Black Sheep Research

An internationally known writer and software developer, Martin has an unrivalled grasp of the complexities of the IT sector built on research and practical experience. His ability to offer clear explanations of the issues, spoken or written, is widely valued. Latterly, he has returned to his first enthusiasm in IT, the development of software, this time with a strong web bias.

Martin's grasp of IT is founded on the early years of his career, when he built major software systems in both financial and technical application areas. Several of his systems were acclaimed as "legendary" in their reliability, and several of them went on to join the much discussed software legacy. He went on to found and run an independent systems house, building software on what were then recently introduced microcomputers.

Taking responsibility for the entire IT provision of a well-known City of London professional firm, Martin spent a decade pursuing both innovation and efficiency. He was the driving force behind, amongst others, an advanced OO practice management system and early Internet adoption.

For three years, Martin worked as a director of Bloor Research, handling research and consulting roles. He wrote an influential paper for IBM describing the deployment of CRM in the insurance industry. He chaired numerous Bloor Research conferences. He was keynote speaker at prestigious client events such as Computer Associates' CEO Exchange and Hewlett Packard's EMEA Storage Roadshow. He completed high level consultancy assignments with major financial companies and government organisations. And he wrote numerous papers and articles.

Now independent, Martin continues to have a strong interest in trends across the IT sector. Martin's work continues to include consultancy assignments, software development, research and writing. He has spoken at conferences and other events worldwide and his monthly Brampton Factor column was, until recently, a popular features on silicon.com. Martin maintains a sharply analytic knowledge of computer technology, both hardware and software. His skills are available for practical projects large and small.

In the last few years, Martin's software development work has been primarily in the open source sector, of which he is a strong supporter. Work has also included substantial client projects to provide customised open source technology for commercial web sites. He became strongly associated with the popular Mambo CMS (content management system) as the leader of the development team that completed the groundwork for Mambo 4.6 and was a featured speaker at MamboDay 2007 in Reggio Calabria, Italy. Recently, he has built a next generation CMS, named Aliro, and has had his book "PHP5 CMS framework development" published by Packt (now in its 2nd edition).