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 Tech Company of the Year (medium) – sponsored by Jumpstart – with three finalists shortlisted by our stellar line-up of judges: DJS (UK) Limited, StarLeaf and SysGroup PLC.
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.
TECH COMPANY OF THE YEAR (MEDIUM) SHORTLIST – Sponsored by Jumpstart
DJS (UK) Limited 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.
StarLeaf offers intuitive collaboration tools to help businesses increase productivity, accelerate decision-making and achieve better results. Its portfolio of premium meeting room, video conferencing and collaboration solutions means staff spend less time in meetings and more time focused on the business.
StarLeaf launched its next generation StarLeaf app in September 2017 and in the past year has consistently added 5,000 new organisations per quarter, with messaging traffic continuing to double every four months. It now has hundreds of thousands of users.
The firm has experienced 60 per cent year-over-year growth consistently for the past several years. As the company continues to expand its footprint globally, it has added significant headcount and more than doubled its sales, support and marketing teams.
As the first video and voice cloud provider, StarLeaf is committed to bringing people together by helping businesses achieve their productivity, efficiency and communication objectives. It has also ensured that the technologies it has spent time to develop can also be used to help individuals with special requirements in the hope of improving their lives.
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.