In The Spotlight with Fergus
At Manchester Digital, we like to interview our members to find out a bit more about what they do and their work in the Greater Manchester digital and technology sphere. This week we're speaking with James Chillman, Country Manager UK at Fergus.
What does your organisation do?
Fergus is a job management software app, designed to make running a trades business simple, more effective and more profitable. We work with customers in a range of fields within the trades industry including plumbers, electricians and builders.
Founded in 2010 by New Zealand based plumber Dan Pollard, Fergus was started with a simple vision – to make tradespeople’s lives better with technology that helps them control their business with confidence. Our software allows tradespeople to manage jobs and employees on the go, making it easy to quote, invoice and track job hours all in one handy mobile app.
Just over a decade after its inception, Fergus is now serving over 18,000 tradespeople across multiple countries. We have won multiple software awards, including Capterra’s Best Value Software for 2021, and Software Advice’s Most Recommended for 2021.
We completed our Series B raise of NZD$15m in June 2022 led by Octopus Ventures at a valuation just shy of NZD$100m, this funding will allow us to invest heavily in our product development and go to market in the UK and our other core markets.
What do you think is currently the biggest issue facing the digital and tech industry?
With the increasing rate of technological advancements, there is a looming digital skills gap that needs to be addressed.
That’s why at Fergus, we have made education a key driver in our marketing efforts, ensuring it’s at the forefront of every campaign we run. We want to provide a service to our customers that allows them to grow their business sustainably, so ensuring they have the business and digital skills to achieve this is at the foundation of everything we do.
Marketing the benefits of digital tools is only possible if the customer market has the skills to access them and utilise them effectively, and we pride ourselves on the training we deliver to address this need.
What is your organisation’s biggest achievement?
In 2022, our customers reached some incredible milestones with the help of the Fergus app. Over 2 million jobs were logged on the app that year alone, with 1.7 million invoices sent out and just over £2bn billed.
The ability to help our customers grow sustainable and profitable businesses whilst taking away hours of everyday admin is what drives us to work harder every day.
What would you consider to be your organisation’s biggest challenge?
We have found that one of our biggest challenges working within the trades industry is digitalising their day-to-day activities. Many tradespeople still rely on a pen and paper approach to run their business, which may seem simple at the time, but can cause havoc when it comes to chasing invoices or calculating their end of year taxes.
As convincing pen and paper tradespeople to completely digitalise their workload tracking can at times seem almost impossible, we lean in on our customer success stories to evoke an understanding of the real-life impact that Fergus can have on their business. After all, good software should be able to tell its own story.
What do you think the future looks like for Manchester’s digital and tech sector?
The digital and tech sector in Manchester is growing rapidly, and this is fundamental to creating a positive impact across a range of communities. With a drive towards creating a healthier and happier planet, many companies are taking a step back from a product-driven approach and instead investing in solution-focused innovation.
The city’s digital growth has even been nationally recognised, with Manchester recently being crowned the UK’s top regional ‘tech city’ according to the UK Tech Cities report by CBRE. With a digital economy now worth over £5bn, and home to over 10,000 businesses, Manchester is proving itself to be leading the way in digital innovation. At Fergus, we’re proud to have our UK office based in Manchester, allowing us to be part of this thriving northern digital hub.
Tell us something we might not know about your company?
As well as supporting tradespeople to grow their businesses, here at Fergus we’re also passionate about supporting their mental health. Over 80% of tradespeople experience mental health issues due to their jobs, and this caused nearly 1 in 5 to take time off work due to job stress in 2022. That’s why we’ve dedicated support to mental health advocacy groups including Mates in Construction NZ, and regularly prompt conversation starters such as on R U OK? Day to get tradespeople talking more openly about their mental health.
Thank you, James!
To find out more about Fergus, click here.
