This is intended to give a brief insight into our company background, and convey the influences, principles and experience that have been formative in our development.

System Red began in June 1995, servicing the needs one customer, Pacemaker Distribution Ltd. Some six years prior to this I was employed by Pacemaker, then a small general haulage company, as their Distribution and Administration Manager.

With the encouragement of the directors, I began to write a variety of database applications to enhance the capabilities and capacity of a number of divisions within the company. Some of these applications further developed into useful tools enabling swifter customer response times and extended service levels.

The requirement for this was nowhere more noticeable than in the area of 'Overnight Parcels'. At Pacemaker we participated in three Carrier systems (Track 29, Hellmann, and National Courier Network), to achieve the varied service requirements of our customers. Each Carrier had varying methods and levels of computer input, and distinctly different operation practices. None could encompass the operational functionality, or the reporting facilities that we wished to provide for our customers.

Pacemaker became a growing Distribution company with an annual turnover approaching £10 million. Their directors will acknowledge that this growth was largely enabled and aided by deployment of their computerised systems. This led me to believe that there was a market for the provision of a comprehensive overnight software system to the industry.

In 1995 the biggest single input depot into the Hellmann Parcel System was Pacemaker Distribution (depot 75). In 2003, this feat was achieved by Yorkshire Distribution (depot 40). As with Pacemaker, Yorkshire Distribution are also a customer of System Red Limited.

In June 1999 when Hellmann Parcel Systems adopted Barcode labelling, we were the only third party software vendor able to follow suite and recreate the same bar-coding format. Fully A.N.A (Article Number Association at www.ana.org.uk/ ) compliant, conforming to the EAN-128 code. This code is a world wide recognised format for the freight industry. We therefore continued to supply full Depot, and Depot Customer (Implant) software systems for many of the Hellmann depots, and Hellmann group companies.

The development of our 'Overnite' software has been ongoing ever since, driven by our own ideas and knowledge of the distribution industry, the experience and demands of our clients, and the requirements of their customers.