search engines. We sort the domain, hosting and security certificate. If you need a booking form, a members area or a link into your own database, we build that as well.

Stage · 03

Copywriting

A lot of website projects stall waiting for the words, so we write them. We talk to you, draft each page in plain English and edit it with you until it sounds like your organisation. The search terms people actually use get worked in without it reading like it was written for Google.

Stage · 04

Updates

After launch we stay on. Email us a change and we make it, normally within a working day. Backups, security updates and regular checks that forms and links still work are covered on a flat monthly fee, so there is no surprise bill when something needs doing.

Usually included
Recent website work
Talk to us about a website → Need an app as well?
ParishGuard · New

Check every parish website without doing it by hand.

ParishGuard checks every parish website in your diocese against Church of England requirements, scores each parish red, amber or green, and writes the policies they are missing, pre-populated with their own details. It also tracks how ready each parish is for the 2031 charity registration deadline.

  • Every parish website audited automatically
  • Safeguarding · privacy · charity number checks
  • Missing policies generated, pre-populated
  • 2031 charity registration readiness tracked
  • Diocesan dashboard · parish portal
  • Free sample audit of ten of your parishes

Also from the studio

Two more platforms and the bespoke practice that built all of them.

Event Jamboree

Run your camp from one place.

Bookings, leaders, safeguarding, kit and day-of QR check-in for camps and large gatherings.

Explore Event Jamboree →
HEDU · coming soon

A school platform students will actually use.

Homework, AI revision, behaviour and attendance in one gamified platform for schools.

Explore HEDU →
Custom App Building

Software that doesn’t exist yet.

A senior team that designs the thing, builds it and then runs it. Usually live in six to eight weeks.

Explore App Building →
Bespoke engagements

System rescue & careful migration.

We take on what is already running, get it stable, and stay with it. No tender required.

Explore Bespoke →
Who we work with

Businesses, charities,
dioceses and start-ups.

Two very different sorts of client, and the same standard of work for both. At one end, organisations with regulatory cycles, statutory reporting and good reason to be wary of rip-and-replace: dioceses, charities, scout districts, housing associations, professional bodies. At the other, start-ups and tech teams who need something shipped quickly and shipped properly. Either way we start with what you have already got running, and we write down what we touch.

More about us →
25+
Years building
web & databases
UK
Long-running
client relationships
TRANSPARENT
Honest monthly pricing.
Never per-feature.
UK
Owned · hosted ·
supported
④How we work

How we run a project.

We run our own platforms in production, so we are working in a stack we know well. Pricing is flat per month rather than per-feature. And we expect to still be on the phone with you in five years, because most of our clients are.

Step · 01

We listen first.

Discovery isn't a workshop with sticky notes. We spend a few weeks sitting alongside the diocesan secretary, the property manager or the finance lead, watching how the work actually gets done.

Step · 02

Something running early.

Six to eight weeks from scope to a live system, and your team working on real data inside the first quarter. We would rather show you something working than a set of slides.

Step · 03

We stay.

Most of our clients have been with us for five years or more. We host the system, patch it, and evolve it from one quarter to the next. There's no separate support team to hand over to, and no re-platforming charge waiting in year three.

Talk to us

Software for the work the rest of the market overlooks.

If your operations don't fit a CRM, we should talk. Whether you've already got a brief or you're at the "we know there's a better way to do this" stage, drop us a line. The first conversation is free and there's no pressure to take it further.