As another year draws to a close, I’d like to reflect on all we have achieved here at BigChange. This year has surpassed all our forecasts – like many business leaders; we expected a difficult 12 months because of political upheaval and the sudden biting recession and cost of living crisis.
Despite these challenges, our team has outperformed our wildest expectations, our customers have thrived, and our ground-breaking technology has attracted many new businesses – large and small – into the fold. Our customer numbers are up, revenues are soaring, and we are moving ever closer to our ultimate ambition – to be a “unicorn” business and the global brand leader in our industry.
Here's an overview of our year to date.
The best in class
Our platform continues to outperform all our rivals, and the proof is in our numbers: over the past year, new contract wins are up 40% on 2021, generating £33m in new business for BigChange.
We welcomed nearly 400 new customers this year, taking our total to 2,000. Across the globe, some 80,000 individuals use our technology day in and day out, which is an incredible achievement.
Our technology now supports every function within our customers’ organisations, and we logged 30m transactions in total over the past year, as companies created jobs and invoices, tracked vehicles and tools, logged time sheets and processed expenses. BigChange is truly the architecture underpinning business success: some £2bn-worth of invoices were delivered through our platform.
A diverse and thriving customer base
We built BigChange to be the partner of choice for companies of all sizes across every industry. We are proud to say that we now boast customers across 60 sectors, from one-man bands to multinational enterprises.
This year alone, we have welcomed an impressive range of new clients, including EFT Systems, which does everything from sprinklers and fire alarms to cyber security and CCTV; fleet installations specialist RS Connect; ventilation expert EnviroVent; RGE Services, which protects people and property through fire and electrical compliance; Edinmore Contracts, the building insurance and maintenance contractor; property repair specialist Merlin; Shenton Global, which has over 30 years experience in the supply, installation and maintenance of critical diesel power systems; Motivair Compressors; and Kaboodle, the independent installer of white goods.
Helping our customers become more resilient
The beauty of BigChange is that we grow only when we help our customers become more successful: it’s a virtuous circle. This year, we have continued to drive efficiencies and cost savings across the board. DBS, a specialist in the repair and maintenance of petroleum forecourt structures and retail sites, has boosted operational productivity by 20%. J W Hinchliffe (Tanks), a specialist in fuel tank services, has boosted its annual turnover by 35% following the introduction of a BigChange job management system. While new build after-care specialist A&S has used our mobile workforce technology to double its business to a £5m turnover in two years.
We call our dedication to customer service “Customer Obsession”. This year, RoadCrew has supported over 100,000 calls, emails and self-service requests. Onboarding is a crucial part of the BigChange journey, but it doesn’t end there, and our Customer Success team works tirelessly to nurture existing customers and help them get even more out of our technology.
As we continue to improve the lives of our customers, it’s been great to see our Customer learning team launch our Digital BigChange University. There are now 67 online modules; over 21,000 modules have now been completed by our customers (that’s 11,000 hours of online training!). The BigChange help centre has had over 130,000 page views allowing our customers to get the support they need instantly!
People power
We have strengthened and grown our BigChange sales and marketing team by adding an extra 60% headcount to the most knowledgeable team of experts in the industry.
The team here at BigChange is our most valuable asset. We are blessed to have the most innovative, hard-working and dedicated colleagues in the industry. As we have grown the business, we have recruited new BigChangers and given our existing team new responsibilities and opportunities.
To ensure that our unstoppable, entrepreneurial, and customer-centric culture remains at the heart of our business, we have worked hard in 2022 to define what it means to be a successful BigChanger. This led to us launching the BigChange Leadership Principles, which apply to all of us and are embedded in our customer interactions, our recruitment and the way we judge success.
Spreading the word
Like most companies, BigChange became a remote-first company during the pandemic, but I’m delighted that, this year, we have been getting out and about again.
We set ourselves the mission to create an established events calendar consisting of 14 tradeshows across a variety of industries. We attended those exhibitions, showing attendees how we can help their business become unstoppable. Next year, we are setting our sights even higher and have 30 shows on the calendar.
We have also entertained many customers and prospects at our Leeds United box and are looking forward to the last game of 2022: Leeds v Manchester City.
International ambition
Our team in France has continued to drive the business forward. BigChange France is now fast approaching 100 customers, which is an incredible result.
Meanwhile, our Partnerships team has continued to build upon the successes of our international resellers, establishing new relationships in both Canada and Greece. Our resellers in New Zealand, Australia, and Cyprus, have all seen continued growth in 2022. We now have 130 customers in these countries.
Technological advances
Over the past year, BigChange Technology has lived up to its name, and we have increased investment into innovation. This has enabled us to start delivering even more value into the BigChange platform.
We now have a data warehouse with new dashboards (currently in beta) that will be going to general release early in the new year. We have transformed the foundations of our Job Finance function, helping our customers to better understand profitability, work in progress, and forecasting. We have enhanced our group job functionality to allow for greater control over multi-job projects. We have launched a completely new look and feel to our booking site that resizes for any device.
Alongside all this, we have developed a very exciting roadmap for 2023 that will see lots of great new functions for Job Finance, Business Intelligence and Job Management.
Making a positive impact
In 2022 BigChange took a major step on the road to Net Zero by carrying out its first carbon audit and putting in place a carbon reduction plan and commitment to be carbon neutral this year through offsetting.
Our BigChangers have carried out litter picking, lobbied for better recycling and worked with our local business park to encourage car sharing and other joint sustainability initiatives. We know that BigChange helps our customers be more sustainable through its reporting of driver behaviour, scheduling and job visibility, and we will be focusing on understanding how we can improve this support in 2023.
We have also continued our proud history of charitable donations in 2022 through a series of employee-led initiatives to help our community. With our wonderful Customer Success Director, the unstoppable Tansy Sheehy, leading the charge, we have organized food bank collections, a day in the community at Living Potential care farm, clothing donations, volunteering at St George’s Crypt to support the homeless, and our Christmas Party with a Purpose where BigChangers overwhelmed us with their generosity buying presents for the homeless and teenagers in care.
Awards for BigChange
Our dedication to the team helped BigChange to achieve a Best Companies 2* Award in 2022, which means we continue to be an outstanding employer. We also completed our re-certification in ISO27001 in October. Other awards include: Lloyds Bank British Business Excellence Award, Virgin Atlantic & Delta Air Lines Business Enabler of the Year, a ranking in the GP Bullhound Northern Tech Top 100 Companies, and Mid-Market Corporate of the Year at the Yorkshires Business Awards.
Thank you all for your ongoing support. I – and all of us here at BigChange – wish you a joyful festive season.
