BBD Software

BBD Software builds custom software for businesses and public institutions, helping clients launch products, modernise existing systems and connect their operations. Its services span software development, cloud, data engineering, product design, testing and applied AI for search, automation and analytics. Reusable components—including the Orchestration Engine, Workflow Engine and Case Management Engine—give delivery teams building blocks for integrations, workflows and business rules. These accelerators include source code and royalty-free licensing, allowing clients to adapt them to their own requirements.

Founded in 1984 in Johannesburg by Sandra Barone, Tom Budge and Ralf Dominick, the company began as Barone, Budge & Dominick. Group CEO Kevin Staples started his career at BBD through its graduate programme. Its engineering approach combines architects, analysts, designers and testers with client teams, choosing technology around the client’s existing systems and constraints. Internally developed accelerators draw on recurring requirements across projects rather than imposing one fixed application architecture.

In 2016, BBD and investor Sphere Holdings described a business with over 550 software developers and R500 million in annual turnover. That year, Sphere completed an additional stake purchase, increasing its holding to 49.9%. Together with the Student Sponsorship Programme’s 1.1%, this made BBD 51% black-owned; founders and management retained 49%.