Enquiry · Ashgrove Imports Limited · Reading
Talk to us about your desktop application
Send a description of your desktop application problem and you will get a considered reply from the person who would work on it. There is no form funnel and no qualification call.
A few sentences about what the software does and what is wrong with it is enough to begin. Email is the fastest route in — write to [email protected], or post to the Reading studio. You will hear from someone who has read what you sent.
Reach us
How to reach us
The practice is at 8 Mill Lane, Calcot, Reading, England. Email is the best first contact: [email protected]. Post to the Reading address reaches us, though email will be faster in every case.
If you would rather speak than write, say so in an email with a number and a time that suits, and the call will come from someone who has already read what you sent.
Address
8 Mill Lane,
Calcot, Reading,
England
Working hours
Monday to Friday,
9:00 to 17:30 UK time
Enquiries after hours are read the next working day.
Before you write
Detail you probably already have. Order does not matter.
What to include in your first message
Useful detail, in whatever order suits you: what the software does or should do, who uses it, whether it is an existing system or a new one, and what is currently going wrong. If you know the technology it is built with, that helps. If you do not, that is normal and we will find out.
What it does
Describe the purpose in plain terms: the job the software performs for the business, and what it would ideally do next.
Who uses it
Internal staff on a Windows estate, a customer-facing install, or something in between. A headcount range is enough — it tells us what kind of release path fits.
Existing or new
An established desktop product being modernised, or a new build starting from nothing. Both arrive on the same desk, and both need different framing.
What is wrong
Crashes, slow start-up, blocked upgrades, a framework nobody can maintain, a release process held together with a build server nobody owns. Be as blunt as you like.
Technology
WPF, WinForms, WinUI 3, Electron, ATL, a macOS build — if the name is familiar, write it down. If it is not, leave it out.
Do not spend time on a formal specification. The first reply will most likely be two or three questions, and those usually reshape the description anyway.
What happens next
A reply, then a scoping conversation
You get a reply, normally within a working day or two. It will either ask the questions that change how we would approach the work, or say plainly that we are not the right fit and suggest what kind of supplier is.
If the project looks substantial, the next step is a scoping conversation — a short piece of work rather than a commitment to build. The method behind that conversation is written up on our scoping page.
Where we work
Clients are spread across the UK and most of the work is done remotely, with screen sharing and access to test environments. Where being in the room matters — watching a workflow on a factory floor, a warehouse desk — we travel from Reading.
Confidentiality
Before you send anything confidential
Please do not send source code, credentials, database contents or personal data in a first email. A description of the system is enough to start.
If the work proceeds, we will agree how material is transferred and stored before anything sensitive moves — naming the channel, the storage location and who on our side has access before the first file changes hands. Existing clients should send support and maintenance matters to the same address with a clear subject line so they are not treated as new enquiries. A version number and a description of what happened shortens the diagnosis considerably.
Describe
Enough to frame the work
Agree
Channel and storage first
Transfer
Only once the route is set
Retain
Stored for the work, nothing else
The enquiry
Start the conversation
Three fields is all we need. Name, a work email we can reply to, and one line of context about the system. Send it and you will get a considered answer from a person who builds this kind of software.
Post
8 Mill Lane, Calcot,
Reading, England
Reply
Normally within a
working day or two
The address, on a map
Calcot sits on the western edge of Reading, a short run from the M4 and the A4.
Post reaches us at 8 Mill Lane, Calcot, Reading, England. Email replies are faster in every case.