The Fitting Network - Social app for sharing jobs
An exciting new service for the signage industry!
In January 2016 James Boatwright, Managing Director of Bigprinting, shared an idea with Sign Update’s Managing Director, Martin Hinchliffe. Their simple idea was to make communication between signage companies easier. The main problem the two identified, was the difficulty some companies have finding others around the country or even the world, that can offer the same level of quality and care required for their own customers.
Usually companies do searches on the Internet for websites, or a presence on social media, which can often take longer than necessary as you have to search through a lot of irrelevant content. And some businesses might not have a website. So their idea began to be turned into a reality and they developed The Fitting Network, a social media platform for the signage industry.
James Boatwright said: “I believe people within our industry will enjoy seeing daily updates on the news feed, and we hope to see lots of vehicle wrappers posting their time lapse videos.”
The service prides all the basics you’d expect to receive from a social networking site, although it comes into its own with the jobs features. If your company has an installation job and you’d like the option of having somebody else help with it, you simply post a job request. Enter the postcode of the job, a brief description, optional photos and select the service required.
Click post and everybody local to that job will receive a notification. You can then start checking each others profiles and endorsements to help you choose. The site also provides a platform to those who may not be able to be found before. Freelance fitters who may not have their own website or who may have struggled to keep their website up to date, can have their own profile on the Fitting Network, and update their portfolio with every job they’ve done.
“For me, this seemed like a very natural progression,” says Martin. “We already put a number of postings on the job section of our Sign Update website. As well as full-time jobs there are also freelance listings typically for sign fitters / installers. Creating something that listed all of these freelance jobs and made it easy for sign makers to connect with jobs that are local to them was a logical progression. We’re excited to partner with a company that has already enjoyed such success in the provision of online services software to the industry.”
It’s a free service where signage companies or freelance sign fitters / vehicle wrappers can create their own page. Detail all about their company, the services they offer (which others can endorse) and of course the app will allow you to update your portfolio, using the camera as soon as the job’s complete. No more waiting to get back to the office to update your gallery.
