SFW is Safe For Civica: EU Ref software biz gobbled up

Civica Group has swallowed specialist public sector developer SFW – which created the digital service used to collate the results of the EU Referendum.

SFW employs around 200 people, split between its UK offices and a dev centre in India, writing CRM-based apps, workplace collaboration wares and digital platforms.

The customer book lists 70 names, including the Home Office, DEFRA and DECC, Acas (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service), Environment Agency and the Electoral Commission, which bought its online services to gather voting data.

The app dev, support and testing services people will be used to "support the development" of Civica's business via a "flexible Right-Shoring model" – an amalgamation of on-shore, near-shore and far-shore.

Executives from both companies made statements that weren't particularly quote worthy, so here's the press release.

In the 12 months to 31 March 2016, SFW turned over £12.47m versus £11.93m in the prior financial year, and made a net profit of £609,304, versus £197,495 when a fixed price contract overran. ®