Our main focus this year was the continued growth of our Lib Dem website platform and by the end of 2004 we reached 175 customers including regions, MPs, MEPs, associated organisations like Liberty Network and ALDC, a portal for returning officers and the London mayoral campaign. This meant we needed our first replacement server which I was proud to tell Tim had 2 CPUs, 80GB of hard disk, and a whole gigabyte of RAM.
WOOOOOOOOSh [said the server]. Nice looking kit. — Tim Prater
2003 was a year of remarkable growth for Prater Raines. We built bespoke website developments for the New Politics Network, the campaign for Votes at 16, the Parliamentary Candidates Association, and events website The Full Effect. But it was the runaway progress of our Liberal Democrat website platform that most proved the business would be lasting and successful.
Tim and I first mooted the idea of working together to build an affordable website platform for Liberal Democrat council groups and individuals in October of 2002. But we’d already known each for other a little while before then.
When Prater Raines took on its first batch of customers, the only smartphone was a BlackBerry, less than 200,000 UK homes had a broadband Internet connection and Pop Idol’s Gareth Gates and Will Young were dominating the charts.
We’re proud and excited to be celebrating 21 years in business this year and looking forward to many more to come.