BIW Technologies Reviews

Pros

Working at company widely regarded as the UK market leader, in Software-as-a-Service (currently a very 'hot' business trend), and with a pro-technology attitude.

It's a friendly company with knowledgeable and approachable, 'hands-on' senior staff (no executive offices - Woking's all open-plan), everyone's on friendly firstname terms, and there are regular company-wide briefings on the business's progress, and a few perks like decent coffee, "pizza Friday" and a Christmas Party usually held in a hotel. Among themselves, staff also socialise a fair bit - always good for catching up on the gossip.

Laptops and mobiles are pretty much standard, with most staff trusted to work flexibly from home, office, project site, hotel, etc. BIW is also accommodating to those with caring responsibilities (eg: school-age children)

Cons

Sometimes there can be a bit of a delay while key decisions are considered, resulting in initiatives being a bit slow to get going. I wonder if this is because the senior team hasn't really grown since the firm's start-up days? An extra director or two might spread the load a bit and help speed things up.

The relative strengths and weaknesses of some staff are not always appreciated - this can mean able individuals not being promoted soon enough, or vegatating in unfulfilling roles, while others are sometimes promoted beyond their level of ability.

While it's probably the same for any technology business, it can sometimes seem that BIW is slow to adopt the very latest technologies or invest in marketing or is doing so a bit half-heartedly (the intranet desperately needs improving, for example, so internal communications can be a bit haphazard), leaving you with the suspicion that competitors must be doing better (even though they probably aren't).

Advice to Senior Management

Now that the company has grown towards 100 people (in three different countries), more money needs to be spent on internal communication, partly to help maintain the friendly work culture. An extra director or two might help spread the load a bit and speed decisions up.