Hello, BigChange community! I'm Charlie, and I am thrilled to share some exciting updates from the Product team as I enter my 5th year at BigChange. I've had the pleasure of growing alongside this dynamic company, starting in our support team, formerly known as "RoadCrew, and transitioning to the product team two years ago.
This journey has been incredibly fulfilling, from directly supporting our customers to shaping their platform. It's a privilege to apply the insights from my earlier role to create solutions that make a real difference.
Putting Customers at the Heart of Development
At BigChange, our customers are at the heart of everything we do in the product team. I love speaking with customers face to face and witnessing firsthand how our system transforms their businesses and daily operations.
Observing BigChange in action provides an understanding of the areas where we can make a more significant impact. One of the key parts of my role is understanding the various tasks our users aim to complete – whether it's raising an invoice or scheduling many PPM visits to meet their contractual obligations. Our goal is to make these processes as seamless as possible
I am excited to share some of the developments we've been working on to achieve that!
Recent Developments: Enhancing User Experience:
- Job finance lines – One of the latest features we've been working on is refining our Job Finance Lines, which is currently in a closed beta programme. We know many of our users spend a lot of time on this page, creating invoices from job rates and managing purchase orders for materials. Our goal with this development is to modernise the user interface, making it easier to gain insights into the current financial aspects of each job. By changing the way data presented, users can now see un-invoiced items and separate costs between labour, materials, and travel.
- Schedule all - As highlighted in our recent innovate webinars, we've also launched a new mass scheduling solution that has revolutionised how our customers handle large volumes of work. Scheduling hundreds of jobs may seem daunting, but our new tool significantly simplifies the process. Users can now optimise their engineers' schedules by automating route planning, saving time and reducing unnecessary travel. For some, this has already saved up to 1,000 miles of driving per day compared to manual scheduling – a clear win for efficiency, sustainability and reducing costs!
Shaping the Future: Asset Management Transformation
Looking ahead, my team is working hard on a project that will fundamentally transform how our customers manage their assets and related tasks.
Over the past year, we've conducted extensive research. We spoke with hundreds of customers to understand their journey with PPM (Planned Preventative Maintenance) and identify areas where our product could offer greater support.
My vision is to elevate assets to the core of the BigChange platform, affording them their own history and data. This will enable better reporting and an enhanced mobile device experience for engineers in the field. For example, engineers will soon be able to identify assets by their specific sub-locations, capture photos, and access comprehensive service histories directly from their mobile devices.
This minimum viable product (MVP) is just the beginning, paving the way for exciting advancements like IOT monitoring and AI-driven insights.
Looking Forward with Collaboration
We're currently in the build phase but eager to involve our customers early in the process. We can gather feedback and refine the product based on real-world use by offering early software versions for testing.
The initial reactions have been incredibly positive, and I can't wait to see how these new developments will benefit our customers on a larger scale. I'd love to hear from you if you're interested in getting involved or learning more. Please contact your customer success representative or connect with me directly.
Thank you for being a part of our journey at BigChange. Together, we're shaping the future of field service management, one innovation at a time.
All the best,
Charlie Thacker
Product Manager, BigChange
