SOFTWARE & TECHNOLOGY
You don't need to be a "tech company." You need to have solved a hard problem.
Architecture that couldn't handle the load. Integrations that shouldn't have worked, until they did. A capability nobody had a clean answer for. If your team genuinely advanced what your software could do by solving a technological problem, that's the test — not your SIC code.
WHAT QUALIFIES
Genuine technological uncertainty around architecture, performance, scalability, interoperability, security, data processing, algorithms, or achieving a capability established techniques couldn't readily deliver. Routine coding, configuration and ordinary feature development aren't automatically R&D — and that's fine, most claims aren't built on those.
THE WORK THIS COVERS
Developing an architecture capable of handling volumes or latency requirements the existing approach couldn't achieve
Resolving difficult integration or interoperability problems where standard interfaces weren't enough
Developing a novel data-processing or automation method where the technical solution was genuinely uncertain at the outset
THE OBJECTION WE HEAR MOST
"It's new to us, but is it really R&D?"
New-to-your-company isn't the test. Genuine technological uncertainty is. We work with CTOs, Technical Directors, Software Architects, Lead Developers, Engineering Managers, DevOps/Platform Engineers, Data Engineers and Product/Technical Leads to find the difference — properly, not by ticking a box.