BigChange Technology Helps Millane Keep on Top of Workforce Health and Safety

Millane Contract Services is using BigChange mobile workforce technology to bolster workforce health and safety. The cloud-based, 5-in-1-system BigChange is being used to monitor driver behaviour, complete on-site risk assessments and ensure the company’s maintenance engineers are free from COVID symptoms and ready for work.

The BigChange system is also helping the multi-discipline building, roofing and maintenance company automate communications between staff, management and customers, which in turn is boosting job completion rates, speeding invoicing and improving cashflow across the Essex-based business.

Stephen Rickwood, Maintenance Manager at Millane Contract Services commented:

“Driven by the Board, we initially looked at BigChange last year.”
“At the time trade was impacted by the lockdown, as many of our customers are in the retail and hospitality sectors, so in a way that gave us breathing space to look at better ways of working and what’s important to our business.”

Rickwood continued:

“The main drivers for implementing BigChange were workforce wellbeing and business preparedness.”
“BigChange will help us ensure our workforce is happy, safe and well, and that our business is as ready as it can be for whatever the future throws at us as we return to the new normal.”

A family run business headquartered in Basildon, Essex, Millane offers a national service, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. The maintenance division, comprising a nationwide team of field-based service engineers supported by contract managers and a dedicated helpdesk team, provides both planned and reactive maintenance for brands such as Pizza Express, The Range, Cosy Club and The Entertainer.

BigChange provides a single platform CRM, Job Scheduling, Mobile App, Vehicle Tracking and Online Portal. Using the system, Millane has introduced a range of ‘start of shift’ checks for each remote worker ensuring they are ready to work and free of COVID symptoms. Vehicle and equipment checks are also in place and BigChange is being used by management to improve driver behaviour with alerts for idling, speeding and harsh braking, for example. The BigChange mobile app, can also be used to prompt engineers to complete on-site risk assessments and access previously completed method statements.

Rickwood concluded:

“Although our initial focus was our workforce and ensuring the business was ready to bounce back after lockdown, we know BigChange has so much more to offer.”
“We are excited to explore the full potential of BigChange and build on the processes and benefits already in place.”

Millane back office employee using the BigChange system

Heavy-lift transport specialist HTF has deployed the latest mobile technology as part of a real-time paperless system that has transformed the business in 6 months.

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Leeds, 01 April 2021 – Skratch AV, one of the UK’s leading innovators in audio video and digital signage, has achieved significant business growth and market prominence since implementing mobile workforce management technology from BigChange.

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Leeds, 24 March 2021 – Plant and machinery tracking specialist R&R Direct has seen significant business growth since implementing mobile workforce management technology from BigChange during the pandemic.

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Leeds, 18 March 2021 – Heatforce, the Cardiff-based national heating company, has used the latest mobile technology to boost its independent customer service rating by 25 percent in just 6 months.

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Leeds, 16 March 2021 – When it comes to the digital transformation of public services, Sheffield City Council has taken a pioneering approach to improving how key services are delivered, working in partnership with BigChange.

BigChange’s cutting-edge mobile workforce system, has already improved the efficiency, compliance and performance of several key services, as well as the day-to-day experience of service users and council employees.

This report details how Sheffield City Council, working in partnership with BigChange, has transformed how several of its services are delivered:

Smart job scheduling and vehicle tracking has improved the efficiency and quality of Sheffield’s Special Educational Needs Transport service, and saved thousands of hours a year.
Digitising compliance checks in facilities management has improved coordination of inspection teams and made reporting more manageable in the field.
By employing smarter logistics in social housing maintenance, Sheffield has reduced driving time and CO2 emissions, and achieved a 33% increase in on-time deliveries.
By replacing paper-based reporting with a digital solution, Sheffield has made flood-protection inspections faster and more responsive.
BigChange helped Sheffield establish an outstanding Covid-19 PPE distribution scheme, enabling a small team to coordinate the delivery of over 20 million PPE items to 500 contacts a month.
Sheffield is leading the way in remote workforce management for cleaning services, enabling a team of three people to coordinate and support the activities of 124 cleaners, remotely.

Click here to read the full report

Leeds, 11 March 2021 – Facilities management company Nserv has boosted management productivity by 70 per cent after rolling out a new digital system for its direct contract work.

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Leeds, 04 March 2021 – BigChange’s mobile workforce management technology is helping HRG Tree Surgeons achieve its bold ambition to be one of the UK’s top 100 best business to work for.

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Leeds, 25 February 2021 – Mobile workforce management technology from BigChange is powering business transformation at one of the UK’s largest generator rental companies.

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Leeds, 18 February 2021 – Blount Shutters is fixing 9-out-of-10 faults on industrial doors and roller shutters at the first visit following the introduction of the latest mobile workforce technology.

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Leeds, 26th January 2021 – Energy metering company Providor has transformed its business with the latest mobile technology to become one of the UK’s primary smart metering companies.

With the roll-out of a mobile resource management system from Leeds-based BigChange, Providor has replaced a number of systems and eliminated paperwork with the fully digital real-time works and management solution.

Providor, part of the Sureserve Group, has been working in the field of gas metering since 1998 and has completed well over a million successful installations across the country. With 250 mobile engineers the company installs, maintains and repairs metering systems in domestic and commercial properties for UK energy suppliers including Scottish Power, Octopus, EDF Energy, and E Gas and Electricity.

In moving into smart metering Providor needed to prepare for increased data capture and digital reporting to meet the stringent performance requirements of the energy majors. Realising that their existing systems were not up to the job to meet their ambitious business expansion plans, the company reviewed the top solutions on offer.

Luke Harris, Information Systems Manager commented:

“BigChange stood out from the rest with particularly good job scheduling and an excellent mobile app with digital job cards that would clearly do everything we needed well into the future”.

The cloud-based solution provides a single platform CRM, Job Scheduling, Mobile App, Vehicle Tracking and Online Portal and this was a key factor in their choice according to Harris.

“Probably the biggest appeal was that with BigChange we could bring everything together; a single system from order to invoice as a complete end-to-end business system.”

Smart meters are electronic devices that replace traditional meters recording gas or electricity use, connected wirelessly to utility companies for more accurate monitoring.

Providor’s engineers complete over 1200 jobs a day using JobWatch, the BigChange mobile app, and there are over 100 other users of the system in customer services and operations, located at the company’s call centre in Elland and head office in Newmarket.

Running on engineers’ rugged devices, JobWatch eliminates paper reports and provides automated workflows to ensure correct procedures are followed. The electronic job cards ensure the correct data is collected and supported by photographs to provide evidence of work done. A customer portal meanwhile allows customers to access contracts and key information such as meter readings and photographs from each job.

Luke explained:

“JobWatch is a ‘compliance dream’ as it gives auditors full visibility of jobs live and it is also fantastic for customer service. Whether a job is successfully completed or not we know exactly what’s going on and can provide instant updates backed by the facts to quickly resolve any issues”.

He added:

“Providor is a successful growing business and with BigChange everything is in place to allow us to expand and continually improve our own business performance. It really helps with customer interaction as well and our utility customers are always impressed with the visibility that JobWatch provides – helping them meet their own performance standards”.

Leeds, 08 February 2021 – Northern Catering Equipment, a supplier and installer of commercial catering equipment, is winning seventy per cent more contracts since implementing mobile workforce management technology from BigChange.

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Leeds, UK, 2 February 2021 – BigChange, the mobile workforce management technology company, today announced that EDF has selected its pioneering JobWatch system to support the delivery of metering and energy services in the UK.

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Leeds, 25 January 2021 – BigChange’s bespoke automation for gritting company Saltworks, part of the Works Services group of companies, uses Met Office data to drive efficiency and customer satisfaction. (more…)

Leeds, 14 January 2021 – Drainage company Rescue Rod has transformed its business after deploying new mobile working technology from BigChange during the first COVID lockdown. (more…)

Leeds, 07 January 2021 – Facilities maintenance company Kiwi FM has increased productivity by 20 percent since it introduced mobile workforce management technology from BigChange.

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Leeds, 17 December 2020 – Water conservation specialist Aqualogic has deployed the latest mobile workforce management technology to help locate and manage millions of pounds of water company assets.

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Leeds, 08 December 2020 – Cinderella Support Service, the nationwide provider of facilities management and building cleaning services, has boosted its business by £100k a year following the introduction of a new mobile system.

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Leeds, 03 December 2020 – Balloo Hire, one of Ireland’s leading tool and plant hire companies, has significantly reduced the resource required to manage its mobile operation whilst boosting customer service and minimising its environmental impact thanks to mobile workforce management technology from BigChange.

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Leeds, 25 November 2020 – Telecommunications company, Locktel, has transformed its operations with a new mobile workforce management system from BigChange.

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Leeds, 16 November 2020 – Industrial conveyor belt and rubber lining specialist Strathclyde Vulcanising Services (SVS) has rolled out a cloud-based mobile workforce management solution from BigChange. SVS field service engineers have been equipped with rugged tablets as part of a complete management system for paperless working that is improving efficiency, productivity and customer service.

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Leeds, 10 November 2020 – Industrial Door Services (IDS), has rolled out a new generation mobile workforce management system from Leeds-based BigChange.

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Leeds, 04 November 2020 – The UK’s largest rental equipment company Sunbelt Rentals has boosted productivity of its plant delivery operations by as much as 30 percent following the introduction of new technology from Leeds-based BigChange.

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Leeds, 29th October 2020 – WhiffAway, leaders in waterless urinal technology and smart washroom solutions, is using mobile workforce management technology from Leeds-based BigChange to improve the flow of information as it bounces back from the COVID-19 lockdown.

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Leeds, 13th October 2020 – RFM Group, one of Yorkshire’s largest property maintenance companies, is rolling out a high tech mobile workforce management system.

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Leeds, 5th October 2020 – Outdoor lighting group CU Phosco Lighting has invested in the latest mobile workforce management technology from Leeds-based BigChange.

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Leeds, 15th September 2020 – When Michael Cairns, Director of Celsius Plumbing and Heating, came to BigChange, his expanding company was quickly outgrowing its old service provider.
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Leeds, 10th September 2020 – Gas, heating and boiler engineering company Moorhouse Heating Limited (MHL) has transformed from a regional to national business following the introduction of a new mobile workforce management technology from Leeds-based BigChange.

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Leeds, 25th August 2020 – Modular building specialists MPB Installations (MPBI) has seen a boom in business since implementing the latest mobile workforce management technology from BigChange.

The company’s installation and service teams have been equipped with rugged tablets that synchronise with office management software as part of a paperless, real time system. MPBI has won significant new contracts thanks to the instant electronic reporting and services improvements provided by the system.

MPBI has a 15-year track record in installing and relocating modular and portable buildings for the construction, facilities, sports and leisure industries. Based in Beverley, East Yorkshire, the company handles projects of any size and complexity from installing multi-storey modular accommodation blocks to providing onsite support service covering major sports events; all backed by 24/7 rapid response maintenance services.

MPBI’s mobile operatives have replaced all their paperwork – such as job sheets, safety checks and timesheets – using JobWatch, the 5 in 1 app from BigChange. The app also links to vehicle trackers and is used to capture photographs to provide indisputable proof of work completed and any issues on site.

Dan Shepherdson, General Manager at MPBI commented:

“BigChange really has transformed our business eliminating paper, improving resource allocation and providing complete visibility of all jobs.”

“The biggest benefit however is to our customer service where honesty and transparency are central to building trust with the customer; BigChange ensures we can deliver this and by providing an exceptional level of service we’ve already increased our business by up to 20 percent this year.”

MPBI’s business is complex as jobs vary considerably and often involve third parties such as crane operators and hauliers. Planned contract work and new orders loaded into the BigChange schedular for automatic allocation, optimising resources and routes. Live reports from JobWatch coupled with tracking keep management and customers services fully informed and the system auto-generates customer communications such as estimated arrival time and completed job sheets.

“BigChange provides MPBI with an end-to-end business solution so we can manage everything from initial order to job completion. It’s making it much easier to manage the work and operations are a lot smoother. With real time reports, tracking data and photos from site, disputes with customers are very much a thing of the past. It’s good for business in every sense.”

MPBI has been particularly impressed with the ease of use of the BigChange software according to Shepherdson:

“There is always resistance to change especially when it involves a switch from paper to digital. Fortunately BigChange has kept things as simple as possible and during the COVID-19 Lockdown we found BigChange Webinars a great help and the Road Crew have been brilliant – someone is always available to help.

Leeds, 19th August 2020 – Specialist vehicle company Bence has rolled out the latest mobile workforce management technology from BigChange.

Bence field service and workshop engineers have been equipped with rugged tablet devices as part of a complete management system for paperless working that is improving efficiency, productivity and customer service.

Bence design and build specialist vehicles and trailers that include everything from emergency vehicles to mobile units for MRI scanning, endoscopy, breast-screening, command and control and motorsport workshops. The Bristol-based company also provides transportation, servicing and rentals of units.

Bence field service engineers, who provide 24/7 rapid-response services nationwide, use JobWatch the 5 in 1 app that synchronises in real-time with cloud-based BigChange software for managing the entire operation from transportation, to installation, scheduled maintenance and emergency call out. Engineers in the Bence workshop have also been equipped with tablets and JobWatch.

The system is completely replacing paper records providing Bence with around the clock visibility of operations, from scheduled maintenance and refurbishment in the workshop to engineers servicing and fixing units on site. Onsite work is typically scheduled out of hours.

Conrad Stanley, Service Manager at Bence commented:

“Many of our vehicle and mobile units are deployed in critical work at the frontline so we have to maintain exceptional levels to minimise downtime.”

“Through BigChange we now have real-time, 24/7, visibility of our mobile operations and this has completely transformed the way we work and allowed us to provide a better, more dynamic service.”

With the outbreak of Coronavirus Bence saw a significant increase in demand from hospitals needing mobile units for undertaking screening and treatment in separate COVID-safe areas.

“It was fortunate we had BigChange up and running when the COVID-19 crisis hit – having a fully digital, paperless system made a lot easier coping with the surge in demand”.

Bence typically recalls their specialist vehicles and mobile units once a year for major servicing in the workshop. Onsite servicing is undertaken at between 8 and 12 week intervals, with generators serviced every 200 hours.

As a complete end-to-end system BigChange incorporate job scheduling, route planning, vehicle tracking and comprehensive management reporting with the mobile app providing a complete job management tool. For engineers, the JobWatch app has replaced their paper time-sheets, job- sheets and inspection reports and the devices offer navigation and image capture.

Bence find the tracking really useful giving visibility on where engineers are so they no longer need to be called on route. It means that customers can be informed on the expected arrival time of their engineer.

Stanley concluded:

“That’s a really good addition to customer service especially as we are in such a critical, time sensitive area. The other big benefit is that we can dynamically schedule jobs during the day to optimise their time and do extra jobs; something that was impossible before”.

“We also really like the photo-capture allowing engineers to record their work and issues such as damage to units so we can assess what work and parts are required.”

Leeds, 4th August 2020 – The North East’s largest housing association, Thirteen is transforming its facilities management (FM) services with new mobile workforce management technology supplied by Leeds-based BigChange.

The system, which incorporates CRM, job scheduling, a customer portal, vehicle tracking and a mobile app, is helping to improve services, reduce costs and boost productivity.

Thirteen’s facilities management team provides services such as grounds maintenance, estate care, caretaker and cleaning services to its 70,000 customers.

Michael Hall, Senior FM manager at Thirteen commented:

“Previously we relied on a combination of paper records and spreadsheets and with the volume of work we had it was clear we needed to replace what was a cumbersome, largely manual system”.

“BigChange has transformed the way we work by eliminating paper and providing complete visibility of our work.”

Thirteen’s mobile teams carry out planned and reactive maintenance. Equipped with tablets running the 5 in 1 JobWatch mobile app linked to real-time vehicle tracking, the devices are used for everything from vehicle inspections, COVID-19 safety checks and electronic job sheets linked to photographs from site.

“JobWatch gives us a live 24/7 view of all our work; scheduled and reactive. It’s the data that the system collects and processes that is really useful. We have real insight into our actual costs and performance – something we simply didn’t have before. Now we can look at our performance against what are more realistic targets”.

“Already we’ve been able to halve daily mileage, reducing wasted travelling time and costs and we expect we will be able to dramatically improve our productivity through better resource planning, allocation and coordination”.

Rolling out the new system has proved easier than expected.

Michael clarified:

“We are always busy, so we expected this to be a challenge, but remarkably just one person was able to set up and manage the implementation of BigChange – it was that easy and the support was great”.

The other anticipated issue was in persuading colleagues about the benefits of the new system.

“One factor we did not anticipate was Coronavirus. Thirteen continued to provide services to customers during the COVID-19 lockdown and that meant introducing safety procedures for our colleagues. Immediately we were able to introduce a COVID-19 safe working procedure using JobWatch – an app that everyone embraced straight away”.

For Thirteen tablets quickly became the accepted way of working, but as a cloud solution, the BigChange system itself also allowed major operational changes to be made quickly. This included working from home and negated the need for teams to come into the office at the start of the day.

“Suddenly we switched to complete mobile working and our teams simply working from home saving at lot of time and mileage. We can track departure and arrival times and without the depot visits productivity is much better and it has been a real transformation – everyone is very happy with the change”.

Russell Thompson, Executive Director commended:

“The system now gives us vital management information. We can now measure things and for the first time we have been able to introduce an optimal delivery model. That means we can do more work in less time allowing us to improve the value of services to our customers”.

The BigChange solution includes a booking app that Thirteen feel offers great potential.

Thompson concluded:

“This web portal facility is a brilliant addition to BigChange as it allows jobs to be booked through a very simple app. This means managers, caretakers and other frontline staff can request a service via the app while onsite and the job can be scheduled immediately. This eliminates delays getting paperwork signed off – we’ll be a lot quicker and more efficient as we roll out this handy tool.”

Europump has turned to mobile and cloud technology to expand its fuel pump maintenance services within the commercial fleet sector.

Using the latest mobile workforce management technology from Leeds-based BigChange, Europump has developed what it believes is an industry first level of service in the design, supply, installation, service and maintenance of commercial fuelling solutions.

The cloud-based and mobile system provides real time synchronisation between Europump’s office and field service engineers using the JobWatch 5 in 1 mobile app. Providing a complete end to end business system replacing all paperwork, it has already been deployed by parent company Eurotank and across Europump’s existing services to fuel filling stations.

Jack Aplin, Director, Eurotank commented:

“Fleet operators work in a demanding industry where schedules are critical and reliable equipment is crucial; a fleet of buses or trucks could well depend on one or two pumps to fuel up.”

“There is clearly a demand for a service company that can maintain all types of pumps and that is exactly what Europump do.”

“Speed, communication and professionalism of our response is as important as our engineering capability and BigChange has been absolutely vital to our approach to the market and the winning of new business. It underpins the whole service offering and gives us a distinct competitive edge.”

Europump’s engineers are equipped with tablets running the JobWatch linked to vehicle trackers as part of a real-time system that gives customer service staff and management complete 24/7 visibility of the field operations. The office uses BigChange cloud-based CRM, scheduling and business software all seamlessly linked together with operations as a complete end-to end solution.

Aplin explained:

“Being fully digital, cloud based and completely free of paperwork proved critical during the COVID-19 lockdown. “We literally flicked a switch and were all instantly up and running from home. Coupled with video conferencing we just carried on working as normal.”

Since the initial implementation of BigChange last year, Europump has been focusing on enhancing services to the commercial sector. One development, managing stock, has in particular provided very significant service and financial benefits.

Traditionally engineers would identify faults on a first visit and if required order parts for collection at the depot before returning to site. With commercial fleet fuel services, pump uptime is paramount and Europump knew first time repair would be a crucial measure of their performance and reputation. Now the company has used BigChange to completely automate stock ordering and replenishment to keep vans fully stocked to minimise return visits to site.

Aplin concluded:

“With this automated stock management capability on BigChange we have completely transformed our business. By virtually eliminating return to sites and improving our first time fix performance literally 10-fold we are saving all that unnecessary engineer time and cost. We anticipate this development will bring a £100,000 a year boost to the business through improved productivity and service.”

H2O FlowTech has successfully rolled out the latest mobile workforce management technology from Leeds-based BigChange.

As part of a digital transformation replacing paper throughout the company, the new system combines back office management software with a mobile app to support rapid expansion of H2O’s business.

H2O specialise in the installation, maintenance and repair of pumps, pumping stations and sewage treatment plants. The Bury-based company looks after over 600 different pumping stations, operating in the North West in an area extending from North Wales to Yorkshire, Cumbria and Midlands.

Private pumping stations and treatment plants – usually buried underground – are owned by local authorities, commercial property companies and private estate owners. With new waste legislation coming into force in January 2020 to limit the use of certain types of septic tanks, H2O has seen a surge in business for plants that treat sewage and discharge clean, safe water.

Mick Brindle, Director, H2O FlowTech commented:

“Our largely paper based system was cumbersome and slow, and dealing with paper forms was difficult outdoors in poor weather. With the increasing demand for our equipment and services we knew we’d be overwhelmed with paperwork if we didn’t switch to a digital system,”

H2O vans are fitted with BigChange vehicle trackers and the two-person teams use JobWatch the 5 in 1 app that provides digital versions of all paper forms. JobWatch synchronises in real time with the office giving H2O operations complete 24/7 visibility of engineer movements and job status.

Lead engineers are equipped with rugged tablets and their assistants run the app on their mobile phones. Photographs taken on site for evidence of work completed such as newly installed pumps and control panels are provided as part of instant digital reports to customers.

Mick continued:

“With BigChange we’ve considerably increased our turnover without needing any extra staff. We are more productive and have much better visibility. The data is all collected in one hit and this is a big improvement and the digital job reporting is a tremendous step up – customers are very
impressed especially with the supporting photos from site showing work completed.”

H2O are finding BigChange is very useful for emergency work. If there is an equipment breakdown a job is created and simply dragged into the scheduler which instantly schedules the work. JobWatch also provides access to records of previous work done at a site which is proving a real asset to engineers arriving on a job.

H2O see BigChange as important for expanding allowing the company to work nationally. The system is also seen as key to securing and winning larger contracts with facilities management companies who need to provide electronic records to their customers.

Mick explained:

“With BigChange everything is at our fingertips and it is synchronised with Sage giving us total visibility of the business – margins on jobs, cash flow and we can keep a close eye on quotes and invoicing. From our mobiles we can immediately see what’s going on across the business including the status of every job. This means we can work from anywhere”

Mick concluded:

“In fact during Coronavirus lockdown we’d have been completely floored without BigChange. If we’d still been paper-based we simply couldn’t have done our job – as things were customers did not see any change at all.”

Metroline Fire & Security has implemented high tech mobile workforce management technology from Leeds-based BigChange. The cloud based system that combines back office software with a mobile app has replaced a number of different systems with a real-time management and operational system that has proved invaluable for delivering services during the Coronavirus crisis.

Folkstone-based Metroline Fire & Security design, install and maintain fire alarms, intruder alarms, access control and CCTV systems for commercial and residential clients throughout Kent and East Sussex. The BigChange system, which went live in January 2020, has replaced an ageing job management software and a separate vehicle tracking system.

“BigChange has enabled us to undertake a complete digital transformation of our business, replacing a series of separate systems giving us a single view and total visibility of the business” says Paul Roberts, Director Metroline Fire & Security.

Running a fleet of 25 vehicles – tracked as part of the BigChange system – the company’s engineers use JobWatch a 5 in 1 mobile phone app that synchronises in real time with the central office CRM and scheduling system.

Paul commented:

“BigChange has already provided Metroline with significant improvements in productivity and customer service and during the Coronavirus crisis it has allowed us to continue to operate seamlessly with no impact of our ability to deliver our services. On lockdown, everyone could work from home we were able to shut down the office and be up and running at home within one hour.”

With BigChange also we can change the way we operate we are looking at ways to stock up vehicles to use the stock facility on JobWatch.

Metroline installation and maintenance engineers receive jobs on their mobiles with the JobWatch app replacing all paperwork with electronic data entry for everything from job sheets, to vehicle checks and risk assessments. Linked to job sheets are photographs captured on site showing completed installations and repairs with control panels to provide evidence of ‘all working in order’.

Paul continued:

“The BigChange No Touch Signature Capture App has been especially useful allowing us to gain job sign-off without directly interacting with the customer. With hotels and schools closed our usual contacts are simply not at work with the No Touch feature supported by photos showing work completed we can easily get jobs signed off.”

Metroline has seen some immediate benefits in efficiency through improved scheduling and tracking allowing the optimisation of resources through pinpointing of the nearest available engineer and improved route planning to reduce unnecessary mileage.

National drainage company Eurotech Environmental has rolled out the latest mobile workforce management technology from BigChange.

The cloud-based and mobile system provides real time synchronisation between office and tanker operators using a 5 in 1 mobile app. Providing a complete end to end business system replacing all paperwork, Eurotech has seen a £1million increase in business since going live with BigChange last summer.

Established in 1991, Eurotech is one of the UK’s largest independent waste management companies providing national liquid waste tankering and drainage services.

Nick Banks, Operations Director at Eurotech Environmental commented:

“We had been looking for a suitable system for years but we couldn’t find one that could meet our needs. When BigChange came to demonstrate their system our jaws literally dropped to the ground; it was exactly what we were looking for”.

BigChange implementation of the JobWatch system began early 2019 and was fully implemented in 6 months. Eurotech employed the BigChange Professional Services team to create a completely automated system that mimicked everything that was being done manually before.

Banks continued:

“This was really important. We had honed our system over many years but it was still very much paper based and the business had grown to the point that we knew we needed to automate. However, we didn’t want to change anything and BigChange offered a truly flexible solution that has been successfully adapted for our needs”.

Central to Eurotech’s needs was a combined Job Sheet and Waste Transfer Notice with a job grouping capability for managing routes with tankers doing multiple jobs before disposal at a waste transfer station. This was one of a series of industry-leading developments pioneered by Eurotech and the result is a completely automated end-to-end system.

Banks commented:

“Optimisation of routes alone has saved almost 10 per cent on fuel and wage costs and our drivers no longer need to come to the office to collect their jobs. We are also much more reactive to emergency jobs as we know where everyone is and what they are doing – it’s fantastic to have this visibility”.

Tanker operators receive jobs and routes on tablets that they use for everything from vehicle and site safety checks, to job cards and accompanying compliance documentation. Coupled with vehicle tracking, the office has full visibility of all operations, nationwide, 24/7. Customers receive ETA notifications and on job completion they receive job tickets complete with photographs to prove ‘job done’. Waste transfer stations meanwhile receive automated emails of a tankers ETA with digital Waste Transfer Notices.

Banks noted:

“BigChange has completely transformed the way we work. Through improved efficiency and productivity we have seen a £1million boost to our business and are on track to double the size of our fleet. And customers are so impressed that I know we are winning more business thanks to the enhanced service we can now offer”.

“With Coronavirus lockdown, we’d have really struggled to deliver our services without BigChange. We can turn up at a home or a factory to empty a septic tank or collect waste, complete the job and then send the customer an immediate email with supporting photographs; we don’t need to interact at all and the customer probably didn’t even know we been onsite.”

He concluded:

“Since BigChange is cloud based and easily accessible anywhere, anytime, we can expand more easily nationwide as we don’t actually need an office – just somewhere to park our tankers”.

Joseph Port’s First Blog

A lot of things make me happy in life. I’m a big Leeds United fan. My family mean the world to me. I’m crazy about videogames and I love watching YouTube Bloggers. I have learning difficulties but I have never let them hold me back and I live life to the fullest.

But over the last couple of months, it has been a little harder to find reasons to smile. Unfortunately, because of my health, I have been shielded to protect me from COVID-19. This meant that I could no longer continue working at Living Potential Care Farm, an amazing place where people with disabilities can connect with nature.

My work there was always varied and I learned something new every day.

I loved feeding the animals, boxing up eggs to sell at the shop, and picking apples to make apple juice.

My job on the farm gave me structure, and made me feel that I was making a contribution to society. I made many wonderful friends there, and the job also helped me to keep fit!

I know that many people are struggling with being forced to stay home.

While I have found it wonderful (okay, occasionally annoying too!) to have so much time with the family, I don’t like feeling aimless.

So I have come up with an idea that will both help to give me direction, and benefit Living Potential, an organisation that has done so much for those of us with disabilities. I’m launching a new venture, creating and selling a range of high quality branded Living Potential t-shirts.

This will be a joint venture and I will receive £5 for every t-shirt sold. The rest of the money will go to Living Potential, helping to support existing projects and create more activities – demand for its services is growing rapidly at this time.

I believe that it is so important for those of us with learning disabilities to be able to make our own living. Selling is one of my strengths because I am a good communicator and I love meeting people.

I want to be independent and keep learning and honing my business skills. This is really important to my sense of self worth.

I’m so happy to be able to create a new business with a purpose, which raises awareness of the farm and proves that people with learning disabilities have drive and ambition.

I hope you’ll consider buying a t-shirt – they are available here.

Thanks for reading.

Michael Taylor – CEO – Contego Environmental Services: What BigChange Means to me

Firstly, I’d like to congratulate BigChange for receiving its Queens Award for Enterprise. It’s a phenomenal achievement and well deserved. BigChange makes a massive contribution to our business.

Contego started life in 2004 as a one-man-band specialising in bird control and has grown to become one of the largest national pest control businesses in the UK. BigChange has ensured our operations could keep up with that level of growth.

We’ve used BigChange for several years now, and it has transformed our business. It gives us complete visibility of our operations and allows us to manage our national workforce centrally from our base in County Durham.

I’ve always been an early adopter of digital technology and explored three or four other options before settling on BigChange. JobWatch pulls everything together. It allows us to run our business processes on a single piece of software.

The beauty of Jobwatch is that it’s customizable. We’ve created a series of dynamic processes to cover every stage of the employee journey, from induction to job worksheets and inspection documents. BigChange provides lots of support when we need it, and ensures the software does what we need it to.

BigChange has also enabled us to offer greater visibility to our customers. Using data from our worksheets, we can automatically make our customers aware of the threats and risks at their different sites.

BigChange is also central to our safety and compliance activities. Each of our people uses BigChange to complete their daily vehicle checks, which alerts our fleet manager to any problems and allows remedial work to be booked immediately.

Our risk assessments and workflows are also available on BigChange, guiding our technicians in the field and helping them complete work safely. We can see when things are done, and we’ve got access to a full audit trail.

I couldn’t recommend BigChange more highly. The technology is excellent and easy-to-use, and it has ensured that we’ve remained in control as our business has grown. It would have been much more challenging to grow at the speed we have been without BigChange.

Daniel Long – MD – Clearabee: What BigChange Means to me

Clearabee is the fastest growing waste management business in Europe and the UK’s largest clearance company. We employ 300 people across the UK and complete between 600 and 1,000 waste clearance jobs a day.

We’ve worked with BigChange since the early days of Clearabee, and it remains a critical pillar in our technology strategy. BigChange is integrated into all parts of our business and saves us a tremendous amount of time.

It provided us with a cutting edge in the early days of our business and has grown with us as we expanded.

Today, we run our business now using a combination of BigChange and our bespoke software. We make extensive use of BigChange’s API, and our developers can focus on creating other things to sit on top of the BigChange platform.

BigChange provides a solid foundation for that work. We don’t have to think about things like device management, data contracts, hosting large amounts of sensitive data, or uptime.

What we like most about the JobWatch platform is its versatility. The platform works for small and large companies alike. BigChange continues to add new features and new functionality. It is continuously innovating and adding to the system.

BigChange is a young, dynamic company, and an essential partner for Clearabee. You could say that we’ve grown up together and we are thrilled to see the success it has achieved.

On behalf of everyone here at Clearabee, congratulations to BigChange on winning a Queen’s Award for Enterprise. You deserve it.

CCR Property Services has transformed its business overnight with a switch to paperless mobile and COVID-19 home working using a cloud-based office and mobile workforce system from BigChange.

The Essex-based company provides essential property maintenance services such as emergency drainage and plumbing repairs for sectors that include social housing, hospitals and care homes.

Established in 2011 CCR has achieved preferred supplier status amongst key blue-chip property and facilities management companies and is also an approved contractor to local authorities, housing associations and health authorities. Specialising in drainage network repairs and cleaning, CCR operate a fleet of specialist vehicles and plant on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

CCR has equipped its mobile workforce with rugged tablets running JobWatch, the 5 in 1 mobile app from BigChange. The app synchronises in real time CCR’s office system that is normally accessed at the CCR head office in Basildon, Essex. The BigChange back office software which includes CRM, job scheduling and invoicing is cloud based which means that virtually the entire business is currently being run with staff and management working from home.

Reiss Monksfield, Director, CCR Property Services comments:

“Well before the Coronavirus crisis we had realised the potential of BigChange for flexible home working,”

“After our vitally-important accounts person finished maternity leave and wanted to spend more time at home we were able to accommodate flexible-hour, part-time home working. With the all the required software and data accessible online the accounting work has continued pretty much seamlessly with one less person in the office,”

“Now with the threat from COVID-19 we have sent virtually all the office staff home and it really is business as usual. Those living in the properties we service are often vulnerable so our emergency services are essential and with BigChange we can all be in control and run services remotely. I’ve no idea how we would have managed without a single cloud and mobile solution; BigChange really is paying dividends in this crisis,”

CCR was an early adopter of BigChange having realised that a single system that could perform both office and field service functions seamlessly was the way forward. The company had previously tried to deploy other systems but they failed to provide the scope, flexibility and modern technology considered to be crucial for supporting future business competitiveness and growth.

BigChange first went live in Spring 2018 and provide an all-in-one solution having replaced a number of different systems. As well as the tablets used by operatives, the fleet is fitted with BigChange trackers providing a real time view of the operation, allowing CCR to respond as efficiently and quickly as possible to call outs around the clock.

Monksfield continued:

“In just two years we’ve almost doubled our turnover and BigChange has allowed us to grow without increasing our administrative resources. In fact we have even more time now; no more scanning of paper reports, no more calling operatives to see where they are and no more sifting through piles of paperwork. We are working so much more efficiently and the business has been streamlined,”

Monksfield added:

“We particularly like the way the system is designed. It’s generic but easy to customise. However, the biggest thing about BigChange is what you get for the money. The benefits far outweigh the cost; it is great value and with their RoadCrew support team you also get brilliant 24/7support,”

In providing round the clock service, companies like CCR would traditionally sign up the services of a 24 hours call centre to manage out of hours calls. By deploying BigChange this need was negated as CCR could simply direct calls to their team of out of hours call handlers. This not only saves cost and complication but by cutting out a link in the chain it also enables a quicker response.

Monksfield explained:

“The system is also very good for customer service and clients can be kept informed of where we are and they can get job updates in two to three minutes. We are more efficient and more productive so as a company we can also provide better value which customers like”.

Cyclehoop, the innovator of secure on-street cycle parking solutions, has introduced the latest mobile technology as part of a cloud-based mobile resources management system from BigChange.

(more…)

All Round Security has rolled out a high tech mobile workforce system.

The new platform is connecting field service engineers in real-time to the office as part of an end-to-end management system. With clients including Heathrow Airport, Arcadia, Mitie and Cloud FM, All Round Security install and maintain security roller shutters, doors and barriers across the UK. Since going live, the cloud-based system from Leeds-based BigChange has boosted productivity and customer service.

All Round Security had previously implemented a number of different systems but were frustrated with having to manage different systems and began the search for an all-in-one solution. With an expanding customer base and over 60,000 jobs completed in the last year, BigChange with their 5-in-1 solution and JobWatch mobile app was quickly seen as the ideal solution.

Charlie Keegan, Contracts Coordinator at All Round Security comments:

“We are always striving to provide our clients with the best possible service and as our workforce grows we required a system that can tackle our needs. With JobWatch, powered by BigChange, we have the system that we have longed for; offering real-time automatic updates, engineer tracking, 24/7 support and general ease of use”

Formed in 1986 with headquarters in Newton-Le-Willows near Warrington, All Round Security is planning to expand organically within the next 5 years.

Lee Parker, Director at All Round Security comments:

“Our challenge is to manage growth whilst maintaining our high quality service. With BigChange we have something that not only dramatically improves our business efficiency, service and productivity but also a solution that will allow us to freely expand the business thanks to the automation and ease of access via mobiles and the cloud,”

With the flexibility of JobWatch – the BigChange mobile app – All Round sees opportunities to diversify. With simple creation of new job sheets and workflows, services that are currently sub-contracted, such as electricals, or new services requested by customers, could be easily added. All Round Security contractors already use the same JobWatch app.

Parker explains:

“We’ll rely on partners for sure as we expand but whether we do it ourselves or subcontract we have, through JobWatch, a platform that is seamless as far as the customer is concerned,”

Parker believes the facilities management sector will see a change in the future with data-driven and completely integrated management of assets; a more holistic approach where Capex and Opex budgets are much more closely aligned.

Parker continued:

“With our involvement in security matters there is a strong element of trust with our clients and we foresee our role expanding as an adviser on the condition of assets and provider of an all-encompassing asset management service,”

“The beauty of BigChange is that is can be easily configured to do just about anything so we are not restricted, IT wise, in what we can offer.”

All Round Security provides a 24/7 call out service with a maximum 2 hour response time for critical sites such as hospitals and airports. With 50-strong fleet and field service engineers located countrywide, incoming service requests are logged into the BigChange schedular for optimised job allocation, route planning and scheduling.

Parker adds:

“For a mobile service operation like ours, the killer of productivity is the travel time to jobs. With improved scheduling, routing and resource allocation using BigChange scheduler software we’ve already improved engineer productivity,”

The engineers receive jobs on their rugged Samsung tablets and with vans equipped with BigChange GPS telematics, live tracking and navigation is provided. The system generates an estimated time of arrival at site so customers can be auto-alerted via email or text.

On arrival the JobWatch app guides the engineer through the correct risk assessment procedures using workflows before proceeding with the job. Using the tablet, the engineer completes their Job Card and gets an on-screen customer sign off. Time and location stamped photographs are also taken as part of a complete audit of the job.

Keegan concludes:

“Having this comprehensive and real time information at out fingertips 24/7 has really revolutionised our customer service and work output,”

“Not only can we dynamically allocate engineers to do more jobs but onsite we can be more productive through live interaction to resolve issues and get quick answers if extra work is needed; the office and customer are much better informed.”

The popularity of short-term letting sites such as Airbnb has led to an explosion in new landlords, renting out their homes to generate a bit of extra income.

Yet these amateur landlords often do not comply with the rules and regulations that govern the wider lettings market.

This may all be about to change. In a landmark move, the Scottish government recently announced that local councils will have the power to enforce a licensing scheme governing short-term lets from 2021. Many of the rules have been in place since the Civic Government (Scotland) Act was published in 1982 but they have never been enforced previously.

Scotland may be the first country to take a firm stance on short-term lets but it’s likely that the rest of the UK will soon follow.

The issue is particularly pressing in cities such as Edinburgh, home to the Edinburgh Fringe festival, which seen 4.5m tourists flock to the city last year; 9 times the city’s population. In Edinburgh alone, there are 12,000 Airbnb listings, which equates to one listing for every 42 residents in the city. This number has doubled over the past three years.

One outcome of this new legislation is that Airbnb hosts, among others, will be forced to comply with safety standards in order to operate. The aim is to protect guests, ensure that properties are fit for purpose, and to professionalise this burgeoning industry.

However, this presents an administrative nightmare for many hosts. In order to keep letting rooms or properties, they must now ensure their gas and heating is maintained, checked and serviced regularly to be legally compliant.

To reduce the burden, landlords can now use the BigChange platform to connect with experienced tradespeople, such as Registered Gas Safe engineers to service their boiler. All work will be logged on the system, providing a transparent “paper trail” to prove the landlord is fully compliant.

Michael Cairns, BigChange customer and company director at celsiusplumbers.com and founder of safehostbnb.co.uk, believes this could be a great time-saver for hosts.

He comments:

“The software will automatically book in an appointment and follow-up appointments, which takes the pressure off the landlord/hosts so they can focus on other tasks.”

Michael continued:

“They can do this safe in the knowledge they are legally complying with new licensing laws, which will demand that all certification safety checks are up to date and above board.”

It takes a lot of time to manage an Airbnb property or other short-term let and many businesses have been created to help ease the administrative burden. From property maintenance to restocking to cleaning to dealing with booking queries and responses to visitor questions, outsourcing agencies have helped lighten the load.

Michael added:

“BigChange’s platform is another helping hand for these hosts.”

He continued:

“Given the number of short-term lets in the South of England, it is likely the licensing scheme will be rolled out in the UK in the not-so-distant future,”

Michael concluded:

“This creates a big opportunity for businesses to jump on board and make life easier for landlords/hosts to be safety compliant.”

Gritting company AA Salt has doubled the productivity of its gritting operators following the introduction of a cloud-based mobile workforce system from BigChange.

Operators equipped with rugged tablets use a mobile app that synchronises in real time with back office management software as part of a 5 in 1 solution for paperless working.

The productivity gains, which are due to improved routing and job scheduling using BigChange Schedular software and greater efficiency through the elimination of paperwork. As part of the system the fleet is also fitted with GPS tracking so gritting operations can be monitored 24/7 and this, coupled with live status reports from gritting operators, has allowed AA Salt to boost customer service.

Still a family-run business, AA Salt was founded in 2002 to provide gritting services across the Hereford and Worcester area. Today with a fleet of 14 vehicles, the company specialises in providing commercial gritting and snow clearing services to an area that now extends from the West Midlands to Gloucestershire.

Ben Tanner comments:

“As demand for our gritting service increased we knew we had to automate more”

Sales and Operations Director, AA Salt explained:

“When the Beast from the East hit the country in 2019 we had just started using BigChange. Without the system we would never have coped with the demand and BigChange has basically allowed us to double our business.”

Tanner added:

“Productivity gains have been very substantial thanks to BigChange. Through work optimisation and digital reporting we reckon we are saving 5 minutes per job and reducing driving time by a total of 4 hours each night. From just 100 jobs a night we can now do up to 450.”

AA Salt clear and grit private roads and estates such as car parks at retail sites, universities and industrial estates. Jobs are scheduled and allocated in BigChange and allocated with jobs sent directly to gritting operators’ tablets. AA Salt has mapped and geofenced each site and using the BigChange JobWatch app, operators can see job specifications and notify of any issues with time and location referenced photographs on location.

AA Salt has seen a significant improvement is customer service as a result of the real time data now being received. Now all gritting reports are live and accessible to customers through the JobWatch web portal. Previously records of work done was very limited and the company did not have the job reporting capability required by some potential key customers.

Tanner continued:

“We needed to take the business up to the next level and BigChange has given us the capability to offer reports on par with larger competitors,”

The system has also given AA Salt greater confidence in expanding the business whilst retaining high levels of service. Now winning contracts with national facilities management companies and landowners, the company occasionally relies on contractors for out of area work as far afield as Winchester and Nottingham.

Tanner concluded:

“Previously we were too nervous to outsource work but that has changed with JobWatch. Now if we need to contract out the contractor can use exactly the same JobWatch app on their mobile phone so we can have the same level of control and seamless reporting to the customer.”

The UK’s Environment Agency has updated the septic tank regulations, with far-reaching consequences for consumers and industry professionals.

Systems that discharge to a river, stream, canal or ditch must be replaced from January 1 this year amid fears that this may contaminate drinking water sources and pollute the environment.

Under the Septic Tank Regulations 2020, owners of septic tanks in England are no longer allowed to discharge to a watercourse. For those working within the industry, this means a surge in septic tank conversions, as existing systems are made compliant.

Under the new rules, a drainage field or soakaway system must be installed so that the septic tank can discharge to ground instead, or the septic tank must be replaced with a sewage treatment plant.

Protecting the environment is a priority for all of us. However, every tweak to the rules creates red tape and extra process for wastewater professionals. The general binding rules for septic tanks have been updated several times over the last few years, creating an administrative burden for the industry that adds both cost and complexity.

I founded BigChange back in 2013 to help relieve the compliance burden for professionals dealing with changing legislation and complex regulation. Our JobWatch platform is now being used by 40,000 office and mobile users across multiple industries. The platform automates all of the paperwork associated with meeting standards and adhering to regulation, in an efficient and intuitive way.

For businesses that need to prove that their septic tank upgrades or replacements are fully compliant, JobWatch is the ultimate solution. It keeps a log of all work carried out and the parts used; a verified audit trail.

Each JobWatch-enabled tablet enables users to take live pictures of sites, septic tanks, new installations, and parts and link them to a specific job and worker within the software. Progress can be tracked remotely and signed off by management. If the legislation should change again, or should disputes arise, the system offers complete protection: proof the job was done correctly.

The system is already being used by companies from across the drainage sector to drive efficiencies and streamline complex processes. One company has reported a million-pound boost from using the software. Kirk Mason, who heads up operations at Subscan UDS, the nationwide utility, drainage, and survey company, told me:

“Our previous system only offered partial automation and we wasted a lot of time double touching to keep different systems up to date. What we needed was a seamless flow of data from start to finish with an audit trail of activity. In the end there wasn’t anything that matched BigChange for functionality; it gives us that seamless connectivity and it has replaced 5 separate systems – saving us time and money.”

It is impossible to control regulatory changes but it is possible to mitigate their impact. By allowing JobWatch to do all the grunt work, drainage professionals are free to focus on what they are good at – growing their businesses.

Ficep, the supplier of structural steel and plate fabrication equipment, has deployed the latest mobile technology as part of a real-time management system that has transformed customer service.

Supplied by Leeds-based BigChange, the cloud-based mobile resource management system sees Ficep field services engineers equipped with tablets that synchronise in real time with central systems as part of a completely paperless system.

First established in Italy in 1930 and celebrating 20 years in the UK this year, Ficep manufactures machine tools for the metalworking industry. The construction industry worldwide relies on steel work made to measure and fit using Ficep’s equipment. With UK headquarters at Europort Wakefield in West Yorkshire, Ficep has a team of engineers installing and maintaining machinery across the UK and Scandinavia.

Richard Clark, UK Service Manager at Ficep UK Ltd comments:

“Our steel fabricating machinery plays a key part in preparing steel for construction and keeping the equipment in optimum working condition with minimal downtime is crucial. We have been improving our engineering support services to support an increasing number of installations and the introduction of BigChange has completely transformed our customer service,”

Previously Ficep engineers filled out paper services sheets and other forms by hand which were then sent to the office for processing and actioning, such as the ordering of parts, the production of quotes and issuing of invoices. This paperwork and administrative work was becoming untenable as the demand for Ficep equipment grew and the company decided to look at the best way to switch to digital working.

Clark explains:

“Previously it could take 2 or 3 weeks to get a quote out to a customer; now we achieve that within 24 hours. It’s the same for invoices and with electronic sign offs from customers onsite we can invoice almost immediately. As a result there has been a much better and quicker conversion rate of quote to order and queries on invoices have virtually disappeared,”

BigChange gives Ficep customer service teams and management up-to-the-minute visibility of every service job. Engineer movements are continually tracked and displayed on maps and this will allow automatic estimated time of arrival notifications to be sent to customers, so they know exactly when an engineer is about to arrive.

Ficep’s engineers receive their jobs on their tablets which provide navigation to site and allow access to all documentation, with workflows ensuring proper procedures are followed and information reported from site. The devices are used to take photographs which are, together with time and GPS location, matched to service sheets for the job. This provides an accurate and indisputable record of work done.

“The tablets have really revolutionised the way we work giving engineers instant access to the information they need,”

says Clark.

Clark continued:

“We now have service sheets customised for each machine that identifies the correct parts and even gives the engineer a complete history of previous service work and parts used. It really helps them do a good job every time and helps ensure machine downtime is minimised. Customers have been markedly impressed with the system and the information it provides.”

As well as the benefits to the field engineering services, Ficep has reported significant time savings back at the office.

“By eliminating paperwork we are saving about 20 hours a week in administration time and as managers we spend much less time sorting out customer and service issues as we have all the information we need at our fingertips 24/7; no longer do we need to track back into paper records or call an engineer to ask about a job,”

says Clark.

Clark concludes:

“The support from BigChange is fantastic,”

“There is always someone ready to answer our questions over the phone and when they say they’ll call back, they do, and we never have to wait.”

Utopia Furniture Group has rolled out a 5 in 1 cloud-based system from BigChange that combines mobile apps including electronic POD and vehicle tracking, with customer relationship management system (CRM).

After the successful implementation of BigChange as a real-time transport management system, Utopia has now begun extending BigChange to improve back office and sales force automation.

Utopia is the UK’s biggest manufacturer of made-to-order bathrooms. Established for over 25 years and employing 190 people, Utopia designs and builds high quality bathroom suites, bathroom furniture and accessories, supplying through an extensive network of over 600 specially selected retailers across the UK and Ireland.

David Conn, MD of Utopia Furniture Group, comments:

“At Utopia, we found a niche in the market with fitted bathrooms and we have always strived to be the Master of what we do,”

“We have developed a unique build-to-order manufacture and logistics business and that requires us to innovate and invest when it comes to technology. It’s that technology that ensures we retain a competitive advantage.”

Utopia has developed a bespoke enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to underpin its growing business but needed to further automate logistics and especially the transport operation. BigChange was introduced initially to provide electronic Proof of Delivery (POD), having replaced their existing system.

Conn explains:

“When we discovered BigChange we realised that their technology was way ahead of anything else. What particularly appealed to us was the fact that they had an end-to-end solution that would provide seamless integration of our delivery services with our sales, manufacturing and business functions. Previously we suffered from having disconnected silos of data and that was frustrating. BigChange was also much more affordable so we did not hesitate to switch.”

Utopia drivers are equipped with Zebra ultra-rugged enterprise touch computers that run the BigChange JobWatch App that includes delivery and collection reporting, with line item fast scanning and electronic proof of delivery ePOD, timesheets, expenses and vehicle inspections. With a 28-strong fleet including drawer bar trailers and drop bodies, deliveries are made to retailers and trade customers across the UK from Utopia’s purpose-built manufacturing plant and HQ in Wolverhampton.

Conn adds:

“We really like the fact that BigChange is easy to customise,”

“It means you can get exactly what you want and that’s important in view of our fairly unique business process that involves literally thousands of different, often bespoke, items being loaded on each vehicle for delivery. BigChange offers a complete delivery consignment solution.”

BigChange has already been implemented to manage all transport related activities, provide real time tracking and electronic PODs, with vehicle inspections, driver performance monitoring and a link to route optimisation through comparing actual with planned journeys. With integration between Utopia’s delivery planning and Oracle ERP, BigChange CRM is now being implemented to manage the sales function.

Carl Darby, IT and CRM Controller at Utopia, says:

“BigChange CRM is perfect for us providing exactly the functionality we need. It’s a lot easier to use and less costly than other solutions,”

“Of course, it is also part of the wider BigChange management and mobile solution so has the added benefit of being seamlessly integrated with everything we do.”

With the adaptability and wide scope of the BigChange system, Utopia took advantage of help offered by BigChange for implementation and embedding.

Darby who also praised the ongoing support, continues:

“This suddenly made implementation much easier,”

Darby adds:

“The support provided by the BigChange ‘RoadCrew’ team has been exemplary, with someone always available to pick up the phone 24/7 and that support is available to anyone including our drivers. Getting that level of personal support is a rare thing these days.”

Conn explains:

“We set a high bar when it comes to our suppliers and for us it is very much about a working partnership. BigChange demonstrated that they wanted to be part of our business and from the start it was clear they were receptive to working with us. In fact, we were behind the development of their POD solution and were the first adopters of it.”

Subscan UDS, the nationwide utility, drainage, and survey company, has implemented a high tech mobile workforce system from Leeds technology company BigChange.

The system, which provides a paperless means of planning, managing, scheduling, and tracking mobile operations, has provided Subscan with a 30 percent saving in time and a million-pound growth boost to its business.

Subscan provides a wide range of services aimed at the detection and avoidance of underground utilities, as well as drainage maintenance and repairs. A team of specialist technicians operate across the UK undertaking everything from topographical surveys to underground utility tracing, drainage, CCTV surveying and the lining of drains.

Kirk Mason, Operations Director, Subscan says:

“We go and map areas identifying all structures and utilities above and below ground and then sort out any issues – we deal with all major infrastructure. We offer a full service package from initial survey to remedial work and when needed, new works including design and planning,”

Subscan has been a success story since formation only 7 years ago with steady year on year growth. However the previous IT system was proving to be a barrier to growth and with the move to BigChange the company has been able to expand and turnover is expected to increase from £6 million last year to £9 million in 2020.

Mason says:

“Our previous system only offered partial automation and we wasted a lot of time double touching to keep different systems up to date,”

“What we needed was a seamless flow of data from start to finish with an audit trail of activity. In the end there wasn’t anything that matched BigChange for functionality; it gives us that seamless connectivity and it has replaced 5 separate systems – saving us time and money.”

Subscan has equipped 50 of its field operatives with rugged tablets running JobWatch, the BigChange app for paperless working. Jobs are scheduled and sent to the assigned operative who can proceed straight to the job and with trackers on the fleet, the office has real time visibility of their locations.

Mason explains:

“With BigChange we are now very much paperless; it has been a complete digital transformation and the savings are significant. For time alone we are achieving savings of 30 percent and that’s before we even begin to look at the improved job scheduling and productivity,”

Subscan has a particularly strong commitment to quality and the company is ISO accredited for their management of quality, environmental, and health and safety.

Mason says:

“Our pursuit of quality drives the business – the quality of equipment, quality of people, quality of work and quality of service. BigChange is proving to be an invaluable tool in managing our ISO accreditations as the system ensures best practice procedures are followed at all times. Crucially it also provides an audit of activities and all the information we need to meet the required standards,”

he adds:

“One thing is very clear, since implementing BigChange we simply don’t get KPI failures as we are right on top of the workload and that’s meant we meet out SLA commitments and deliver a level of service we simply could not provide before,”

On site the JobWatch app takes operatives through workflow to ensure the correct procedures are followed and data is collected. The system ensures there is a complete record of every job which is including time and location referenced photographs; this is important for minimising invoice queries and also for supporting ISO accreditations.

Mason explains:

“BigChange has been crucial to allowing us to grow freely and being cloud-based we can add more operatives and services at the touch of a button and when we open up a new office down south next year, we’ll have a ready-made and instantly accessible IT solution already in place; its magic!”

BigChange vehicle tracking is not only useful for providing visibility to operations and customer services back in the office but it is also helping improve the quality of driving. Driver performance based on factors such as speed, braking, cornering and idling is graded automatically and those operatives with high ratings are rewarded with extra holiday vouchers.

Subscan has made a multi-million pound investment in the most advanced fleet of specialist vehicles in the UK. The 60 vehicle fleet includes JHL 312 and 414 recyclers and Mercedes Atego 204 Cityflex units. The JHL SuperRECycler 414, built on a Scania chassis, is the markets most powerful and productive recycling unit and both JHL models have fully automatic water filtration systems that continuously separate water from sludge to subsequently use the cleaned water to clean the sewer. Subscan has also invested in a JCB Fastrac 7230 tractor for rugged terrain operations.

Vianet, the international provider of actionable data and business insight through devices connected to its Internet of Things (“IOT”) platform, has rolled out a 5-in-1 Mobile Workforce Management Platform from Leeds-based BigChange.

The cloud-based system provides intelligent job scheduling, real time-vehicle tracking and a mobile app for engineers – giving Vianet a paperless end-to-end solution for the business. Through the optimisation of the field service operation, Vianet has achieved a 10 percent improvement in Service Level Agreement (SLA) performance.

Vianet was first established 23 years ago and is the UK’s specialist in the monitoring of draught beer dispensing equipment. The Stockton-on-Tees based company collects data from 12,500 sites which dispense over 570 million pints of draught beer every year. The company also provides contactless payment and ERP solutions for some of the biggest names in the vending industry, combined Vianet monitor data from more than 230,000 connected devices providing detailed insight via its smart platform.

Craig Brocklehurst, Commercial Operations Director, Vianet says:

“BigChange has completely transformed Vianet’s field service operations.”

“We now have complete visibility on the whereabouts and status of each engineer so we can provide a faster, more dynamic response. And we’ve eliminated paperwork and with automated job scheduling the whole field service operation is optimised. That’s boosting productivity and allowed us to improve our SLA performance by 10 percent.”

Vianet’s iDraught system intelligently monitors all aspects of the draught beer operations. This helps to ensure quality and product yield is maintained also ensuring equipment is working properly so that the pub operator gets the best return from their draught products.

“The equipment monitoring is automated to the extent that the landlord may not actually be aware of any issues until they get a call from us saying we believe we may have identified an issue”

Brocklehurst explains.

In pubs and bars, Vianet’s systems monitor dispensing equipment with automated alerts if there is a drop in performance or a fault. Within BigChange jobs are then created and the closest engineer is immediately assigned and scheduled. Equipped with rugged tablets, engineers use the BigChange JobWatch app for their job inspections and reports, including photographs of the site on arrival and on completion of the job.

With around 2000 calls a month, Vianet’s 24 engineers install and maintain their monitoring equipment for both draught drinks dispensing and vending across the UK. With real-time tracking, the office has full visibility of the location of each engineer allowing jobs to be dynamically scheduled. BigChange also monitors driver performance which is displayed on the engineers’ login screen to maintain awareness and encourage good, safe driving. The tablets are also used for daily vehicle checks in place of paper reports.

Brocklehurst says:

“Using JobWatch gives us a complete, real-time view of all jobs, backed up with time and location data linked to comprehensive and accurate reports. So, we are much better informed and we can closely monitor work performance from afar and increase the knowledge we have which in turn helps us in the training of our engineers. All this has significantly reduced the need for on site inspections by team leaders and again this allows us to be more productive as a company,”

With BigChange ensuring more reliable and comprehensive information from the field – in real time – Vianet can provide much better proof of service. For work that falls outside the usual contract, such as damaged equipment, invoices can be raised much more quickly.

Vianet particularly like the flexibility and scalability of BigChange according to Brocklehurst:

“BigChange has been a revelation when it comes to sales and customer relations. Just about anything we are asked to do we can now do as the system can be configured accordingly. We can create our own workflows and job sheets and adapt the system to the specific needs of different customers; that gives us an invaluable competitive edge.”

Automatic fire suppression specialist, Fireward Ltd, has rolled out high-tech mobile workforce management software, providing real-time visibility to field operations within the business.

The App-based software, JobWatch sees field-based engineers equipped with rugged tablets, replacing all need for physical paperwork, delivering a 5-in-1 business solution incorporating a CRM, job scheduling, tracking, invoicing and management reporting.

Formed in 2009, Fireward is regarded as the UK’s leading specialist in fire suppression systems for mobile and heavy plant machinery and equipment. The Chelmsford-based company installs, maintains and services systems manufactured by Reacton Fire Suppression Ltd, which detects and suppresses fires in a matter of seconds. Requiring no electricity to operate and with exceptional reliability, Fireward’s fire suppression systems protect a wide range of high-value assets from plant machinery & equipment to electrical control panels, buses & coaches to airport ground support equipment.

Edward Barnes, CEO of Fireward commented:

“Fire is often overlooked as a cause of disruption and as a serious risk to the business itself. The immediate physical damage is only part of the problem caused by a fire; the costs of operational disruption and reputational damage often far exceed the cost of the original damage. Without adequate protection, it can take just a matter of minutes to bring a company to its knees.”

Fireward’s certified engineers install, maintain and service fire suppression systems across the UK. Providing a rapid response service, engineers use their tablets, for everything from risk assessment and post-fire reports to job checklists and vehicle inspections.

Barnes, comments:

“We were pleased to discover BigChange at a show back in 2016. We had been through a long and unsuccessful process trying to get three different systems working for our business and all had failed. Due to the ease of set-up, we were able to implement the system ourselves in just two weeks,”

“With BigChange we now have a system that supports our business model providing many benefits in terms of efficiency, productivity and customer service.”

Fireward’s fleet of nationwide vehicles is fitted with BigChange trackers, providing the customer service team with full visibility of engineer locations and a record of arrival and departure times from site. The location and condition of plant and other assets are key factors in assessing the risk of fire and the tablets are used to record ‘time and location’ linked photographs. With the ability to capture a customer’s signature ‘on-screen’ via the app, there is immediate proof of every job completed, allowing for a streamlined invoicing process resulting in fewer billing queries.

Barnes adds:

“BigChange supports our company ethos, which we achieve with a modest team in place. JobWatch has not only allowed us to do five times more services a month but has allowed us to freely expand our business where we are now installing well in excess of 1200 new systems a year,”

Some of the favoured features by the Fireward team include the job allocation and scheduling features of the system, which sees ‘jobs’ added to an ‘unscheduled’ list, allowing for all outstanding jobs to be reviewed in one place before allocation, depending on engineer location and availability.

The CRM software meanwhile has become a useful tool for the Fireward sales team. As well as allowing customer locations to be pinpointed to aid streamlining customer visits, the team has utilised the BigChange software to connect a comprehensive list of plant machinery and equipment to a correctly specified fire suppression system, allowing for fast and accurate quotations.

With the Fireward engineers working remotely across the UK, they need to have the ability to effectively manage their stock levels without causing downtime and potential loss of business. With the help of the JobWatch tablet, engineers are now able to track and replenish their van stocks with ease, as well as the ability to record and review all stock movements, parts and equipment used during the process of installation, maintenance and servicing of Fireward’s fire suppression systems.

The Price Group, one of the UK’s pioneers in high level cleaning services, has implemented BigChange’s 5-in-1 Mobile Workforce Management Platform.

The all-in-one system provides intelligent job scheduling, a mobile app for operatives and real-time tracking of all vehicles across the fleet. The new system completely replaces a number of different software applications with a complete business solution.

First formed in 1970 as JV Price Ltd, the Hemel Hempstead head-quartered company has built a reputation as a specialist in window, façade and exterior cleaning. Today, The Price Group has diversified into associated services and the hire of specialist equipment such as access platforms. With regional depots in Birmingham and Gatwick and around 80 full-time operatives, Price operates a fleet of 60 vehicles including vans, truck-mounted access platforms and spider lifts.

BigChange has replaced a number of different systems to provide Price with a completely paperless solution for the business. Initially the company wanted to simply replace their vehicle tracking system as it was standalone and not linked to their management system.

Charlie Price, Group Managing Director of The Price Group, says:

“Previously we had a service management system, a tracking system, an auditing software package and various spreadsheets,”

“When we saw what BigChange offered we realised it could replace everything we had with a single system. We really liked the joined up approach and although it’s not what we planned, we have now replaced all our legacy systems. What we have now is way beyond our original expectations and has been key to our digital transformation.”

Price logs incoming calls on the BigChange CRM from which actions are automated such as emails to customers and the scheduling of work. Surveyors use tablets for site surveys supported with photographs and video so the work teams know what to expect on site. Quotations are then issued and PO’s raised as required for the job to proceed.

Using the BigChange JobWatch app Price operatives receive jobs on their tablets which then provide navigation to site where onscreen workflows ensure correct health and safety procedures and site assessments are completed. JobWatch is then used for job sheets, before and after site photos and customer signature sign-off. The helpdesk then check the job sheets to address any issues prior to invoicing and transfer of the required financial data to Sage.

Price explains:

“We now have a much faster turnaround of everything – from the sales process to job completion and invoicing. For the management team everything is on a single platform and easily accessible and the live reporting gives us 24/7 visibility of all jobs,”

“Now we have a totally paperless system and we estimate improvements in efficiency are already approaching 10 percent. Additionally the BigChange solution is easily scalable and affordable so we can grow the business without any of the traditional barriers imposed by IT and system suppliers.”

Price has also noticed operative engagement has also improved with JobWatch.

he adds:

“Our operatives really like the fact that they no longer have to fill out paper forms. In turn the office no longer has to decipher poorly written notes and illegible – sometimes water soaked – paperwork,”

Price also use the integrated BigChange tracking to assess driver performance and the company has recently introduced a drive safe campaign with a monthly bonus incentive.

Price explains:

“The objective is to reward the good and re-educate the bad.”

Price says:

“One of the things we really like about BigChange is that they are always pushing to improve the system. The ethos of the company is also very good. As a business we like to provide a great service at a fair price and that is exactly what BigChange do.”

“The RoadCrew team are fantastic. We operate a 24/7 emergency service and most scheduled jobs start prior to 6am so our operatives really appreciated there is someone on hand at BigChange to provide support at any hour.”

GAP Hire Solutions, the UK’s largest independent equipment hire company, has deployed a cloud-based mobile workforce management system from Leeds-based BigChange.

The system has boosted the efficiency of GAP’s operations by equipping field operatives with rugged tablets running a mobile app called JobWatch which includes black box vehicle tracking as part of the system.

The 5 in 1 BigChange solution allows completely paperless working, connecting to the GAP hiredesk in real-time to provide management and customer services with 24/7 visibility on deliveries and collections of equipment.

The benefits have made an immediate impact on GAP Survey & Safety and it’s expanding customer base. The specialist division hires out specialist equipment and instrumentation to surveyors and civil engineers. Operating from 15 locations across the UK and employing 60 people, the division is growing rapidly.

GAP holds stocks of the latest total stations, GPS satellite network rovers, lasers and other precision instrumentation, as well as other surveying kit. The specialist equipment is not only expensive, but it is also being continually enhanced as the technology evolves. As a result, the hiring of equipment is increasingly popular, especially amongst civil engineers involved in set up at construction and infrastructure sites.

Jim Burke, GAP’s Survey & Safety Division Manager, says:

“We invest in the very latest surveying equipment including costly instrumentation which is often supplied with a box full of accessories,”

“In the past we didn’t have a way to provide proof when making a claim for damage or any missing accessories.”

GAP uses BigChange to manage the whole operation with all hired equipment being accurately logged and tracked from the initial order, through the depot and workshop, to delivery and collection. The tablets are used to photograph equipment prior to despatch, on delivery and when collected with GPS location and time recorded automatically with each image. For added security drivers can also photograph at handover so there is a record of the person taking delivery.

Burke explains:

“BigChange has changed everything by providing indisputable evidence when equipment and accessories are returned damaged or incomplete. It’s put an end to the challenging conversations we used to have – the digitally held records remove any doubts. Customers are much happier now we can show them tangible evidence for the first time. BigChange has eliminated what used to be a major management headache,”

The 5 in 1 JobWatch app links to BigChange vehicle telematics fitted to GAP Survey’s fleet of vans. Company cars are also fitted with the trackers so anyone can collect or deliver equipment knowing that the system automatically records their activity. Drivers use their tablets in place of traditional hire paperwork with improved time and location stamped records plus additional photographs when required. The devices are also used for daily vehicle safety checks.

Apart from the paperless delivery and collection management application, BigChange is having a big impact on operational efficiency. All jobs are scheduled, routed and tracked using BigChange and this is improving resource utilisation and reducing unnecessary mileage. Hire controllers also have continual, real-time visibility of the fleet allowing deliveries and collections to be managed better and dynamically – optimising resource utilisation and allowing a more responsive service.

Burke comments:

“BigChange gives us the ultimate controllability over our operations,”

“The real impact of the system has yet to really be felt as it’s relatively early on but already it has boosted efficiency and is underpinning rapid year-on-year business growth. And the more accurate hire records have also certainly improved profitability and cash flow.”

Burke adds:

“GAP’s mission as a company is encapsulated in what we call the GAP CODE; Communication, One Team, Dedication and Efficiency. BigChange is all that so it fits in perfectly with the philosophy and aims of the business,”

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