Yorkshire tech firm BigChange announces expansion into Europe

8/7/10 Martin Port Founder and Managing Director of 'masternaught three X' at Priory Park, Aberford near Leeds.

The Leeds-based tech firm has established a subsidiary business in France to spearhead its move into mainland Europe and recruited a reseller partner to accelerate the adoption of its JobWatch system in Cyprus and Greece.

BigChange France will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary business led by Frederic Dupeyron.

-> Big Change massively upgraded its profit forecast earlier in the year

8/7/10 Martin Port Founder and Managing Director of 'masternaught three X' at Aberford near Leeds, amongst the company servers.

The firm as established a sales and marketing office in Paris, as well as a dedicated customer support facility in Marseille.

Five people will be based at BigChange’s Paris office initially, including Aurélie Rodriguez, who has joined the company as Head of Sales and Business Development. The customer service operation in Marseille comprises four people and is led by chief operations officer Emma Levy.

Elsewhere BigChange has signed a reseller agreement to operate in Cyprus and Greece with JobWatch Cyprus, a new company established by Cypriot entrepreneur Andys Sofroniou to sell BigChange’s technology.

Mr Sofroniou is establishing a business development and technical support operation in Nicosia and has secured four new customers for BigChange already.

-> Big Change is a former big winner at the YP’s business awards

Martin Port, founder and CEO of BigChange, said: “We want to make BigChange a £100 million business and that means accelerating our international expansion efforts.

“By moving into France and establishing a partnership to cover Cyprus and Greece we are opening up a number of new markets, putting in place excellent sales and customer support people to delight our customers, and insulating the business from the effects of a potential no deal Brexit.”

Frederic Dupeyron, Executive Vice President for Europe at BigChange, comments: “Organisations worldwide are being challenged to improve service, become more efficient and eliminate paperwork and manual processes from their operations. Opening offices in France is a significant first step in our international expansion plans. Establishing a presence here means we can better serve customers and drive faster expansion for BigChange in mainland Europe.”

Andys Sofoniou, founder and managing director of JobWatch Cyprus, comments: “I spent years looking for a system to eliminate paperwork, streamline mobile workforce operations and improve communication with engineers at my security business. BigChange is amazing, it revolutionised how we run that business and I was so impressed with the system that I decided to set up a new company to make it more readily available to sectors such as building services, IT, hospitality and logistics in Cyprus and Greece.”