Over the 10 years or so I’ve had a keen interest in the development of software around the North East region. I was paid by companies in Sunderland and Newcastle to write a little of it. Much to my annoyance I found a huge amount of digital development work leaves the North East, outsourced from the region to agencies large and small elsewhere in the country and abroad. Sometimes that was due to cost, but more often it was down to ignorance of what services are available. As anecdotal evidence, I’ve been in the room on more than one occasion when a potential client has stated outright that there are no companies in the North East who could create the website/web app/mobile app/whatever that they’re looking for. That always struck me as plain silly but advice to the contrary fell on deaf ears.

Obviously the tendering process will always attract bids from far and wide if the job is marketed well enough. That’s inevitable. And if the best bid comes from a company that you’ve asked to put together a proposal who happen to be a long way away you’d be mad not to commission them due to geographical reasons, especially as the teleworking technology has made it easy for companies and their suppliers to work together without being spatially close to one another. Likewise, the internet has made it simple for a company looking for work to contact potential clients without regard for where they happen to be. The digital industry is truly a global marketplace.

However, while that’s true, it doesn’t make sense to ignore the local companies either. Just because an agency is based a few doors down there’s not a reason not to ask them to tender. The pool of talent here in the North East is vast – anything that a big agency in London can do could be provided equally well in Newcastle, Gateshead, Durham or Middlesbrough. The assumption that to get the best you have to use a company in the capital is far too common, and wholly wrong. This London-centric attitude seems especially dominant in public sector and publicly funded bodies. Money allocated to the North East would benefit the North East more if it was spent here. If you’re organising something that is paid for directly by central government, or by one of the many regional development funds, wouldn’t it make more sense to approach the local providers first?

To this end I’ve decided to gather up the details of all the North East’s talented digital service providers and compile them into a directory accessible by anyone interested in commissioning some sort of software, be it web, mobile or desktop based. Further to that though, I envision this directory as the number one go-to-guy for other related services such as search engine optimisation, social media marketing, email marketing, video production, etc.

This is the beginning of NEDD – the North East Digital Directory. What’s online now is, obviously, a very, very early version. I have a few ideas about how to make it work. What’s there now is little more than a way of viewing the data.

If you run a business that provides some sort of digital industry service, or you work for one, or you’re a freelancer involved in the industry, pop me an email ( nedd@usrlab.com ) and I’ll add you to the directory.