Community Spotlight: Mark Cochrane at Trackplan

In this month’s community spotlight, Mark Cochrane, founder of Trackplan, tells us about his business journey. Trackplan is facilities management software designed to help users manage, schedule and control maintenance, and Mark uses Nimvelo Phone to make sure he’s always connected to his team and customers.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you came about starting your business?

I always fancied starting and running my own company, and I was just waiting for the right moment and feeling. I had 15 years of experience in web development and had worked for two growing software companies specialising in software as a service. It felt like playing monopoly sometimes. In recent times I was Head of IT for a large facilities management company in the UK and got to know the industry quite well and the role good software can play there. Then on a whim I came out to Limerick, Ireland to work for an energy management software company – this gave me the chance to go surfing more often on the west coast and have a new adventure. While here I kept overhearing some of my previous employer’s prospects and clients asking for a facilities management software solution. So that was my cue!

What products and services does your business offer?

Trackplan is a 100% cloud based SaaS solution for facilities managers, estates managers and property managers from all kinds of organisations. It helps them manage their portfolio of buildings, assets and contractors and better manage maintenance. It has been designed to be easy to use and highly configurable, to enable smarter working, reduce costs, reduce risk and stay compliant.Like Nimvelo we are embracing webRTC to do funky stuff with the web such as taking photos and voice messaging via the web app.

What does a typical day look like for you?

A lot of my time has gone into developing the product so currently that will still be half my day. I enjoy improving the product and seeing it come to life and love people using it. But I am trying to spend more and more time on the marketing side of the business, and now the team is growing I hope this can be a permanent thing. Although I will still be keeping a close eye over the product, which is what it is all about.

Keep doing the right things and trust your own instincts.

What has been your biggest challenge since starting the business?

Getting the product strong enough to sell to clients in a competitive space where people’s expectations are high. And finding the time to do the 1000 things that can be done in any week.

What advice would you give to other business leaders for growing their business?

Keep doing the right things and trust your own instincts. Spend time on the things that matter most and trust that eventually good things and opportunities will start to come in, which luckily they are for me.

How did you hear about Nimvelo? How has it changed the way you communicate?

A friend from the UK recommended Nimvelo to me, who uses it in his small business. It gives us the flexibility to be available to take calls wherever we are. Nimvelo have helped us by providing us with phone numbers for the UK and being able to route phone calls to our landline and mobile phones here with the flexibility to adjust at a minute’s notice. The customer service has been excellent.

Share your story

Are you a UK business with valuable insight to offer the Nimvelo Community of more than 300 UK businesses? Simply sign up to our Newsletter to become part of the Nimvelo Community and email our Community Manager, Sabrina on sabrina.bassi@nimvelo.com to arrange an interview.