About Us

Chris Manton has been creating software solutions since 1992.

He started writing stuff just because he couldn't find the tools he needed for himself. Had you suggested then that he'd choose a completely new career as a software professional, he'd have believed that you were deeply misguided. But 15 years on, he's hell-bent on a mission to demystify using new technology to make life easier and work more productive for its users.

He admits to near obsession in his work, but loves it too much to want much besides. One day he intends to get a life, but in the meantime he spends most of his time at one of his 5 computers. Married to Maria, an animation producer with unusual patience, he does occasionally find time to write screenplays and to enjoy his other passions, loafing about, claret, cooking and being with her.

Before taking up full time systems design and development, Chris Manton spent quite a few years in the movie business. Fresh from Stowe, he began as a freelance sound recordist on documentary, feature film and news crews. It was well paid, exciting, but dead ended.

By the mid 80's he'd qualified as a senior producer, employed by top British advertising agency groups like JWT, Leo Burnett and Grey as well as commercials production companies - which seemed quite glamourous at the time. Mostly based in London, he travelled extensively on overseas location shoots, worked in California for two years and even had a stint in New Delhi taking charge of pan-Asian TV production for Trikaya Grey. During his time as producer and head of TV he produced commercials for blue chip companies including Bass, BP, Kellogg, Nestlé, Phillip Morris, Procter & Gamble, Rover and SmithKline Beecham, as well as for many smaller organisations.

With so diverse a range of business clients he learned much about the way many different industries operate. His production work included sole responsibility for budgets running to millions of pounds a year, besides the creation of flexible systems to cope with comissioning, scheduling and costing the constantly changing parameters of creative projects and, later on, International systems administration too. Managing these challenges under inevitable cost and deadline pressures has given him a very solid experience in management, fiscal control and project logistics.

Manton has had experience in the automotive, brewing, pharmaceutical, foods, electrical, diary, petroleum, government and banking sectors. He has particularly specialist knowledge allied to advertising, film, video and audio production & postproduction as well as in most film-related and theatrical facilities such as agents, casting, music, transport, etc. and it is in these fields that his skills have been in most demand.

As lead programmer at Advanced Database Systems in 1999 (then one of the USA's largest) Chris worked on a turnkey solution for a major Medical Insurance Repricing Corporation and later on a complex scheduling module for a Cardiac Surgery Practice. Freelance, he'd also created systems for a trucking fleet, the Mediterranean Cruising Association and for a worldwide provider of commercial information services.

He's seasoned in creating integrated systems with friendly intuitive interfaces that can take care of almost everything any business may need - right through from advanced contact management, to inventory control, project estimation & scheduling time records and management reports, on to final invoicing...

After 6 years trading as 'The Base', Manton renamed his consultancy e-Headroom in 2000 and two years later joined with LDML to found BabelFix. Though they remain good colleagues, co-founder Forster has now moved on, leaving Manton in sole charge of BabelFix.

Chris has become an acknowledged leader in FileMaker interface design and has been an invited speaker three times at the annual FileMaker Developers Conference in America. He has also twice led FileMaker International's master classes in Interface Deisgn in London, besides being a reglular speaker at FSA/FBA meetings and events such as MacWorld in the UK.