ROAR: Birmingham’s tech ‘ones-to-watch’ revealed

BIRMINGHAM has always been at the forefront of technology. Often referred to as the creative hub of the Midlands, creative agencies in the city are renowned for pushing boundaries and creating new and exciting products which rival those of the competition in the capital and beyond.

There are a number of great, well-established organisation doing fantastic work in the area, but it’s the smaller companies and start-ups that have really sparked my interest over the past few months. Here’s a breakdown of my ‘ones-to-watch’.

Whisk

Whisk.com is a free smart shopping tool that interprets recipes, creates a shopping list and allows users to add chosen items directly into online baskets at Tesco, Asda, Ocado or Waitrose. Available as a smartphone app or browser plug-in, Whisk offers the ability to add most UK recipes to a list with a single click.

Growing ten-fold over the past six months, the platform now receives more than 16 million impressions of its button across 250,000 recipes and will soon be launching a range of new facilities that aim to make a difference for users. It will recommend recipes to cook using leftovers, recipes based on flavour and ways to live healthier lives.

CrowdControlHQ

CrowdControlHQ is the UK’s leading social media risk management and compliance platform and the first UK business to feature in the worldwide top 10 for social media risk and compliance in the Forrester Wave 2014. Backed by Midven and Finance Birmingham, CrowdControlHQ is unique in providing a powerhouse of ‘control’ features to help organisations manage their brand reputation online, alongside the traditional ‘crowd’ engagement features associated with entry level social media management tools.

The platform gained popularity amongst police forces during the 2011’s riots in Birmingham where it was used to identify and listen in on potential riot spots and is now used by more than 25% of police forces across the UK. The client list includes Experian, Welsh Water, The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea  and an array of leisure brands including Gala Bingo and The Luminar Group.

Hobzy

Based in the Custard Factory, Hobzy is a network of web and mobile apps which help users to get the most out of their hobbies. Focusing mainly on handcraft hobbies such as knitting, crochet and sewing, the organisation has been operating for just under three years and has gained an incredible following during that time.

Some of the most popular apps are Find & Craft, a search engine for craft tutorials arranged by time, difficulty and materials, and Handmake Me, a marketplace which matches people who want to buy homemade products, with those who can make them.

Droplet

Put simply, Droplet is a web-based capability which seamlessly integrates payment, bespoke marketing messages and mobile loyalty. Originally focused on helping enterprise merchants to become truly cashless businesses, Droplet has now replaced cash and card transactions at point of sale with technology that sends and receives payment from phones as quickly as sending a text message.

The platform also allows users to share their payment experiences on social media, giving merchants the opportunity to speak directly to their customers. In addition, the organisation has recently added a points-based loyalty scheme for customers based on their frequency of purchase.

SocialSignIn

Founded by Ben Nimmo & Nick Wood in 2012, SocialSignIn is a powerfully simple social media management platform for enterprise. It helps individuals and enterprise organisations spread messages, monitor direct & in-direct conversations and analyse results across multiple social networks including Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

The platform has gained popularity due to its ‘ease of use’, innovative user interface and friendly support team. One of SocialSignIn’s most talked about features is it’s unified inbox that is largely customer service-focused with the ability to view agent response times, influence score, positive/negative sentiment messages and also easily assign messages to other team members.

Notable clients include Oxford University, Staffordshire Police, BAE Systems, Boehringer Ingelheim, Furniture Village and Yorkshire Water.

The technological landscape of the city is ever changing but I’m excited to see how all of these organisations continue to expand over the coming months. I’m sure that advancements made will be noteworthy so my advice is pay attention.