Electrical contractor MEDLEC has seen a 40 percent improvement in worker productivity since introducing a mobile workforce management system from BigChange.
The 5 in 1 system has allowed MEDLEC to completely eliminate paper by equipping field engineers with mobile devices linked to vehicle trackers giving the company real-time 24/7 visibility of the status of all jobs.
MEDLEC is a fast-growing multi-discipline electrical contractor covering the South of England. Although MEDLEC works in all sectors, they specialise in retail, hospitality and leisure, operating across a variety of facilities and sites. Working closely with prominent companies such as Mitchells and Butlers – whose headline brands include All Bar One, Miller and Carter, Harvester, O’Neil’s and Toby Carvery – MEDLEC also work for Everyman Media and famous Michelin Star restaurants.
“BigChange really has transformed the way we work, having replaced all the paperwork our engineers and admin staff had to process, therefore making our working day more productive”
Christian Tonna, Managing Director of MEDLEC.
“The system has put an end to laborious paperwork and data entry, and as jobs come in they are instantly available to our engineers. It means we can be more reactive and efficient with our time, therefore around 40 percent more productive, allowing us to take on more work with the same resources.”
BigChange is an all-in-one platform CRM, job scheduling, mobile app and vehicle tracking and management reporting solution, and it manages all of MEDLEC’s stringent compliance requirements. As part of a seamless end-to-end business solution, MEDLEC has taken advantage of full integration with their Xero accounting software with a new API interface that gives improved management insight into financial performance. MEDLEC first implemented BigChange in 2018.
MEDLEC offers a rapid response service, so being informed and in control is crucial to delivering good customer service. BigChange means that the company is better equipped to deliver that service and now achieves a 92 percent first-time fix rate across 120 jobs a day. It also ensures there is complete transparency across operations. Clients are kept informed instantly, receiving ETA updates and completed job sheets that include time-stamped and geo-located photographs captured on the engineers’ tablet.
Tonna commented:
“BigChange gives us complete visibility, and we can access everything we need anywhere, at any time. It’s really the ultimate management tool and enables us to deliver an exceptional level of service at the same time as making us a lot more efficient. This is an advantage for both the client and us and we couldn’t be happier.”
MEDLEC also discovered an added bonus from being a BigChange customer, and that was the BigChange Network that connects other BigChange users across the country. Through the network MEDLEC recently connected with SES Homecare, a major provider of plumbing and heating services also headquartered in Surrey.
Tonna explains:
“Thanks to the BigChange Network, we are now the recommended SES Homecare contractor for electrical services, which has been fantastic to offer our services and the best thing is our engineers use exactly the same BigChange platform, so for SES, it is completely seamless with reports being received in exactly the same way as reports from their own engineers.”
After-care specialist A&S Contractors has turned to the latest technology to improve the management of its nationwide workforce operation.
The roll out of a 5 in 1 BigChange mobile resource management system, which sees 65 technicians equipped with rugged tablets, is boosting customer service and efficiencies on site with productivity gains of 20 percent.
Established just 7 years A&S Contractors has become a leading player in the fast-growing market for new build after-care. The company works with the major house builders, such as Taylor Wimpey, Countryside, Bellway, Vistry and McCarthy & Stone. A&S employ multi-skilled and specialist trade teams to work alongside the customer service and construction departments, carrying out NHBC remedial claims, assisting with high volume build programmes, remedial repairs and providing a technical report facility.
Providing a single cloud-platform for CRM, job scheduling, mobile app, vehicle tracking and customer portal, BigChange provides A&S with real-time 24/7 visibility of operations, improved control, customer service and productivity. BigChange, which replaces a previous workforce management system, also links seamlessly with Sage accounts.
Sean Coldrick, Managing Director at A&S Contractors stated:
“Delivering an exceptional service and best value is our mission and we need a system that would support that.”
“More than anything we chose BigChange because the system was clearly backed up by real people; a team of professionals that have since proven to be invaluable in the roll-out of the system.”
A&S employs 65 mobile technicians able to deal with mechanical, electrical, gas, assisting their technicians covering all other building trades. The company sets itself apart in the market by being able to provide a turnkey operation.
With a head office near Chester, the company has expanded from the North West to the North East and to the Midlands, recently opening a new office and national training centre in Market Drayton. BigChange is having most impact on the mobile workforce and fleet operations, improving job scheduling, resource allocation, health and safety and productivity, as well as reducing mileage.
Using the BigChange mobile app, engineers manage all work on-site aided by on-screen workflows to ensure all the correct procedures are followed and information recorded. It is completely paperless and job cards are completed with accompanying on-site photographs, generating contra-charge reports at the click of a button. BigChange also has fully integrated vehicle tracking, providing time and location data, routing, customer ETA alerts and driver performance reporting.
A&S is very enthusiastic about the BigChange customer portal facility, that will allow its customers to book jobs and access all information on their jobs. The system is also being used to overhaul stock management, with real-time stock control and replenishment enabling increased stock on vans and the ordering of parts and materials by engineers via their tablets, again increasing on-site productivity.
Coldrick continued:
“BigChange has allowed us to really streamline our mobile operations. Technicians are now much more self-sufficient; journeys to the depot are rare, first fix rates are improved and there are fewer wasted hours. We are already seeing workforce productivity up by around 20 percent.”
“We know we are at the forefront of the new build after-care industry and we see BigChange as an important partner. Like us they have a forward vision and ambition to grow; that fits very much with our own ambitions.”
Working alongside their customer base, A&S has developed technical innovations such as special glue bond procedures to resolve microcracking, and the bespoke on-site fabrication of retrofit cavity trays. The innovations not only improve remedial work but also provide long-term solutions to provide best value for clients and their customers. The implementation of the new mobile technology has been the obvious next step.
When I woke up this morning, the world looked different. Brighter. Full of promise. Why? Because the night before, England had pulled off a triumphant defeat of Germany in the Euros.
It’s amazing how a win like that can change the way you feel about life. When that first goal went in, I forgot all my worries. When England scored the second goal, it felt like even the stresses of the pandemic were melting away.
This is why politicians love a football championship. They distract the nation from what’s going on in Westminster. Matt Hancock and Boris have been booted off the front pages by England’s victory.
In the first century CE, the poet Juvenal wrote that Roman emperors would use “bread and circuses” to keep the people distracted. Our modern-day emperors use the footie. But I digress…
England’s win got me thinking about the impact of success. When you’re winning, you feel on top of the world. All you need is one thing to go right, and suddenly your whole outlook is different. But successes can also be distracting – they can take one’s eye off the next win, the next big goal.
I have run a few businesses in my life and I have seen it time and time again. In one of my past companies, I noticed this phenomenon at play in the sales team. A person would have a bad run, then get one sale in and feel like they were on easy street again. It was great to see them find success but also worrying that that success meant they stopped trying.
I’m conscious that as a founder, CEO and chief visionary, I must always be on the hunt for the next big achievement. The next milestone. Life doesn’t stop because you get a win. Of course, it’s important to stop and reflect on what we have done but, after a brief pause, it’s on to the next thing.
When Great Hill Partners invested in BigChange earlier this year, that was a big win for me. That was my own personal Euros moment. All my life I’ve wanted to grow a business to a valuation of £100m, and I’d done it. It felt pretty good. But the next day, I had to think about the next goal – the journey to a £1bn valuation.
I hope that England’s players are similarly focused on the next big win. We play Ukraine next, and it’s still a long old road to the final. I gave myself the whole of Wednesday to appreciate the England win but now my mind is on the next match.
Are you hungry for your next success? Tell me what you want to achieve in the comments below and I’ll help keep you accountable.
This is it. Employers across the UK are gearing up to welcome some – if not all – of their employees back to the office. Freedom Day, albeit delayed, is now fast approaching.
Facilities maintenance service company Clearground is using workforce management technology from BigChange to improve health and safety across its nationwide operation. Specialising in waste management, commercial window cleaning and drainage services, Clearground is using the cloud-based, 5-in-1 solution to ensure the safety of operatives with automated, dynamic risk assessments.
BigChange is also helping Clearground identify potential issues at customer sites with intelligent incident analysis, comparing callout rates between similar sites and reviewing historical and current activity.
“Safety and compliance are key to the welfare of our staff and customers and also to the success of our company, in fact, it’s one of the reasons we selected BigChange. The ability to create customised, dynamic risk assessments and make their completion on-site mandatory goes beyond other systems we looked at. It is more than just a box ticking exercise; it means our operatives really must consider the environment in which they are working and understand what risks that may pose.”
Claire Piercy, General Manager at Wirral-based Clearground.
She continued:
“BigChange also helps us look after our staff and customers in other ways, the driver behaviour alerts allow us to identify driving styles that may lead to problems which, when combined with the scoring system, allows us to performance manage drivers to ensure safe working practices. From a customer care perspective, we can monitor the number and type of incidents in relation to agreed KPIs and work with clients to prevent future occurrences.”
From its inception in 2003, Clearground has expanded its operation and now works with organisations such as global student accommodation provider Campus Living Villages, residential rent developers Watkins Jones Plc and premium bar operators Revolution Bars Group. Working across the UK, Clearground provides facilities maintenance services including high-level access window cleaning, industry compliant kitchen extractor fan cleaning as well as industrial and high-pressure cleaning.
Clearground selected BigChange to replace disconnected systems used for timesheet logging, purchase order tracking and basic workforce management. A single-platform CRM, Job Scheduling, Mobile App, Vehicle Tracking and Online Portal, BigChange has already eliminated repetition of data entry between systems, reducing back-office resource and minimising the potential for errors, and has eliminated virtually all paperwork used in the management of the mobile workforce.
Clearground is also using the BigChange platform to schedule routine maintenance jobs and ad-hoc callouts, manage staff holidays, absences and sickness and provide automatic alerts for out-of-hours vehicle use or toll-road driving. Available from any internet-connected device, BigChange gives total visibility of the sales process, from initial enquiry, through quotation to invoicing, something Clearground plans to build on with pipeline analysis and automated marketing campaigns.
Piercy concluded:
“One of the major differences between BigChange and other suppliers is they listen and then they respond, and, like us, BigChange is a progressive company, so I am confident that as we continue to grow, they will grow with us.”
As every tech founder knows, it is almost impossible to create a new piece of software that is capable of supporting hundreds of thousands of users from day one. It’s just not commercially viable. Instead, we have to iterate as we grow, building in more functionality and developing our capabilities.
Back in 2013, when I launched my mobile workforce management platform, BigChange, I could only dream that today we would have 1,600 fantastic customers across the globe and that our technology would be used by 60,000 people. I had ambitions to build a £100m company back then, for sure, but I didn’t know whether I’d reach that milestone – let alone aim even higher.
Right now, we are on a journey that will see BigChange become a leader in every market we operate in across the world. We are currently live across several countries in Europe, and we are expanding New Zealand in Australia and the US. Over the next few years, I hope to reach a valuation of a billion pounds.
This is why right now, at BigChange, we are in the process of a major digital transformation. We want to future-proof our technology platform for this next phase of growth. This is a really exciting time, as we are laying the foundations for the next 10 years and beyond. This is going to involve some really big changes and improvements but we are doubling the size of our development team to help expedite all this work. We have called this endeavour Project Transform.
We are following in the footsteps of tech behemoths like Amazon, Microsoft and Google, who have always maintained a laser focus on innovation and made bold moves to ensure their technology is the best it can be. Over the years, I’ve seen these companies iterate, fail fast, and move on. Some have stumbled but they have always pulled through and emerged more resilient.
As a leader, I embrace change because it means we are constantly striving for more and better. Change can be challenging but those challenges are always constructive, helping to make us leaner and smarter in all we do. I look forward to showing my customers the fruits of our labours in due course, as we put all our plans into motion.
Sometimes, a bold decision today can alter the course of a company’s future. I feel like this is one of those moments for BigChange. Here’s to the next chapter.
“One moment I was talking to my friend. The next second I was on the ground in more pain than I’ve ever felt. I’d been blown up. I woke up every morning knowing there was a one in eight chance. That day, I was the one.”
JJ Chalmers has lived an extraordinary life, but much of the story he told for June’s Motivational Monday revolved around a single, terrible moment. One Tuesday afternoon, during routine patrol in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan, he was caught in the blast of an IED.
It was a pivotal moment. In a second, his active career in the forces was cut short; he was now on a different track – one that would lead to Invictus Games gold, a new career in broadcasting and even a stint on Strictly Come Dancing.
However, it wasn’t a smooth or simple transition. JJ’s story is one of constant determination in the face of great odds, but it isn’t a lonely one.
Far from the caricature of a grizzled military vet, JJ was beaming as he told of the strong support network that helped him face down every challenge: during his service, during his recovery and during his transition into the world of broadcasting.
This theme – making connections with others to bring out the best in yourself – begins with JJ joining the Royal Marines.
“I was raised in a house where service was held in high regard. I always wanted to be part of something bigger than myself. I wanted to be one of the good guys.
JJ entered basic training:
“They issue you with a lot: boots, hat, a rifle, but more than any of that, they make you realise that you have the attributes of a Royal Marine inside of you. It’s just about bringing that out. They make you cold, wet and miserable. They take you to where you think your limit is and push you further. You quickly learn that hard work and determination can get you much further than you think is possible. It was like a sea change in my head. I realised any challenge which lay ahead of me could be solved with will, cunning and the application of my skills.”
After graduating from training, JJ was sent to serve in Afghanistan. His unit was stationed in ‘the green zone’, a lush, fertile area in the south-east of the country that extends out from the Helmand river.
It was an area riddled with IEDs:
“They’re designed to kill, and they’re completely indiscriminate. It could be a British soldier, but it’s much more likely to be a civilian.”
JJ’s squad was sent to investigate a suspected bomb-making site, to shut down IED production in the area.
JJ said:
“It would be the most catastrophic place I ever visited”
After the bomb went off JJ recalled that:
“It was absolute pandemonium. We’d been taught to give ourselves first aid, but my right arm was almost gone and the fingers that remained on my left hand were barely hanging on. There was nothing I could do for myself.”
JJ received first aid from a fellow soldier. He recalls how he was told:
JJ that’s all I can do. I have to deal with the other lads now. Keep shouting, let us know you’re with us.”
He continues:
“I knew the helicopter would take 25 minutes and I knew there was a 98% chance of survival if I got on it. So I had to grin and bear it. I’d never known pain like it but I knew I needed to get on and getting on was all I could do.”
Despite not knowing the full extent of his injuries, JJ was relieved to be going home. He was put into an induced coma and transferred to the trauma unit of Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.
“You put broken men and women in at one end, and hopefully get superheroes out the other. I needed to start again like a child. I was physically broken, and in a tough place mentally. Those demons start speaking to you at that point. When they did, I realised I had two choices. Giving up and feeling sorry for myself, laying in the hospital bed and accepting I had a miserable existence. Or I could do what I was told and listen to the doctors, nurses and physios who were putting me back together.”
JJ returned to that moment in Afghanistan
“When I was lying there, I heard ‘I’ve done all I can for you, I need to go for the others’.”
But there weren’t any others in the beds around me.
“Two of our friends and our Afghan interpreter had died in the blast. They were snuffed out in an instant. That’s when I knew I didn’t have a choice. They weren’t given one, why should I be? The only option was to move forward and get better.”
As he went through recovery, JJ regained his independence. He started cycling with the use of a recumbent bicycle, saying.
“I re-learnt the benefits of exercise. I felt a reason to push myself again. But there was a huge part missing, the part the Marines gave me, sharing that experience with a team”.
In 2014, JJ took part in the first Invictus Games. He captained the men’s trike team, in a race that would prove pivotal in his recovery. He says:
“I was there for gold, or so I thought. It was an individual race but we could work together to position better. After 40 minutes all three of us were well placed for the sprint finish, but when it came time to leave the others I couldn’t do it. We’d worked as a team in that race and at every point during our recovery. Why did I deserve gold any more than them? We could only come through and finish together. We crossed the finish line hand-in-hand. I knew then that I wasn’t alone. That I could achieve anything with the help of others.”
That image of JJ and his teammates, crossing together, defined the first Invictus Games. All three were awarded gold and JJ was later interviewed by Jonathan Edwards.
“I knew on the Monday after, I didn’t want to be an athlete,”
he says:
“When I spoke to Jonathan, I said ‘The next time we talk, I want to be sat in your chair. How do I do that?’”
That marked the start of a broadcasting career that’s gone from strength to strength. JJ was a presenter at the Rio Paralympics, got involved in the D-Day Memorial coverage and had just wrapped up broadcasting from the Leeds triathlon the day before his talk.
JJ finished with some advice for listeners about staying positive post-pandemic:
“My recovery will never be complete. But my support network looks after me. When you’re at the end of a pointy spear, it’s the people behind you that power you. Whether you’re going onto the battlefield, onto the bike, or on air.”
He continued:
“I encourage people to take little victories and learn from little slip-ups. In the last year I was able to look at the circumstances imposed on us and wonder ‘How do I make the best of these?’”
He finished by saying:
“Keep on going. Keep on smiling. We’ll all get there together.”
JJ was joined by Trevor Fudger from Help for Heroes, the charity providing lifelong recovery support to service personnel who have been wounded or injured in the line of duty. He mentioned how the work they do can send an ex service person down a new path where they still get meaning and purpose outside of service. Thanks to our donors, the BigChange network raised £630 for their cause.
Next month, we’ll hear from John Stiles, the former professional footballer, son of 1966 World Cup-winner Nobby Stiles and campaigner raising awareness of dementia in football. Our charity partner will be Head for Change, for whom John is an ambassador. We hope to see you again then.
Best Companies has officially recognised BigChange as an ‘Outstanding Company to Work For’, granting the business a coveted two-star accreditation.
BigChange has been ranked in the UK’s Top 50 Technology Companies to Work For (39th) and The 75 Best Companies to Work For in Yorkshire and The Humber (51st).
It joins the likes of Intuit QuickBooks on the Technology list, which celebrates companies with outstanding employee engagement.
“Here at BigChange, we’ve made it our mission to build an inclusive company full of talented, engaged people. That is fundamentally the right thing to do and it also makes us more successful. I’m incredibly proud that our employee engagement has been recognised as Outstanding. It shows how far we’ve come towards achieving our mission. And it shows what a strong position we’re in for a future of exciting growth driven by excellent people.”
Martin Port, Founder and CEO
BigChange was recognised for its Motivational Monday speakers, the way staff are encouraged to speak up through the BigVoice committee, and the achievement of a Queen’s Award for Enterprise.
Best Companies works with some of the world’s best-known organisations to measure, improve and recognise staff engagement in the workplace.
BigChange lets you automatically send worksheets to customers and save emails in your Notes at the push of a button. Read on to find out how.
The BigChange platform is designed to meet the needs of your business. An important part of that is automating repetitive, manual tasks, so you are free to focus on what matters most.
Automate Customer Feedback and Confirmation
For example, if you’re looking to get feedback or confirmation from customers, you don’t need to spend copious amounts of time chasing them up over the phone or email.
By using the ‘Third Party Worksheet’ feature, you can set an email to be automatically triggered by a Note or Job activity.
This can be useful in a few ways:
When you create a job activity, automatically send a worksheet to the customer for confirmation of job details, and include a list of additional services they may need.
When you complete a job activity, automatically send over a survey about how you performed.
If it’s important to receive confirmation before you start a job, you can prevent work being scheduled until this document has been completed.
Automatically Link Emails to Contacts Notes
Our next tip is to use the BigChange Outlook add-in to automatically link emails to your Contacts Notes.
The add-in icon is displayed on the ribbon at the top of Outlook, and allows you to seamlessly attach selected emails to your Contacts Notes. You can do this from your desktop Outlook app and Outlook Online.
If your contacts email you, you can add the email easily to an open Note, or create a new one.
If previous emails from the same contact have been saved, the add-in will automatically display the relevant Note. It can also recognise the email address and suggest Notes that might be relevant.
This helps you share information across your organisation quickly, and to store the information where you need it, in one place.
This video has more information on installing the add-in for individual machines and via Office 365 administration.
We hope these two tips help you save time in BigChange. We’ll be back again soon with more advice.
Fleet Dynamic, a commercial vehicle rental and leasing company, is using the latest mobile workforce management technology from BigChange to transform their fleet management.
Providing complete automation across the entire hire and leasing lifecycle, the cloud-based, 5-in-1 solution from BigChange has helped Fleet Dynamic switch to paperless working. BigChange has also contributed to a 30 percent improvement in workshop efficiency as well as a reduction in lost charges and operating costs.
“Before BigChange, all parts of the process, from hire request through to delivery ticket, were paper-based. We couldn’t attach additional information such as photographs, essential information including vehicle or customer details were often not captured and retrieving data to resolve queries was difficult, now, with BigChange, every time a customer account is touched, a digital record of the interaction is made, and every time a vehicle is sent out its every movement is recorded. This has helped us become paperless, which was timely in view of the pandemic as we wanted to eliminate the handling of paperwork to minimise the risk posed by the virus.”
Terry Stockwell, Sales and Marketing Director, Fleet Dynamic
With headquarters in Wigan, Fleet Dynamic was established in 2009 with the aim of providing customers with a one-stop solution for all their vehicle requirements. A comprehensive vehicle rental and leasing service includes cars, vans and a full range of specialist vehicles, for example 4 x4 double cab pickups and seven-seater welfare vehicles. The company also provides a range of interior and exterior corporate signage and Health & Safety signs as well as a ply lining business for bespoke vehicle interiors. Fleet Dynamic is a multi-award winning company and includes Manchester City Council amongst its client base.
Using the single-platform CRM, Job Scheduling, Mobile App, Vehicle Tracking and Online Portal from BigChange has enabled Fleet Dynamic to remove paper forms and reports from its hire and lease operation. Hire requests, delivery tickets, on-hire and off-hire details are all digitally recorded by drivers using mobile devices or office-based staff using PCs. This information is then available, 24/7, from any internet-enabled device giving management total visibility of the mobile operation. Fleet Dynamic also uses the BigChange asset tracking system to provide additional intelligence and security for its corporate account customers.
Stockwell continued:
“The capture and sharing of intelligence means we can effectively manage the fleet, monitoring downtime and forward planning for servicing and MOT events. This has contributed to more efficient use of workshop time with savings of around 30 percent. Additional savings have been achieved as a result of a reduction in missed recharges and the fact we no longer have to pay for specialist software, such as an HR platform, as BigChange does it all.”
