User:ManCalledMurdock/Cyber-Duck

Cyber-Duck Ltd

Company type	Private
Industry	Digital media
Founded	2005
Founder	Danny Bluestone
Headquarters	Elstree, Hertfordshire , UK
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Danny Bluestone, Matt Gibson, Sylvain Reiter
Owner	Danny Bluestone
Number of employees	23
Website	www.cyber-duck.co.uk

Cyber-Duck Ltd is a full service digital agency based in Elstree, United Kingdom, specialising in providing user experience (UX) design, mobile web productions and software as a service (SaaS) solutions to companies ranging from FTSE 100 companies to exciting start-ups. The company was founded in 2005 and was listed on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 as one of the fastest growing technology companies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa in 2012.

Structure

Cyber-Duck employs 23 people. Most employees work in the company’s Elstree offices, although Cyber-Duck do have an office space in Level 39, Canary Wharf, London.

Staff work across several disciplines, including user experience design, software programming and development, marketing and branding, consulting and analytics.

Cyber-Duck organise and participate in nationwide Hack events as a method for learning and research and development. The "QuackHack" takes place once a year and has resulted in live products.

History

2005

Cyber-Duck was established by Danny Bluestone in 2005 in his flat in Mill Hill. After a few months, Cyber-Duck moved into it's first office in Churchill House, Borehamwood. Within the first year Cyber-Duck had already worked with the likes of Ogilvy, London Creative, A Right Result, Wisteria and Adaptive Affinity.

2006

In 2006, Sylvain Reiter joined Cyber-Duck, now the companies Technical Director. In this year Cyber-Duck worked with SIM2000, Cavendish Brooke, Eco Drip / Life Irrigation, Sharpes Solicitors and Sparks Direct.

2007

In 2007, the company won awards at the Europrix Multimedia Awards, British Interactive Media Association, Webawards and the Interactive Media Awards. By 2008, they had gone on to produce websites for Jewson and BAM Construct, part of Royal BAM Group and clients from the entertainment industry had also began to use their services, such as the Gilev Showband, incubator band of the popular musician Alexandra Burke. Matt Gibson joined the company, now Cyber-Duck's Production Director.

2008

In 2008, Cyber-Duck moved offices to Devonshire House in Borehamwood. The company picked up 7 awards. Rajkumar Remanan joins the team, now Cyber-Duck's Senior Visual Designer. This year Cyber-Duck started working with Optima, Strong Vend, Paper Round, Intel, Neville Lumb, Reset Finance and Permits2Work.

2009

In 2009, the agency picked up 11 Awards. "The Ducks" had developed a relationship with the mentor of the BBC's show Million Dollar Traders, Anton Kreil in order to produce his personal website and several other web-based projects such as Hablib.com. Following on from this, they developed a project for the virtual gifting service, BoonSpace.

2010

In 2010, Cyber-Duck were commissioned to develop a website for the European Commission in the U.K. The site went live in November 2010, and was part of a new move from the European Union to make U.K citizens aware of the benefits of being an EU member state, thanks to wide Euroscepticism in the United Kingdom. The work was featured on BBC News, Telegraph.co.uk and New Media Age.

By this point, Cyber-Duck were beginning to become well known for their software as a service projects and took on another in the form of OfficeCavalry.com. The site was built as a portal for freelancers to find work from users with projects. Cyber-Duck also began work with Ashworth, Rosslyn Analtics, Symble, RedEye and Wisteria Formations.

Cyber-Duck also released the DuckPad, a contemporary of the art iPad web app, built as a way to provide an enhanced user experience for the growing iPad market. Danny Bluestone was a guest speaker at C21's iPad Entertainment Summit at BAFTA, where he presented the DuckPad.

2011

In January 2011, the company announced that they would be working alongside Arsenal F.C on a project for Arsenal Double Club, a project started up by Arsenal in the Community. February of the same year brought an invite to SXSW in Austin, Texas on the UKTI "Digital Mission", an yearly event designed to provide networking opportunities for U.K organisations in the digital sector.

In August 2011, the company moved to a self-contained premises in Elstree, Hertfordshire. At the same time, the company announced a new awards ceremony, known as 'the Duckies' to be held in September. This event also marked the 6th anniversary of the company's formation.

After being asked to produce an interactive comic for Channel 5 (UK) television show, The Gadget Show, Cyber-Duck were featured in an episode which was first aired on 23 September 2011.

In December 2011, Cyber-Duck founded The Digital Pond, a free networking group which brings together top level business executives from across London to learn, discuss and share some of the ground-breaking innovations in the digital sector. The topics are wide ranging and include things like web design skills and practices, web development and best practice for digital marketing strategies. As of August 2013 the group consisted of 739 members.

Cyber-Duck began working with HousePals, RetireEasy, Arsenal Double Club, The Far Horizon, Canadean, The Knowledge Online, KFTV, Pizza GoGo, Fresh Graduates, FitBug, Symble2, Cash in your Gadgets, London Cardiovascular Clinic, Maiden IIS, Paul Simon and Titanium Fire. The agency picked up 13 awards that year.

2012

In 2012, Cyber-Duck was listed in the top 20 Digital Agencies in the South-East at the Wirehive100 awards. Cyber-Duck also received the ISO 9241-210 for adopting the international standards of providing Human Centred Design on projects.

Cyber-Duck were also listed as a Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Company in EMEA, highlighting the agency's growth over the previous 5 years.

Danny Bluestone spoke at UCD2012 about how Cyber-Duck uses Agile and Lean frameworks alongside UCD to produce award-winning applications and websites. He was also featured in UX Magazine and on Design Week.

Cyber-Duck also got involved with the Young Rewired State for the first time, hosting children and teenagers from Hertfordshire and North London.

Cyber-Duck worked on projects with Ritesim, dlc, RetireEasy, Liberty Wealth Management, Eurostar, Essex Governor Services, Cancer Research Technology, Aston Martin, Ashworth Sustainable, GS1UK, MaxiNutrition (GlaxoSmithKline) and GapYear (Flight Centre).

2013

2013 has been a big year for Cyber-Duck. Danny was featured in the BIMA (British Interactive Media Association) Hot 100, a list which recognises the 100 most influential personalities in Digital in the UK.

Cyber-Duck completed the build of their new responsive website, which was featured in Smashing Magazine.

Cyber-Duck continued to win awards, they notably won a WireHive award for their Symble Broker CRM product, for "Best Use of Technology". At the same awards, Cyber-Duck were listed as the 18th top Digital Agency in the South-East.

Matt Gibson featured on the BBC Watchdog (TV series), where he helped the program research websites and their checkout processes. Matt also featured on the front cover of Web Designer Magazine, presented a workshop at UX London (with Danny) and spoke at meetups and conferences.

The team took part in several hackathons, winning the Spring Hackathon which was hosted at Google Campus in London.

Cyber-Duck achieved its ISO 9001 accreditation for its use of Quality Management Systems.

Some of the key projects picked up were; Symble 3, Need a Property, European Commission, iSmash, ANYVAN / ANYDROP, Digital Shadows, Import House and Eurofighter Typhoon.

Accolades

In the early years, Cyber-Duck won accolades for working on the Greenworks Energy website on behalf of Jewson., part of the Saint Gobain group. The company has won numerous Interactive Media Awards, Horizon Interactive Awards.

When the company moved its office in Borehamwood, it was merited for positive growth during the clutches of the credit crunch. On 1 June 2007, the company received an honorary invitation to lecture at the Landsdown Centre and was prominently featured in the Middlesex University's centre's media.

Several more lectures at Middlesex and UEL followed, as well as keynote speeches at several Figaro digital events.

In 2010, the company claimed 3 Davey web awards as well as a "Best Use of a Website" award at the Construction Marketing Awards for OAG.

The company won their first Webby, selection as an official honoree, in 2011 for their work on OfficeCavalry.com

In 2011, the team was accredited with 14 prestigious industry awards, including their first Interactive Media Award for the "Best in Class for Travel/Tourism" for The Far Horizons website.

In 2012, Cyber-Duck claimed an extra 13 accreditations and were listed on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 company in Europe, the Middle-East and Africa, which lists the fastest growing tech companies in the region.

Managing Director, Danny Bluestone was listed as a BIMA HOT 100 digital personality, a list which recognises the top most influential and innovative individuals in the digital space.

Management team

• Danny Bluestone, MD and founder of Cyber-Duck is a guest blogger on the British Interactive Media Association (BIMA) blog.
• Matt Gibson, Director of Production for Cyber-Duck, won the British Interactive Media Association (BIMA) student award for his interactive online comic, Dead on Arrival.
• Sylvain Reiter, Development Director

References

Category:Companies established in 2004 Category:Companies based in Hertfordshire Category:Digital media