BusinessCloud’s inaugural UK Business Tech Awards are set for November and will recognise the individuals and businesses who are making the most impact in the world of technology.
Every day we are highlighting a different category ahead of a glitzy ceremony at London’s Montcalm Marble Arch on November 20.
There will be 18 gongs up for grabs including Most Impressive Growth, with five finalists shortlisted by our stellar line-up of judges: DJS, e3creative, Housekeep, SysGroup and The Technology Group.
We profile them below. Tickets are available at the Business Tech Awards website.
Anyone interested in sponsorship opportunities should contact [email protected].
The judging panel included David Hardman, MBE, managing director of Innovation Birmingham; Louize Clarke, co-founder, ConnectTVT; Elizabeth Clark, CEO, Dream Agility; former director of Tech North Richard Gregory; Tom Cheesewright, founder of Applied Futurism Practice; former Vodafone exec Rob Mukherjee, director of Greater Sport; Chris Dymond, director, Sheffield Digital; and Scott Henderson, managing director of Jumpstart.
MOST IMPRESSIVE GROWTH SHORTLIST
DJS (UK) works within the financial services sector, building bespoke and innovative software solutions. The two main branches of the business are PiggyBank, the UK’s fastest growing short term lender, and Leadtree Global, which provides real-time leads and works with brokers to broaden our customer base.
Since the company was founded in 2012 it has grown from a headcount of six to sixty-eight. A young, dynamic team, it has endeavoured to never stray from a core philosophy of transparency and positive customer outcomes.
Its turnover for the year ending July 2017 was £11.4m while this year’s turnover was £18.6m. This is due to the increased number of monthly approved applications for PiggyBank, while the parent firm has also received more financial backing from investors in the last year, enabling it to lend more money each month.
This year the firm moved from a 4,300 square foot office to a central location in the growing town of Bournemouth that has 11,300 square feet.
e3creative is a fully integrated digital agency that intermixes art and science to create award-winning digital stories that function seamlessly whilst providing high commercial return.
Now employing 56 full-time staff, the firm is projected to turn over £3.6m this year. Its turnover of £2.6m last year was an increase of 47 per cent on the previous year while it has grown steadily every year since 2014.
e3creative outgrew its office in Manchester city centre and expanded to a second floor to double its space to 6,600 sq ft. The larger studio provides a dedicated floor for the production team and a separate floor to better serve clients with collaborative working space, event space and meeting rooms.
e3creative has also launched The Mara Foundation established in the name of Mike Mara, an inspirational designer that lost his battle to cancer a couple years ago, to provide professional opportunities, sparking a paid internship programme with Salford University and a Code Club at Manchester Youth Zone teaching young people the foundations of digital and encourages them to dream big.
Housekeep is disrupting the fragmented £4 billion home cleaning market with an online marketplace that connects consumers with cleaners. It makes it easier for consumers to find a great cleaner in their area and enables cleaners to be more productive and increase their earnings.
Starting with a handful of customers and one cleaner, it has since scaled to more than 40,000 customers and over 1,000 cleaners (or Housekeepers) on the platform. It is now the UK’s leading home cleaning service, with over 90,000 5* customer reviews and an average rating of 4.8.
Its ‘mobile-first’ approach helps Housekeepers do everything they need within their apps to manage their schedules and jobs.
Now employing more than 30 people, the firm’s projected turnover for 2018 is £13-14m. It now plans to expand geographically beyond its core London market.
SysGroup is a leading provider of managed IT services, cloud hosting and technical consultancy, delivering innovative solutions to its clients.
With six acquisitions in three years, SysGroup has grown rapidly, but has always maintained their focus on customers’ strategic requirements, enabling them to free up resources and achieve optimal efficiency.
Headquartered in Liverpool with offices in Coventry, Telford and London, it recently announced revenue growth of 45.7 per cent to £10.45 million for the year ending 31st March 2018. This demonstrates an organic revenue growth of 21 per cent, which in itself has generated a revenue of £8.65m.
The staff headcount has increased by 168 per cent in the past two years. From a complete corporate rebrand incorporating multiple sub-brands under the SysGroup name to the announcement of their most successful financial year to date, SysGroup has established its name within the UK cloud hosting and managed services market and demonstrated its commitment to connecting as many customers as possible to powerful and innovative solutions for their unique needs.
Leeds-based The Technology Group is a managed communications provider which helps businesses and organisations to better communicate with their customers and teams by embracing Voice Over IP, video, chat and collaboration technologies.
Its has delivered and installed its systems in 20 countries around the world – including Australia, China, Holland, Singapore and South Africa – has more than 400 clients throughout the UK and overseas and currently manages two million minutes of voice traffic per month.
Over the last 12 months, it has grown in turnover by 40 per cent from £2.5m to £3.5m, with net profit also growing substantially by 75 per cent from £306k to £530k.
Having successfully completed and integrated its first business acquisition in October 2017, it has grown employee numbers from 18 in July of last year to 31 now as it expands.