Zero Drift · independent UK software studio

Software that does the whole job.

We turn difficult business and public-service work into complete, usable products. AI helps us build quickly; explicit rules, hard tests and a proper operating handover make the result worth relying on. The awkward parts are the job, not a later surprise.

Find the right kind of helpPublic-sector software

What brings people to us

Build it. Change it. Test it. Lead it.

Start with the business problem. We will help identify the right engagement instead of asking you to diagnose the service yourself.

Build a complete product

Turn a serious product idea into production software, with the specification, verification, deployment and handover included.

Change a live system safely

Stabilise, refactor or replace software without forgetting the behaviour its users already depend on.

Establish the technical truth

Test architecture, delivery controls, AI-readiness or claimed completion and leave with evidence the board can act on.

Lead and improve delivery

Bring named CTO or architecture leadership into the team, or install a controlled AI-assisted delivery system.

Evidence from working software

A live school product, not a concept slide.

See every product and its status →
Phoenix Ember demonstration heatmap comparing wellbeing domains across two school year groups
Real Phoenix Ember assessment view · demonstration data · PECTECH
live

Phoenix Ember · Education

Evidence for the pupils who are easiest to miss.

Zero Drift is PECTECH’s contracted software builder. Phoenix Ember is its live assessment, intervention and evidence product in school use; its public interface is shown here with demonstration data.

See the use case and our role

A live-system refactor, in plain English

We rebuilt Ember’s server without losing the product schools already used.

Ember was already live. Starting again with a cut-down replacement would have thrown away the difficult behaviour its users depended on. So before release, we replayed 193 recorded operating scenarios through the old and new servers. For each, we compared what went in, what was stored and what came back: 2,510 comparisons. Every one matched. Neither system crashed.

That proves parity inside the recorded corpus. It does not pretend that unobserved behaviour cannot exist.

Read the method, evidence and limits →

Two ways to work together

Commission the work. Or build the business with us.

Public services

Modern software for work that cannot become approximate.

Public services have hydra-like requirements: statute, policy, accessibility, safeguarding, local practice, audit, reporting and years of accumulated data. AI-assisted engineering makes more of that real complexity affordable to build. It does not make a consequential answer safe to guess.

See our public-sector approach →
A completed blue-wireframe pedestrian bridge crosses London water. Beneath its calm deck, an accessible approach, record spools, permission controls and recovery supports are connected; a nearby shortcut ends before the far bank.
  1. 01
    Replace the monolith, not the service.

    Refactor ageing systems around the work people actually do, without paying to configure another oversized package.

  2. 02
    Use AI to build. Keep obligations explicit.

    Calculations, statutory clocks and workflow rules stay reproducible. Human judgement stays accountable and its evidence stays visible.

  3. 03
    Own a system that can keep changing.

    Separate domains and explicit rules make the product easier to scale, inspect and adapt when policy moves.

Our position

Software should serve the business. Not the other way around.

It should fit the way people work, make consequential decisions dependable, and demand less attention and cost to operate.

Read why the business should stay in control →
An out-of-order self-service terminal stands on a London pavement. Staff process a queue with paper forms and a clipboard because the promised service is unavailable.
  1. 01Finishes the difficult parts.

    Not just the easy first release with the rest left on a roadmap.

  2. 02Works when it matters.

    Critical workflows give the right result and failures are made visible.

  3. 03Stays under your control.

    Your code, data and operating knowledge are not held hostage.

  4. 04Costs little to run.

    Less administration, less manual work and lower operating cost by design.

Have a difficult product, a drifting codebase, or a board that needs the truth?

Bring us the hard bit