Martin Port, Author at Port Growth Partners

Clearabee: What BigChange means to me

Posted on 21 April 2020 by Martin Port

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.

CEO’s Blog – Time to reinvent your working day

Posted on 3 April 2020 by Martin Port

The coronavirus outbreak and subsequent UK lockdown has changed our working lives completely.

There are advantages and disadvantages to this ‘new normal’. It’s easy to focus on the negative: last week, I admit that I felt a bit lost.

I’m used to roving the shop floor, looking for areas where we can make improvements. I’m a ‘face to face’ leader, and I like chatting through ideas with my team and visiting customers. It’s taken some time to adjust to web meetings and working in the virtual world.

But now that I’m in the swing of remote working, I’m starting to see some major benefits. I’m no longer working from the office, which means I’m saving an hour a day in travel time. That’s an extra five hours a week – a major bonus.

Being based at home seems to save time in so many ways, because everything you need is all in one place and there are no distractions. Even if lockdown lifts in two weeks’ time, my family will stay in isolation for 12 weeks. My son has asthma, putting him in the ‘at risk’ category, so we are taking every precaution.

I’ve found myself with more free time than I have in years and I’m determined to make the most of this opportunity. I believe that we need to constantly look for ways to improve – not just our businesses but ourselves. If you stop trying to be better, you lose your edge.

I’ve been focusing my attention on creating special projects that will ensure BigChange is even more efficient and lean when the recovery comes around. I’ve been looking at improving service levels, enhancing the way teams work together, and finding any gaps in the organisation that need filling. I’ve never had the time to look at these areas in fine detail before and it’s been a revelation.

I’ll be honest with you. At BigChange, we are expecting to see some slowdown in sales as prospective customers hunker down and wait for this uncertainty to pass. But this doesn’t mean we are sitting on our hands here. Instead, we’re investing heavily in new data warehouse architecture, moving resource into product development, and creating some new marketing initiatives to keep up a buzz about BigChange. This is a really good time to start new projects. There’s not the same amount of pressure on day-to-day operations. There is room to breathe, review, and plan.

I’ve spent many years building businesses and I’ve learned there is more than one kind of return on investment. Changes we make now could have a significant impact on the success of BigChange in the future, whether it’s brand trust, customer loyalty or employee morale.

This is also the perfect time to invest in your customers, your community and the UK business ecosystem. I have more time to spend helping others, be that through business mentoring, support for customers who want to understand BigChange’s technology better, or advice for organisations who want an entrepreneur’s take on the challenges they face.

If this sounds like you, drop me a line. I’ll do everything I can to help. I aim to support as many people and organisations as I can during this lockdown – and hopefully beyond.

This is the time to review your working day and make permanent changes. It’s a time to ditch the unhelpful habits that are holding you and your business back. This is a challenging time but it’s not all doom and gloom. Seize the opportunity.

Coronavirus – See how BigChange can help with your response

Posted on 25 March 2020 by Martin Port

Our BigChange Network can help businesses work together.

In these unprecedented times, here at BigChange we are looking at ways that we can support our customers and ultimately their customers, to ensure that the often critical services our customers provide can continue to be delivered.

To really drive back Covid-19, the national effort, as we’ve heard from government many times recently, will need to be determined, committed and flexible with everyone playing their part – there is no doubt at this difficult time we will be Stronger Together!

Our BigChange Network allows businesses to work together, to share and support the completion of critical works anywhere at any time all seamlessly and visible to those managing it in real time. The options to provide specific Risk Assessments and Job Instructions to remote workers completing the works, supports the safety and welfare of those and there is no need for any physical contact, supporting social distancing, with the end customer as all notifications, alerts, job cards and reports for works completed can be issued electronically.

There is no charge to our customers to use this service.

If you would like to use this service to support your business and simply enable working with others so you can continue to deliver key services, please click here. (Note: You will need to login first).

Please see details of our customers below that are able to still provide critical services.

CEO’s Blog – Is your workforce going ‘contactless’? BigChange is here to help

Posted on 24 March 2020 by Martin Port

Businesses across the globe are battling against the uncertainty created by COVID-19.

Whether your sales have slowed, supply chains disrupted, or you are overloaded with orders, we are all in uncharted territory.

The reality for most of us is that we have to find ways to keep trading while minimising contact with other people. We also have to monitor the health – both physical and mental – of our employees, customers and partners at this difficult time.

The good news is that BigChange’s platform can help your business to get through this outbreak – and even thrive. Our software was built to offer true resilience and future-proofing to businesses of all sizes.

How BigChange can help you today

BigChange’s software allows all your team members to work remotely, meeting the new self-isolation guidelines, and ensuring that tasks are easily and clearly allocated.

When work is completed, jobs are updated with all the required paperwork, images, and sign off from senior personnel. Our remote activity audits also offer peace of mind.

BigChange allows its customers to ensure employees are working safely through home office risk assessments, which determine whether desk setups are likely to cause RSI or back problems. It can even ensure that WiFi is securely set up to minimise the threat of cyber crime.

It will also communicate up-to-date official COVID-19 guidance as the situation evolves.

For some companies, face-to-face interaction is still vital. BigChange offers a triage risk assessment facility to determine which tasks must still be carried out in-person, and how to allocate resources safely.

Each job that is loaded onto the BigChange platform will have a dedicated risk assessment, ensuring the welfare of your teams and customers is paramount.

These assessments will:

Determine the health status of employees
Check that people that your staff are meeting have no COVID-19 symptoms and have not been exposed to the virus
Ensure a safe working environment
Remind employees of safe travel guidance during this time
Remind employees of the need to maintain a distance of at least two metres from others
Ensure that employees take hand-washing breaks and have access to those facilities without putting themselves at additional risk

I founded BigChange so that I could help business owners like you become more efficient and competitive, while empowering remote working and paperless processes. This is exactly what all companies need right now.

Get in touch if you have any questions about how BigChange can help your business. Stay safe out there.

CEO’s Blog – This is the time to innovate

Posted on 23 March 2020 by Martin Port

The COVID-19 pandemic is causing unprecedented disruption to the way we work and live.

When events like these take place, it is tempting to batten down the hatches, shut up shop, and hope that the storm passes quickly.

I believe that is the wrong approach. I think this is the time to be bold, smart, and think of innovative solutions to the problems our businesses face. If, like me, you employ a lot of people, there is no excuse for doing nothing and waiting for redundancies to become unavoidable.

We need to work out how to help our customers through this difficult time. We must also figure out how to win new business, despite the constraints. We need to find novel ways to motivate our teams. And we must be considerate of customers and suppliers who are struggling.

I know it’s not easy. At BigChange, everyone will be working from home for the foreseeable future. That means we essentially have 160 separate offices in operation in 4 countries.

That is why I have introduced a daily catch-up call for each department, starting with a sales call at 9am. On each call, the first priority is mental health. We check in on everyone in the team to make sure they are coping. We make sure we talk about the successes of yesterday and praise hard work and ingenuity.

This daily contact and support is going to become even more crucial once the schools close today. Every working parent will need flexibility and understanding from employers.

We have also introduced a buy now, pay later scheme for both new and existing customers that buy more licences. We are allowing them to run BigChange for six months before we start charging. We hope that will help to alleviate some financial pressure in the short-term.

For customers who are concerned about the safety of employees at this time, and wish to track their engineers and workers out on the road, BigChange can track vehicles through its app – we don’t even need to come and fit a tracker. This may be useful if the rumoured lockdowns do take place.

Our priority is to help customers to keep trading. This is why we have updated our software with up-to-date COVID-19 guidance and risk assessments. This is essential for mobile workers.

Cashflow is going to be extremely important over the next few months, so I advise every business owner to keep a close eye on it. If you haven’t already, it’s time to make reductions from the ‘nice to have’s and focus on the business-critical expenses, such as paying suppliers.

I am not immune to the climate of fear out there but I refuse to panic, or let it destroy my business. Let’s get through this together.

A Message to BigChange Customers

Posted on 20 March 2020 by Martin Port

A Message to BigChange Customers.

Martin Port, Founder and CEO of BigChange:

I wanted to tell you personally, that I’m thinking of you, thinking about the challenges you’re facing at the moment. But what I want you to know, is that BigChange are here for you.

Roadcrew is available 365, we want to spend time supporting you, to help you, and enable you to carry on with your work where possible.

Even though our offices are closed, we are here for you. We have an army of people manning the phones from their bedrooms, from their living rooms, from their home offices. They’re all there for you. And we’re going to make sure that you know that we’re only a call away.

Please keep in touch, anything you need, we are here for you.

Thank you.

Watch the Video:

CEO’s Blog – As entrepreneurs, we must endure, and help our communities

Posted on 13 March 2020 by Martin Port

One of the benefits of being 57 is that I have lived through many crises.

I remember the Black Monday crash of ’87, which wiped trillions off the share prices of some of the world’s biggest companies. Back then, I was working in a bakery business in New York. We received a check from Bloomingdale’s – the iconic department store – and it bounced. It was for about $300. We framed it to remind ourselves that no one is too big to fail.

I remember the horrific outbreak of mad cow disease in the late eighties, when more than 4m cows were culled to try and contain the infection. Britain’s roads ground to a halt as they tried to stop it spreading from county to county. There have been other health scares since then, from swine flu to bird flu.

Then there was the dotcom crash of 2000. I was in a telematics business that was part owned by GE. The value of the company nosedived almost overnight. In 2008, the financial crisis sent many businesses to the wall. I was running Masternaut, my last venture, which I later sold to French airport group Airport De Paris. I owed the bank £6m at the time, and it called in part of the debt. I managed to reduce headcount and keep the business afloat, driving the business forward against the odds. It was a terrible time. People were losing their livelihoods, their homes, and their self-belief. There were many suicides.

Today, we are faced with another challenge: the outbreak of coronavirus. The spread of the disease is worrying, as is its impact on the elderly and those with respiratory problems. Like all the challenges that have come before, we must work together to get through this.

As business people, we must be in charge of our own destiny. We need to make contingency plans. We need to motivate our teams through this crisis. We need to sell remotely, work from home, and virtualise our operations.

At BigChange, we are fortunate to be in a strong position. We have no borrowings, and have a good cash reserves that can see us through the coming months, whatever happens to the economy. Even if the government closes schools and shops, there will still be a need for basic services, from plumbing to the maintenance of our roads. We will continue to be the platform of choice for these businesses. Engineers can avoid the office and deliver these crucial services through BigChange.

For those businesses in hard-hit sectors such as travel, entertainment and retail, the time has come to dig deep, innovate, and figure out a survival strategy. Some may introduce employee ownership if they cannot pay wages, others may trade shares for valuable supplies, or agree more flexible terms with customers that will now struggle to pay.

This is the time to work together, be kind, and give back to our partners, customers and colleagues. Coronavirus is likely to hit this country hard. We are getting involved in local initiatives to help the elderly and, through my work as a Northern board member of Business in the Community, I’m helping other companies to mobilise in partnership with welfare organisations. Instead of battening down the hatches, we need to open our hearts, and think of others.

CEO’s Blog – We built a virtual office – here’s what I learned

Posted on 9 March 2020 by Martin Port

Ten years ago I began seeing stories about the ‘death of the office’. Teams will all work remotely from their smartphones by 2020, headlines said, and entrepreneurs will be able to start and run businesses from a boat in the Bahamas.

Of course, here we are in, in 2020, and the majority of businesses still operate an office, even if they have some people who work flexibly or remotely.

At BigChange, most of our people still work out of our office. When I speak to managers here, many of them still like having a fixed location where colleagues can come together. “It’s easier to spot problems before they become an issue when you’re around your colleagues every day,” explains my customer services director. “And an office is very useful when training new people, as they can shadow their more experienced colleagues and be easily monitored and mentored.”

So the office isn’t dead after all. However, there is a pressing need for all companies to be able to operate virtually.

I posted last week about the potential impact of coronavirus on UK companies. If this becomes the epidemic that we all fear, employees will have to work from home in order to “self quarantine”. There are other threats facing companies that do not embrace virtual working. What if your landlord suddenly closes your office building? What if there is a flood or a major leak and the office is compromised? Could you carry on as normal? With no disruption to customers or your service quality?

I learned a lot about potential business threats when BigChange went through the ISO9001 process. We had to make business continuity a priority, no matter what random threat or ‘act of god’ strikes the company. It was this process that helped us take the leap into becoming a truly virtually enabled business.

We are luckier than most because we are a technology company. All of our processes and services are virtual by definition. We use our own BigChange software to log and monitor jobs. All the calls that come through to us are handled by a voice-over-IP (VOIP) provider, so they are filtered through to the right person, who gets a pop-up on BigChange with the name of the caller.

However, it’s easy to appear virtual on paper but it’s another thing for a virtual office to work in practice. That is why BigChange runs a remote working test every three months. This ensures that colleagues are always prepared to work virtually, and exposes any weaknesses in our virtual structure.

For other business owners who want to try the test, here’s how it works:

You tell your team about the test the night before, when they are already home. This ensures they always have the correct work equipment with them. For us that’s a laptop, charger, and headset. They also have to check they have access to good wifi.

Before starting work, they fill out a risk assessment on BigChange, to confirm their home environment is fit for work.

They do their day’s work, and everything is handled just as it would be at the office, except that meetings take place virtually on Teams, and people need to be a bit more diligent about tagging the right colleagues on BigChange tickets (as they can’t just shout over their shoulder)

At the end of the day, there is another workflow, which asks how the process went, whether people felt hindered in their work, whether anything was more difficult as a result of working remotely.

We measure productivity after each test and, so far, it is at the exact same level at home and at the office. My colleagues report that they really enjoy working remotely, and have no issues using the technology, which is also really important.

We ran our last test on Friday, when every single member of the BigChange team worked from home. There were no issues, and everything passed off smoothly.

I am also working on solutions to some of the concerns raised by my managers. We need a virtual training programme, for example. And it may be necessary to have more regular check-in meetings on these “virtual days” to ensure that leaders feel connected to their teams.

We have proved that it’s entirely possible to take a traditional office-based business and run it with an entirely remote workforce.

Whether it’s the right move long-term will vary from business to business, but when it comes to business continuity, building virtual capability into your model is a no brainer.

CEO’s Blog – Don’t let coronavirus catch you out

Posted on 2 March 2020 by Martin Port

Bonjour, mes amies. I’m writing this blog from Paris. We now have 16 people based out here, and – despite Brexit – we are proving a hit with the French. Just this week BigChange won a six-figure contract – our largest deal in France so far.

However, this isn’t the best time to be travelling. When I was last in Paris, the general mood was positive. Now, nobody kisses on both cheeks any more. No one will even shake your hand. Everyone is wearing masks and the TV is full of news of coronavirus.

The climate of fear here is understandable. Neighbouring Italy has seen its death toll from the virus top 20 people. Schools in the north of the country are being closed as a precaution, and some towns are under full quarantine. Back in the UK, we’ve been insulated from the coronavirus fall-out – it doesn’t feel like an emergency. Our chief medical officers have only just raised the threat to the public from ‘low’ to ‘moderate’.

Being over here has given me a different perspective. It’s time for Britain’s employers to start planning for the impact of coronavirus, if you haven’t already. What will you do if people start falling ill? How will the business cope if goods from China are unavailable? Is your company policy fit to cope with this kind of emergency? What insurance do you have in place?

At BigChange, we are fortunate to be a software company. This means that everyone in the company can do their job from home if needs be. After my PA, Madeleine, returned from a trip to Cambodia and Australia, she worked remotely for two weeks, to make sure she hadn’t contracted the virus.

We may be a software company but we depend on hardware, which is made in – you guessed it – China. One of our suppliers has been badly hit by the coronavirus, and its factories have been closed and now reopened, luckily we have been stockpiling. We are also doing further contingency planning. After all, no matter where your supplier is based, the likelihood is that somewhere down the line, parts are being sourced from China.

We have also had to be careful about booking any international events. We were looking at taking a team out to Monaco with Nick Hamilton, the racing driver and BigChange ambassador, for the Grand Prix. That idea is on hold because we have no idea whether the event will go ahead, or if flights will be running at that time.

Perhaps the biggest risk we face is recession. We have already seen the coronavirus wipe millions off the share prices of some of the world’s biggest companies. It has hit global supply chains hard; China is the factory to the world. When it suffers, the profit warnings start rolling in. At BigChange, we are proceeding with caution. I am only making hires that are integral to the future of the business. I believe I can still execute on my growth plan for the year, but I’m looking to find efficiencies where I can through our technology using more automation.

We don’t know how badly coronavirus will hit the UK. Maybe we’ll be lucky, maybe not. But every employer needs to think how the business will cope if, like in Italy, schools are forced to close. How will that impact all the parents working at your company? Do you have any guidance for them? How many of your processes and tasks can you automate, in the event people fall ill?

Don’t let this virus catch your business unawares.

CEO’s Blog – Let’s be mindful of mental health

Posted on 24 February 2020 by Martin Port

Last weekend’s devastating events have forced all of us to stop and think about mental health.

The tragic loss of Caroline Flack and the appalling impact of Storm Dennis on families around the country have hit us all hard.

It has made me put mental health – mine, and that of my family and colleagues – at the top of my list of priorities. We never know what disaster may befall us. We never truly know what’s going on inside someone’s head. This means we must all act with kindness and compassion towards others, and try to educate ourselves about the best way to handle a mental health crisis.

When I came in last Monday, I was determined to be the best version of myself. When you run a fast-paced technology start-up, it’s easy to race around and have a myopic focus on getting the job done. I wanted to take the time to speak to my people, and to make sure every individual knows my door is always open if they need a chat.

At 9am on Mondays, I have a call with my sales team. It is usually pretty lively, fuelled by coffee and adrenaline. I admit to getting quite heated sometimes.

On this call, I promised myself I would stay calm. Who knows what people are really feeling? Who knows what might tip someone over the edge into depression or anxiety? I found myself speaking quietly, and motioning for others to lower their voices and be calm. It was a new experience and one I enjoyed.

At BigChange, we are committed to supporting those with mental health issues. We already offer access to a 24-hour counselling helpline as an employee benefit, and we pay for face-to-face therapy if required. We have switched to a 4.5-day workweek to give people more time with their families, more time to exercise, and more time for self-care. We are moving to a 4-day week in 2021.

We also recently appointed a new BigChange ambassador: Michelle Dewberry, winner of the second series of The BBC Apprentice. She is an incredible advocate for mental health awareness and has spoken to the team here about how she handled her own depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. We don’t want people to try and hide their mental health issues away, so having a vocal and charismatic ambassador championing this has been really powerful.

But I want to go even further.

Next Monday will be the first meeting of a new steering committee on mental health. People from all around the business will meet and share ideas, voice concerns, and talk about any pressures they face. We will take action on any issues we can fix.

We were also recently part of a mental health round-table, coming together with several other companies through Connect Yorkshire to talk best practice, and hear about each other’s initiatives. It’s amazing how much you can do at low or no cost, from creating mental health first-aiders in the business, to inviting organisations like Mind to come in and raise awareness across your company.

I’m not a specialist in mental health. Few people are. But that shouldn’t stop all of us from trying our best to be there for the people we care about, be they family, friends, or colleagues. It all starts with a willingness to change, and an open mind.