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Author: Martin Port

Martin Port leads funding round into Rated People

Rated people
Posted on by Martin Port

Martin Port, the serial entrepreneur behind Masternaut and BigChange, leads investment into online tradesperson marketplace Rated People.

Martin Port is the lead investor in a funding round for online tradesperson platform Rated People.

His seven-figure investment will be used to accelerate growth at the company as it continues to bolster its user base. This is the first angel investment from Martin Port, who joins existing investors Frog Capital, Downing Ventures and Channel 4.

Rated People is the UK’s leading online marketplace matching homeowners with skilled, local tradespeople. The platform is used by nearly 1 million UK homeowners each year, looking for the right trades businesses who can help them complete domestic and commercial jobs.

More than 50,000 tradespeople are featured on the site, from builders to roofers, plumbers to electricians, and more.

‘A fantastic business’

Rated People, which recorded revenues of £11.5m in 2020, is led by Adrienne Minster, who was appointed Chief Executive Officer in 2020 after 4 years in the business as Chief Commercial Officer and then COO.

“Rated People has come through the last two years in a strong position,” she says. “This deal will enable us to accelerate our growth in 2022, and I know that Martin’s experience will help us to add even more value to both trades businesses and homeowners across the UK.”

“Rated People is a fantastic business providing an exceptional service to both tradespeople and homeowners alike” says Martin. “I have been a customer of the platform and was impressed by the concept and execution. I’m a big fan! I look forward to supporting Adrienne as she takes Rated People to the next level.”

Following the deal, Martin is joining Rated People as a Board Observer and Strategic Advisor. He remains chairman of BigChange, the technology company he founded in 2013.

“Through BigChange, which provides technology to help tradespeople grow their businesses, reduce carbon footprint, and drive efficiency, I have come to know the needs of this industry very well” he says.
“I hope to bring all my experience to bear in Rated People.”

Rated People is Martin’s first foray as an angel investor.

“I have loved being an entrepreneur and growing businesses from nothing into international success stories,” he says. “Right now, I’m also enjoying the ability to invest back into the entrepreneurial ecosystem to help the next generation to thrive. It is a privilege to support Rated People in this next phase of its growth.”

About Rated People

Founded in 2005, Rated People is the UK’s leading online marketplace matching homeowners with skilled, local tradespeople.

Over 50,000 tradespeople use the site and 1,000,000 jobs are posted every year by homeowners wanting to make the most of where they live.

Once the work is complete, homeowners leave a review of the tradesperson – and this feedback helps give other homeowners peace of mind that they’ve found someone reliable.

In 2021, Rated People also secured a position on three of the Sunday Times’ Best Companies lists for the first time.

The company featured on the UK’s 100 Best Mid-Sized Companies to Work For, London’s 50 Best Mid-Sized Companies to Work For and the Business Services’ 20 Best Companies to Work For – a sector-specific category, new for 2021.

About Martin Port

Martin Port is a technology pioneer based in Leeds, Yorkshire.

He is a serial entrepreneur, who has built three successful businesses during his career. Martin founded his current venture, software-as-a-service company BigChange, in 2013. BigChange’s field service management technology is the core workflow tool for businesses employing field service technicians and operators across the UK, Europe, the US and Australia.

BigChange’s tools provide job scheduling, customer invoicing and payments automation, mobile workforce management, and client engagement to 1,900 small to enterprise clients spanning more than 60 industries.

In 2020, BigChange was recognised for its outstanding innovation in the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise, the UK’s highest official awards for British businesses.

In 2021, Boston-based Great Hill Partners invested £75m of growth capital in BigChange, valuing the company at £100m.

The deal that opened a new chapter

Great Hill Partnership Deal
Posted on by Martin Port

On the 4th of February 2021, I embarked on one of the greatest adventures of my professional life so far.

I signed a deal with an American private equity backer, raising £75m to supercharge the growth of my business, valuing BigChange at £100m.

I won’t lie to you. I wasn’t 100% sure what to expect. I consider myself a good judge of character and I knew that I respected and liked the team from Great Hill Partners. But you never really know, do you?

Here I am, a year on, looking back over a 12-month partnership and, I have to say… It was one of the best decisions I have ever made.

I don’t want to get sentimental – I’m not one for love letters – but I wanted to talk about the experience. Often, as entrepreneurs, you hear the horror stories and see the battle scars, but you rarely find out about happy-ever-afters.

I’m here to say that our backer, Great Hill Partners, has done absolutely everything they said they would do. They have operated with integrity. They have supported me as a founder during one of the toughest and most uncertain times in living memory. They have helped this business to scale with a speed and efficiency that I couldn’t not have dreamed of on my own. They have opened doors that would have been bolted shut.

I would like to take some credit for the success of this partnership. As entrepreneurs, you are always told: do your homework. Get to know your potential investors. Speak to other founders in their portfolio. Ask about the awards they have won. I did all of that and more. So, credit to me, I picked the right partner. But no one expected a global pandemic to throw a spanner in the works. The best investor in the world would be forgiven for being rattled by that. But not Great Hill. Instead, they increased their level of support while also helping us access a further £25m to grow the business. We could never have done a deal like that on our own. Instead of putting on the brakes, they let me do what my instincts told me to do: accelerate.

I want to do a quick shout out to the individuals who have helped make this relationship such a success. I want to thank Drew Loucks, Chris Busby, Greg Stewart, Ryan O’Malley, Pablo Ramirez – the dream team that has supported me and BigChange this year. I want to say an enormous thank you to Richard Warley, our CEO, who was introduced to me by Great Hill, and has been a tremendous asset to the business. And last but not least, I want to thank the fantastic people at KPMG, who advised on the deal. We have spent over six years with KPMG, getting to know one another, and now I can genuinely say that I have made great friends in the process.

Many business owners are slightly afraid of private equity. Some with good reason: there are firms out there that give this kind of investment a bad name. But in my experience, any company that is serious about growth, and wants autonomy and firepower simultaneously, should consider it. If we had gone public, I wouldn’t be writing this update, I’d be bogged down in bureaucracy and gagged by shareholder agreements. It’s not for me. At least, not now. Maybe when we achieve our dream of becoming a unicorn, I’ll see things differently.

The bottom line for me is this: if we had never embarked on this journey with Great Hill, we’d be in a very different place. We’d still be successful and growing, but we wouldn’t have been able to invest in people and product like we have this year, creating the foundations for an even more brilliant future for the business. And our growth would be a crawl as opposed to a sprint. So, here’s to a most excellent year, and to the years of growth and success ahead. I’m very glad I signed on that dotted line last February.

BigChange Supports Lean Management at Dealey Environmental

Dealey Environmental
Posted on by Martin Port

Dealey Environmental, a specialist in environmentally friendly pest control, has reduced the resources required to manage its mobile workforce by 50 per cent following the implementation of latest field service management software from BigChange.

Offering the full range of environmental protection services including bird control, fumigation, grounds maintenance and cleaning, Dealey has been pioneering environmentally friendly products and service since its inception in 1954. Using the BigChange platform, Dealey has further improved its green credentials with a significant reduction in paperwork and has boosted its customer experience with automated reporting.

Martin Cobbald, Managing Director of Dealey Environmental commented:

“Before BigChange we were killing trees not just pests! We consumed paper at an unsustainable rate and not only was this bad for the planet it was bad for us and for our clients. We had paper everywhere, except where it was meant to be, and it took a huge amount of my time to schedule jobs, manage the team and liaise with clients.

He continued:

“Around this time, I was introduced to the concept of ‘lean management’ which focusses on continuous improvement and optimising resources, I was also recommended BigChange and realised the fit between our aspirations, the model for a successful business and the BigChange solution, and we haven’t looked back.”

Dealey Environmental, based in Suffolk, offers a wide range of services in the field of pest control and wildlife management. Serving clients in the food manufacturing, bioscience, farming and haulage sectors – in fact any business with pests, Dealey is one of the few companies that will look to address the cause of an issue rather than just the manifestation. Where remedial action is required Dealey uses the best equipment with the latest chemicals and adheres to the most stringent audit standards. 

Since implementing the single platform CRM, Job Scheduling, Live Tracking, Field Resource Management and Online Portal, from BigChange, Dealey records all customer interactions, automatically schedules routine tasks and captures site visit records, including photographs, for auditing and reporting. HR uses vehicle tracking reports to further reduce paperwork and reduce the monthly payroll resource and the online library has made new recruitment inductions and training more efficient and effective.

Cobbald concluded:

“Since the first meeting BigChange talked our language making an effort to understand our business and our needs. There is always someone available with guidance, insight and patience, and I know that as we continue to grow BigChange will grow with us.” 

Dealey Environmental

Help your stars to shine

Help your stars shine
Posted on by Martin Port

I’m obsessed with career development. I have always said that people are your greatest asset in business. Helping those people to thrive and rise through your organisation is a particular focus. I truly believe that everyone who works for me has the right to a fulfilling work life, with lots of opportunities for training and advancement.

This isn’t just because failure to offer opportunities for career development is the number one reason why people leave their jobs – it has been the top reason for a decade too, in case you were wondering https://employeebenefits.co.uk/employee-retention-top-5-reasons-employees-leave-their-jobs/ .It’s because this is one of the most basic and powerful ways that you can help your colleagues. By offering career development opportunities, you help them to realise their potential, open doors for them, and show that you believe in them.  

This is why this week’s post is all about Lisa Boonin.

For those who don’t know Lisa, she is one of the stars of our RoadCrew team. I know some of our customers have spoken to Lisa over the past three years. Many of you have praised her effectiveness, positivity, and organisational genius. What you might not know is that over the last 18 months, Lisa has been spending her free time completing an HR qualification from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). And that in April this year she moves into a bright and bold new career at BigChange as an HR administrator.  

I want to talk about Lisa because she is an example of what can be achieved when you take an individual with get-up-and-go, brains, and ambition, and you support them to focus that energy on their career.

Back in 2016, Lisa came to BigChange to do work experience while she completed a business studies degree from the University of Birmingham. She worked across several departments and impressed everyone with her ability to learn quickly and her people skills. She came back after finishing her degree to take a full-time job in RoadCrew.

“BigChange was a fast-growth technology start-up, so I knew I’d have a great experience,” she says. “As a first job, being in RoadCrew has been incredible. It teaches you all kinds of skills, from communication to confidence, and helps you learn the product inside out.”

During her time on RoadCrew, supported by her manager Tansy, Lisa took on many new challenges. She began hosting customer tutorials online and had hundreds of people hanging on her every word for those 45-minute sessions. “It’s amazing what life throws at you, but it was great to step out of my comfort zone, and a real learning opportunity,” she says.

RoadCrew also helped Lisa to hone her organisational skills. “That’s my real strength,” she tells me. “I’ve learned to stay on top of tickets and field incoming queries and manage my time well. That skillset will be so valuable in everything I do in the future.”

During 2020, Lisa began thinking about her future: what path did she envision for herself? What skills did she want to hone? She decided to take a look at HR and, with some help from Sonal, our people director, she chose a course from the CIPD. “I had considered a Masters from The Open University but that would have taken much longer,” she says. “I completed this course in 18 months.” The BigChange HR team helped with some assignments and offered advice and moral support while Lisa juggled her studies alongside house-hunting and planning her wedding. “It’s been a crazy time,” she says.

Lisa is now looking forward to starting her new role in April, when she can put all her knowledge into practice. Her advice to anyone who is at a crossroads in their career: “The timing of this course was perfect because I started it during the first lockdown when there was nothing else going on. I’m young, I don’t have kids to support, and I live with my parents. My advice to anyone is to try new things. Even if you’re not absolutely certain. I could have started this new course and got six months in and hated it. But the leap of faith paid off; I’ve enjoyed every module and now I know this is what I really want to do.”

I wanted to share Lisa’s story because she inspires me, and as a reminder to all of us leaders to take the time to speak to our colleagues about how we can help them take that next step in their careers. We employ stars. Let’s help them to shine.

BigChange launches UK channel partner programme

Channel Partner Programme
Posted on by Martin Port

BigChange, the field service management software provider, has launched a new UK channel programme providing partners with opportunities to generate revenues from the fast-growth field service software market.

  • Cloud specialist offers channel exclusive access to fast-growth field service software market
  • Spit commission model allows partners to earn initial commissions and recurring revenues
  • BigChange has already secured channel partners for five of 18 UK territories on offer

The company has started recruiting channel partners across the UK to complement its in-house sales activities, and has appointed five – including PRS Telecom and Penmark Limited – to its roster already.

Partners gain exclusive channel access to one of 18 geographical territories and the opportunity to earn an initial commission and recurring revenues from reselling and supporting the implementation of BigChange.

BigChange is the complete job management platform, bringing together CRM, job scheduling, vehicle tracking, field resource management, financial management and business intelligence into one simple to use and easy to integrate platform.

It is used by almost 1,700 field service businesses worldwide operating in sectors such as building maintenance, construction and environmental services.

In 2021, BigChange secured a £75 million private equity investment from Great Hill Partners to fund further growth and innovation.

BigChange won a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in 2020 for helping businesses to streamline their operations, grow revenue and deliver winning customer experiences.

Paul Witter, Chief Partnerships Officer at BigChange, comments:

BigChange is a field service software specialist, with a best-in-class cloud platform and fast-expanding customer base. We are investing heavily in innovation and expansion, and the time is right to invite the channel to join us.

“The field service sector is ripe for digital transformation, with companies of all sizes turning to technology to automate processes, cut costs and improve capacity, cash flow and customer service. Without change, many will find it difficult to compete and grow.

“BigChange is particularly suited to the needs of small and medium-sized businesses adopting field service management software for the first time, and those replacing legacy systems that lack functionality and don’t integrate well with other software products.”

Businesses interested in joining our channel partner programme can contact Paul directly via email on [email protected].

Chairman’s spotlight on… Steve Cardwell, founder of Generator Power

Generator Power
Posted on by Martin Port

Last year, I introduced the “Chairman’s spotlight on” series to celebrate some of the incredible people I have met on the BigChange journey. There are too many unsung heroes in British industry: people with fantastic stories to tell who are too busy building their businesses to shout about their experiences. That’s where I come in.

This week, I’d like to introduce you to Steve Cardwell. Steve founded Normanton-based Generator Power back in 1997 and has taken the business from nothing to a £50m turnover and is working towards being a truly national player – he currently serves customers from Inverness down to Reading.

Like so many BigChange customers, he founded his business because he had worked for other people in the sector, learned all he could (the good stuff and the stuff to avoid) and realised he could do it better on his own. “I had a real drive to build a business for myself rather than keep working for other people,” he tells me. “But the problem with generator rental is that it’s very capital-intensive. You don’t have a business if you have just a handful of generators. So I had to jump in with both feet. It took me two years to raise the funding to buy a fleet of generators.”

This is something I so admire about entrepreneurs like Steve: their ability to be “all in”. Steve left no margin for error. He put everything on the line to make his business work. Not many people have the courage and tenacity to make a call like that.

Once Generator Power was up and running, he didn’t sit back and hope the business would roll in. He knew he had to deliver a better service than the competition. This is one of the reasons Steve and I hit it off immediately: we are both obsessed with customer service. “If I have to rely on my wit, charm and boyish good looks, I won’t get far,” he jokes. “We have always focused on delivering something to the customer beyond what our rivals are capable of. That edge is what convinces the customers to write our name on the order, rather than someone else’s.”

He won’t say it about himself, but Steve is an absolute visionary; Generator Power was the first hire company to introduce a “power safe” product, where the fuel tank and generator are housed inside a secure and super-silent container. These were an absolute hit, as fuel couldn’t be siphoned out and the generators couldn’t be vandalised. The entire industry has since embraced Steve’s design and his rivals all now offer similar products.

Right now, Generator Power is at the forefront of innovation once again. “Dirty” diesel may be out of favour, but the company has been investing in renewables and hybrid alternatives for years. “We’re leading the field on this,” he says. “We have battery storage technology, solar arrays, you name it. If we see ourselves as a diesel generator provider today, we’ll soon be out of business. So we have evolved to become a provider of temporary power solutions.”

Markets move so fast these days: no business can stay still, or it will be left behind. After our recent investment round, BigChange earmarked a significant tranche of funding for innovation. “That’s the thing about having a “unique selling point”,” Steve tells me. “People copy you and pretty soon you need a new USP!”

One of the other ways that Steve stays ahead of the competition is through Generator Power’s partnership with BigChange. “We became aware of BigChange a few years ago,” he explains. “We had always used traditional paper-based systems. Our engineers would stand out in the cold filling in job sheets in duplicate – we had real issues with efficiency. The beauty of BigChange is that now we have ditched the paper, and our processes are instantaneous and reliable. If you do lots of work for your customer but don’t charge them enough because the paperwork isn’t there, your business grows but profits stagnate. Now, we make sure the right person is sent to the right job and we charge the right amount for that work in a timely manner.”

As Generator Power continues its journey with greener solutions, BigChange has also helped to bolster its environmental credentials. “Our engineers drive fewer miles and go to the right jobs with the right gear, which has delivered a significant reduction in our carbon footprint,” he says.

Steve has been in business 25 years and still has the same energy and ambition he did when he first started. “This is the best job in the world,” he says. “There’s a new challenge every day and I love it.” As an entrepreneur, you must embrace the high points and stay resilient through the tough times. “When we win industry awards for our innovation, and win contracts with blue chips companies, I’m on a high. But managing people is the biggest challenge. Ask me to deal with a generator, that’s easy, but when you have 284 people on your team, being a leader becomes a lot more complex.”

His philosophy in life is simple. “It doesn’t matter what you do in life but, whatever you do, you should do it with all your might. That’s the philosophy that’s worked for me all my life. Do what you do with enthusiasm. People who are driven, get on. And people who cruise, don’t. I’ve seen people sit in front of a fire and demand heat. If you get up and put wood on the fire, you’ll get heat. But you can’t sit back and expect the fire to light itself.”

If you missed my last “Chairman’s spotlight” you can find it here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/chairmans-spotlight-michael-cairns-director-celsius-plumbing-port/

BigChange Facilitates Business Transformation for Pinnacle Group

Posted on by Martin Port

Pinnacle Group has transformed its customer experience and increased operational efficiency following the implementation of the latest field service management software from BigChange.

Supporting over 300,000 homes, 200 schools and 100 public and private buildings, Pinnacle is one of the UK’s largest facilities management providers. Using BigChange, Pinnacle has achieved a significant improvement in transparency and communication with clients by delivering live operational information and has overcome challenges resulting from the pandemic which saw a reduced workforce facing an increased workload. 

Raaj Bharania, Pinnacle Group Business Manager commented:

“Since implementing BigChange we have seen real time savings and productivity gains resulting in better quality of service, reduced resources and costs, and increased client and customer satisfaction. This can be directly translated into contract extensions and new contract awards.”

Pinnacle is a community-facing, people-first business that delivers, manages and maintains communities and places – including multi-tenure housing, schools, open spaces, public and private buildings, retail schemes, distribution centres, manufacturing plants, utilities and broadband networks – as well as a range of complementary employment and wellbeing outcomes. Formed in 1994, Pinnacle operates nationwide with major hubs in London, Chelmsford, Slough, Birmingham, Leeds, Morecambe, Stoke and Carlisle. Pinnacle provides integrated Facilities Management across all sectors and the frontline operation makes around 1,400 call outs per day with an 80/20 split between scheduled and reactive.

Since implementing the complete job management solution, which incorporates customer relationship management (CRM), job scheduling, live tracking, field resource management, financial management and business intelligence in one simple to use and easy to integrate platform, Pinnacle can record, monitor and control every task in real-time. Details of site inspections and service delivery visits are captured, recorded and reported, complete with before and after photos, using a traffic light system allowing operatives to self-certify works. 

Area Manager Marcin Rosiak said:

“By giving clients access to the BigChange platform we have been able to reduce the time spent monitoring and reporting as they can access the information they need when they need it.”

Whilst Business Manager Seundouss Laroussi added:

BigChange has been transformational for us, and our clients, and we cannot imagine our operation without it!” 

BigChange has already been deployed on over 90 percent of Pinnacles soft FM contracts where it has been tailored to meet specific KPIs, SLAs and reporting requirements and roll out on the remaining 10 percent is ongoing. Further planned work includes the transition to a completely paperless operation and the use of BigChange to improve workforce engagement and health and safety management.  

Would you slash sick pay for the unvaccinated?

Sick Pay
Posted on by Martin Port

This week, IKEA and Wessex Water have made headlines for taking a controversial stance on unvaccinated employees. They have announced cuts to sick pay for unvaccinated staff who must isolate because of Covid exposure.  

I’m going to be brutally honest with you.  

When I first read about this, part of me thought: fair enough. We need to get our economy back on track. We must learn how to live with the threat of Covid over the long-term, which means a robust vaccination programme for all, not just a few. Business leaders cannot plan for growth – or even survival – when unknown numbers of people may be off work at a moment’s notice.

But then I took a pause.

Because there’s a very big difference between thinking that a move is logical and believing that it’s ethical.

Being a leader means that you are more than a steward of share price, you are responsible for the wellbeing of your team – your entire team, not just the people who are ideologically aligned with you or the needs of the business. That is non-negotiable.

I tried to imagine how I would have reacted to the challenge of unvaccinated employee absence when I was CEO of BigChange. The answer is that I would never have slashed their sick pay, especially at a time when many families are struggling financially after two tricky years. That is not something that would have sat right with me and the rest of the management team.

I’m not naïve about the complexity of this issue. Different businesses have very different needs and challenges. Do I think that the NHS should be allowed to mandate that all staff have a vaccination? I think I do. When your people meet vulnerable patients all day, every day, it makes sense to enforce such precautions. Would I have done that at BigChange, where many of our team work from home? I don’t think I would.

The Covid situation has never stopped evolving since the pandemic first started two long years ago. Right now, the Omicron strain seems to be less dangerous than previous variants, with most people (especially the vaccinated) reporting mild symptoms. To penalise the unvaccinated now that the actual risk is lower than before seems counterintuitive.

Businesses must be wary of taking actions that can be construed as corporate greed. There are always unscrupulous business leaders who see stories about supply chain issues, rising inflation, or increased labour costs, and raise their prices even though their company is entirely unaffected by all these challenges. Those leaders give business a bad name. 

Of course, there is evidence that individuals may be abusing the self-isolation rules to get out of coming to work, pretending to have had contact with someone who tested positive. Perhaps this might spur a business leader to take a tough stance. To my mind, this is no different to people who “pull sickies” and pretend to have the flu. If this is rife in your organisation, the issue is with the culture itself. You can either try and mete out punishments to prevent it happening or you can put your efforts into making your company somewhere people enjoy working. I know which route I would choose…

And then there’s the political situation. It’s unhelpful that every day there seem to be more revelations about parties at Downing Street that broke national Covid restrictions. Penalising regular people at a time when it’s clear our reigning elite are ignoring the rules with impunity is a risky move, in my opinion.

I am an entrepreneur and a business builder – I believe in making decisions that help your organisation to thrive. But before all that, I’m a human being who cares about the people around me, be that my team, community, or wider industry. Even when times are tough and our businesses struggle, let’s never lose sight of that humanity, or all is lost.

BigChange adopts what3words to boost productivity for field service firms

What 3 words
Posted on by Martin Port

The integration of location technology supports more precise planning and arrival times, and could reduce the time spent finding job locations by up to 30 minutes per person each day.

BigChange, the field service management software provider, has adopted location technology what3words to provide more accurate addresses for job locations, making it easier for field service teams to find their site.

By integrating the technology into its job management platform, BigChange has made it possible for customers to add a what3words address to any job booking. 

what3words has divided the world into a grid of 3m squares and given each one three random words from the dictionary: a what3words address. A what3words address provides an extra layer of accuracy to a traditional address, meaning that field teams will arrive at exactly the precise location.

This latest BigChange innovation supports more precise job planning and customer service alerts for BigChange’s customers globally, and enables field service teams to be directed to an exact location – including specific building entrances or destinations in parks, rural areas and building sites not covered by street addresses. This means that no time is wasted looking for the correct location.

More than 100 UK emergency services organisations already use what3words to achieve faster and more accurate responses. BigChange estimates that what3words could save individual field-based employees up to 30 minutes per day in time spent locating jobs.

Richard Warley, BigChange CEO, comments:

“Demand is booming for field service businesses. They are looking for innovations that make scheduling slicker, boost productivity and customer experience, and help them grow stronger.”

“This powerful functionality will enable BigChange customers to plan better, provide more precise arrival times with confidence, and save valuable hours every week by directing field-based teams precisely where they are needed.”

James Cochrane, Partnerships Lead at what3words, comments:

“We’ve all experienced the horrible feeling of being late to a job because the address wasn’t accurate, and you couldn’t find exactly where you needed to be. what3words acts as a tool in your pocket to ensure you’re directed to the right place, first time, every time.”

2021: a year of innovation and ambition, laying the foundations for growth

2021 End of year round up
Posted on by Martin Port

It feels like yesterday that I was writing our year in review for 2020. What a whirlwind the last 12 months have been. You think that when your business comes out of the start-up phase, things slow down. In fact, the pace increases alongside your own drive and ambition. Every success spurs you on to the next.

For us at BigChange, 2021 was a crucial year: we won significant investment and began building the foundations that will allow us to achieve incredible growth over the coming years. Here are some of our standout milestones and achievements.

Starting the year with a bang

In February, we announced that BigChange had raised £75m from Great Hill Partners, an growth specialist based in Boston, and that post-deal, BigChange was valued at £100m. This was an amazing time for me and the whole team here, as it crystalised that we were a market leader in our industry, and that we were really going for growth. We are aiming for unicorn status within the next few years, and we know we’ll get there.

We have gone from strength to strength since Great Hill came on board, bringing enormous expertise across international expansion and more. We have been able to invest across all areas of the business, and I have been able to move into a chairman role, which has been an exciting new challenge.

Consistently wowing customers

It’s easy to talk the talk but sales prove you can walk the walk. BigChange continues to win new customers and this year alone we secured £23m-worth of new contracts, taking our annual recurring revenues towards £20m. We have brought in 300 new customers over the past 12 months and now have a total of over 1,700 customers, with 50,000 users on our system.

Some of the brilliant new customers who came on board in 2021 include: double glazing specialist Anglian Windows; Sapphire Utility Solutions, which maintains water, wastewater and gas utilities; state-of-the art car repair centre Vertu Accident Repair; JBC Industrial Services, the leading industrial boiler and burner service and maintenance provider; Genting Casinos; and document-management company Shredall. It brings me great pride to see BigChange helping such a broad range of sectors.

Loyalty and customer satisfaction

It’s not all about new customer wins; at BigChange, we never stop trying to wow and delight our existing customers too. This is why we are so proud that we have retained our world-class Net Promoter Score of 80 plus. This compares to an average of 32 for most companies, so we are chuffed to bits with that. As we have grown, we have always tried to stay approachable and customer centric. We may be a technology company, but we still have a beating heart, and this NPS proves we are striking the right balance.

A lot of new faces

There can be no growth without a winning team, so we have made a significant investment in people this year, going from 170 to 250 colleagues. We have bolstered every part of the business, from our development department to the executive team. We now have the talent and expertise in place to give BigChange every chance of a storming 2022. It’s not always straightforward for a fast-growth technology company to find skills but we have managed to increase headcount by 80 because the culture here is second-to-none, as proved by our Best Companies to Work For two-star award this year.

Innovation at our core

We never rest on our laurels here at BigChange and in 2021 we completed 20 new development releases with lots of new features and innovations. Our customers have more control than ever before and are able to tweak the platform to the exact needs of their teams and business models. To ensure a steady pipeline of new, great features, we have also created The Big Ideas Portal so that customers can see what we’re working on and vote to prioritise the changes they want now. To make sure that everyone is kept up to date on the powerful new tools available, we have introduced lots of new modules in our BigChange University. We have now welcomed 5,000 students to these online webinars, which help users understand the breath of functionality we offer.

Charitable work

As regular readers of my blog will know, I have always been committed to giving back, both to my local community and to charitable organisations that are making a big difference to people’s lives across the world. Last year, BigChange linked our Motivational Monday series – our monthly events that welcome inspirational speakers – with charitable giving. This has been hugely successful and over the last 12 months, we have welcomed the likes of: Janet Street-Porter, the journalist and media personality; Kevin Sinfield OBE – or Sir Kev – the rugby player and campaigner; Tracey Neville MBE, the netball star who played for and coached the England team; and Benjamin Mee, who bought and reopened Dartmoor Zoo. Among the charities that the series has supported are: Living Potential Farm, which offers work experience to those with learning difficulties and disabilities; men’s mental health charity Andy’s Man Club; PhysCap, which works to improve the quality of life of children suffering from severe physical disabilities; Homeless Street Angels, which helps those sleeping on the street of Leeds; the community action charity CATCH, and veterans’ charity Help for Heroes.

Recognition for BigChange

Not so long ago I posted about the importance of entering awards. Winning trophies really does have an extraordinary effect on morale, and it’s an opportunity to stop and think about all you have achieved. This year, we finally collected our 2020 Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the Innovation category. We also won the Yorkshire Post’s Best Company 2021 in the £10m to £50m category. In the GP Bullhound Northern Tech Awards 2021, BigChange was recognised as one of the Top 15 Fastest Growing Larger Technology Companies in the North of England Scotland and Ireland. We were also nominated for several other awards and it’s always a pleasure to see your company listed among the great and the good of British enterprise.

So that’s it for 2021. I truly believe that we have now stepped onto a springboard and that the next five years will deliver exceptional growth and success, both for BigChange and our customers. Next year is set to be a big year for us: we will celebrate our 10th birthday, a real milestone for any growing company, as half of all start-ups never reach their fifth birthday. Thank you all for reading and for coming on this journey with me. Season’s Greetings! And my very best wishes for the New Year.