Decision Time is a software firm based in Northern Ireland that started life as Team Solutionz in 2003. 

We care deeply about building exceptional software and nurturing trusted customer relationships. Everyone should love using Decision Time software, regardless of technical know-how. 

We like to go the extra mile for our customers, just as we do for our team. For us, it’s about having mutual respect and high standards. 

Our team is always curious; we enjoy looking for new and creative solutions that help our customers do their jobs brilliantly every day.

Like Investors in People, we are also celebrating a significant milestone this month. IiP is celebrating thirty years, for Decision Time, it’s our 18th Birthday!

9 years and counting as an IIP accredited company

For almost half of those eighteen years, we have been an Investors in People organisation. From an ambitious young start-up in a spare room in 2003, we were awarded our first Investors in People laurel badge in 2013. 

From there, we leapfrogged bronze and went straight to silver at our first reaccreditation. We were hoping to get Gold at our next re-accreditation, so we were delighted to be only a few framework indicators off Platinum. 

We knew that Gold was achieved by only 17% of organisations, and our score of 833 out of 900, placed us fourth out of 70 benchmark IT companies, 100 points above the average score! Those figures gave us the courage to enter the National Awards in 2020.

Setting excellent standards

When we were shortlisted to the Top 20 in June 2020, we felt a real sense of achievement and were extremely happy that the experts in IiP liked our thinking. 

Getting ahead of 81 other companies, we found ourselves in the Top 10 in our category nationwide, the only one from Northern Ireland. 

Shortlisting was huge for us. It gave us a real boost in recruitment, which is a major challenge for the tech sector in NI. It also gave our staff a real buzz, knowing that they were working for one of the best IiP companies in the nation. 

It was wonderful to have this recognition. It isn’t in our nature to publicly praise ourselves, so it was great to have IiP do that for us!

Validated by a globally recognised organisation

Being an IiP organisation means the world to us, and hopefully to our customers too. It shows the principles and practices that are the bedrock of our business have been independently validated and accredited by a globally recognised organisation. 

As customers rely on us to be on top of our game, particularly during these uncertain times, without investing in our people, where would we be?

People and products are as important as each other

Building strong relationships and mutual trust in the Decision Time team is as important as building great software. Only by having happy, rewarded and high performing staff can we deliver software that customers genuinely love to use.

As with everything in Decision Time, we base our thinking, planning and decisions around the deeply held principle that if we attract and retain the right people, they will deliver exceptionally high-quality products. 

This belief that putting our people first breeds success is backed by our customer retention of over 98% each year and our remarkable growth of 20%+ every year for the last five years.

Our Business Director, Sinead Higgins, speaks for us all.

“The IiP process is incredibly rigorous. We are interviewing over 50% of our employees to determine whether we live up to our values and support, lead, and improve our people successfully. 

IiP assesses whether the suitable structures are in place for people to work well in a supportive environment and reach their potential and, crucially, if they feel fairly rewarded with opportunities for growth and progression. 

As a Management Team, we strive every day to be open, honest and straightforward with our people and our customers. We believe it builds trust and strong partnerships.”

Getting a Gold standard seal of approval from an independent and prestigious organisation like IiP gives us confidence that we are doing the right thing, not only by our people but by our customers, with a team, motivated to develop the very best products and solutions.”