56


roundtable continued from previous page...


Murray pointed out that there were reports that China would overtake USA in scientific output by 2013.


Wilcockson admitted his company had considered the offshore R&D move, “but the answer every time is that all our business is around here (in Hook, Hampshire).” Offshore operations suited mature low technology, higher-volume products but the initial investment and R&D of new products still needed to be carried out in the UK.


Phil Kingsland


There are still several companies looking for assistance in managing their transition from UK originators of new products to offshore producers of the products, Wilcockson added.


Sharma said the IT R&D sector might need to take a lesson from the IT manufacturing sector. “They had to go through a lot of pain reinventing themselves and identifying how to sustain themselves in a global economy. But, now, if you are doing the right sort of manufacturing in the UK, that sector is booming. We can’t keep our heads in the sand. There is a lot of growth going on globally”


. . . and what about ‘clouds’ and data hosting?


Working predominantly with public sector clients, Hornsby’s company had considered providing hosting abroad to support live systems in the UK but it simply produced “a raging battle” between security risks and cost reductions.


Rushin explained that the constant questions about ‘cloud’ computing were: “Is our data secure? Can we get it back?” And his company, Star, resolved it by keeping client data at centres within the UK.


Clark pointed out that big data-storers like Google and Amazon now allowed clients to negotiate where their data was stored. “That market is evolving and becoming more sophisticated.”


positioning themselves as cloud providers and that’s a big switch. SMEs are pretty comfortable about switching into the cloud. If they are serving their customers over the web then it feels like a natural thing to have their back-end systems hosted that way. They see less of an issue about it and it’s more cost-effective for them as a growing business.”


So, what is holding back tech sector growth?


1. Lack of a recruitment structure


Mayes: “Many clients are recruiting quite actively but finding the right people, with the right skills for the right terms is an issue.”


Newberry admitted Westcoast had been on a recruitment drive, but found that contacting and getting suitable applicants, particularly graduates, was very difficult. “With the poor economy, our expectation was that there would be lots of people out there, but it was a problem. The job agencies seem to have lost their way. We have had some success with LinkedIn and web-based applications, which are pretty much free.”


The nationwide Microsoft-sponsored scheme offering 50,000 UK apprenticeships had been beneficial but finding the right calibre of applicant was still difficult.


Hornsby: “We deal direct with the universities. It does bring results but you have to work hard at it. You have to attend the careers fairs and have someone to follow up and do back-office chasing.”


Kingsland suggested knowledge transfer partnerships. “We find university courses that are oriented to our business and then work on projects with them. You get to know the tutors and students and the sort of work they are interested in. It’s often a more valuable approach than attending a careers fair.”


Ritchie Sharma


It was suggested that the data-storage market might split into private clouds for the business world, and public clouds for consumers.


Wilcockson said his company was not allowed to use offshore hosting by its clients, and had strict service level agreements in place to ensure security.


Kingsland: “We see a lot of resellers www.businessmag.co.uk


Staunton deals with a lot of spinouts from universities. “It is all about identifying the right people. Clients tell me that some graduates don’t appear to be focused on the current working environment, which for some is a real cultural shift.” She added that a number of science and engineering technology graduates were not actually looking for technology careers but gravitating towards City jobs in the financial services sector.


2. It’s just not ‘glam’ enough!


Kingsland: “It is incredible given the rise of technology amongst consumers that there is not the drive to get into technology as a business.”


Hornsby: “I think it’s because a few years ago IT was all going offshore. It just wasn’t in fashion, there was the rise of the ‘nerd’ characterization. There was a huge drop in IT graduates during the 2000s. The media, the legals and several other professions were just seen as more ‘glam’.”


Sharma admitted he left college and went into banking because “that’s where all the money was. I fell into IT by accident, and that’s where my career development started. A lot of people today still don’t have the right awareness of IT, a ‘glam’ image, and so don’t focus on going straight into IT.”


Staunton thought that the businessworld probably suffered from a ‘bad press’ among students. “We need to enthuse these people about being in business, engage them in how exciting it can be, because their world is probably all around the celebs and the media.”


“ . . . and about not being ‘a suit’,” added Sharma.


Andy Newberry


Clark disagreed, pointing out that popular TV programmes like The Apprentice and Dragons Den were all about business.


Sharma: “Technology at a consumer level is ‘in’ – iPods, SmartPhones etc – but that’s not replicated at a commercial level.”


Too many people saw IT as a convenient communication and gaming application, without seeing the business structures behind their lifestyles and leisure time. Students just didn’t realise that the IT sector was now a far more exciting and sophisticated market, said Staunton.


Hornsby pointed out that the UK is the world’s third biggest centre for computer- game development. “The gaming business seems to exist in parallel universe too. I don’t get many applicants coming into my company saying they were games developers.”


Wilcockson noted that while the UK had about 2% of science graduates, Vietnam had around 75%.


3. Lack of the right sort of skills


Wilcockson’s company had started its own training school 18 months ago to overcome the skills shortage. Locally sponsored apprenticeships were offered, along with the upskilling of customers’ own employees.


Newberry: “I think we have got to focus on training programmes for young people within our own organisations.”


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – MAY 2011


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64