About Us
Ban.gl is a trading style of www.com ltd. Our firm is, we believe, the UK's first, dedicated, internet software development company. Based primarily in London, we have been connecting data to the web for businesses of all sizes, including some of the UK's biggest corporates, for the best part of three decades.
Founded in 1994 in London Docklands by two friends and incorporated in 1996, www.com ltd has been building cloud-hosted software ever since. That’s nearly 30 years of developing products for the Internet. Still led by one of the original founders, Anthony Kirrane, the company offers a boutique software development experience to clients around the globe.
Where does Ban.gl fit in
Ban.gl is a product developed and supported by www.com ltd. Although one of many innovations by the firm, Ban.gl is, perhaps, our favourite. We cannot think of www.com ltd without thinking of Ban.gl, and we cannot think of Ban.gl without thinking of QR codes.
Indestructible Silicon
Ban.gl began life in 2014 as a simple silicon bracelet printed with a QR code and fitted with an NFC chip. We'd been using QR codes in another product since 2010, and this was a spin-off idea, designed as a contactless emergency aid to be read by a first responder. Ban.gl was promoted online and even entered into the 2015 Pitch to Rich competition run by Richard Branson and the Virgin Group.
Unfortunately the entry did not win, nor even make it to the finals. QR codes were virtually unknown outside of IT circles, and iPhones, bizarrely, had their NFC reading capability disabled.
Futuristic
Perhaps the idea was a little ahead of its time. Indeed, it’s funny to remember what a hard time we had convincing others of the virtues of these remarkable black and white squares (aka QR codes) and how they worked.
Despite failing to win the hearts and minds of those who saw Ban.gl, we believed the concept was sound, and so we continued to invest in R&D and boldly keep going.
2024 and beyond
Fast forward to now and the QR code has come of age. Due in part to Covid, everyone now recognises and understands what a QR code is and how to use one. And so our belief in the simple utility of those clever 2D barcodes was justified. Now nearly all smart devices natively support reading QR codes and, remarkably, even iPhones can read NFC chips (well done Apple, try to keep up!).
About_Bangl_Evolution
Re-launched with an environmental focus
The Ban.gl QR digital information delivery system is the perfect antidote to paper waste. For COSSH, RAMS and other legally required documentation, Ban.gl QR Codes make printing unnecessary.
And it’s not just paper that we’re saving. The entire supply chain involved in getting that paper (and ink) to you is positively impacted. Everything from the resources required to deliver the paper and ink, to the energy you use to print your documents, and then the resources you use to get the documents to where they’re needed. The whole lot becomes satisfyingly redundant.
Ban.gl supports remote, dynamic updating. So once a QR Code is in place, the information it holds can be updated, remotely, at any time, and as many times as needed. So no need to repeat that entire, wasteful supply chain process over and over, every time something changes.
Inclusive
It’s not just about the environmental benefits though. Recognising that not every consumer of your information can read or speak your primary language is important. Ban.gl QR Codes can be configured as multi-lingual, automatically detecting the language of the reading device and delivering the information accordingly.
This makes Ban.gl QR Codes equally well-suited for use at tourist sites, as well as on items being used by non-native operatives. Especially valuable when those items are hazardous.
Enterprise Ready
Ban.gl is scalable. Our micro-service architecture sits atop Microsoft’s global Azure cloud infrastructure. Whatever demands are made of our systems, Ban.gl remains responsive. From small businesses needing to support just a couple of scans a year, to corporate landlords and facilities management companies needing thousands of scans per second, Ban.gl has the ability to deliver QR code technology at scale.
Ban.gl is used daily, by leading UK corporations, providing contactless information delivery at some of the most prestigious buildings up and down the country. And by small businesses and sole traders to streamline their everyday tasks. Ban.gl is for everyone.
Kirrane's Final Thoughts
I am very proud of what we have achieved with Ban.gl, and the clients we have acquired to date. I’d love to speak with anyone looking to boost productivity, streamline processes and, importantly, reduce their carbon footprint, recognising that eliminating paper waste is a simple but significant step towards that goal.
Just click the contact link at the top of this page to get in touch or find me on LinkedIn
Anthony Kirrane
Managing Director
www.com ltd trading as Ban.gl