38 roundtable Southern Tech 100 is our listing of the top 100 private technology companies in the region.
With the support of Southern Tech 100 sponsors: Barclays, James Cowper and Pitmans, The Business Magazine gathered sector experts to debate current challenges, concerns and market conditions, and to ask the key question ...
Will technology help revive UK plc? Participants
Darren Atkinson: Operations director, Prisym ID
John Cousins: Operations director, Peach Telecom
Roland Dreesden: Managing director, Reflex
Lined up to debate: our Roundtable team
John Burbedge reports the roundtable highlights We‘re doing surprisingly well, actually
Despite the well-publicised difficulties of the eurozone, public acceptance of government-led austerity savings, and little sign of the economic recovery, the general view of the Roundtable was upbeat about the current technology market and its future prospects.
Roland Dreesden said his audio-visual integration business was experiencing year-on-year growth. Increased university fees had actually benefited Reflex with many universities upgrading their technological equipment to meet students‘ raised expectations. The corporate market was also buoyant. “Video-conferencing and the like is proving very popular as corporates look at their travel costs, environmental responsibilities, productivity, even IP protection. From our perspective things are looking good, but we have to be careful not to kid ourselves. We are just a £12.4million turnover company, so one good contract can make a big difference.“
Darren Atkinson from UK-based independent software vendor Prisym ID, echoed the good news. “We have grown over 200% in the past four years with some very substantial growth in our market (medical), mainly in North America although we have seen a pick up in the past six to nine months with our European clients.“ Much of Prisym‘s growth had been achieved by greater adoption of web-based technologies to sell its enterprise products. (Prisym opened its new US office in Boston on the day of the Roundtable – June 1)
Internet domain name specialist Nominet‘s Phil Kingsland said his organisation acted as a useful economic barometer since it dealt with all sectors and types of businesses. “The domain names register passed the 10 million mark some months back, so that space is strong and positive. There is still a general switch to the Internet economy occurring as businesses, even traditional ones,
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look at making the most of going online. Reports suggest that the Internet economy will grow 10% this year.
“I guess it‘s all about: ‘How can we make more money in this commercial world, when growth in the traditional places is not there? From a ‘dot-UK‘ perspective, it‘s about the things that people buy into – the trust, status and sense of belonging that dot-UK represents.“
Slower sign-offs as corporates seek assured savings
“There‘s a lot of growth and interest going forward, but we‘ve also noticed that justification and sign-off for any significant spend within organisations – contracts say over £250,000 – now seems to be more complex and takes longer,“ said Atkinson.
James Cowper technology partner Sue Staunton agreed: “Things are looking extremely positive for the sector, but it is taking longer to secure deals because people are more cautious.“
Atkinson added that many of his medical sector customers had reduced their R&D expenditure and were now looking for better returns on their investments in technology infrastructure. “They are seeking a quick response over a short time. Also, where they are using several facilities on a global basis they are trying to standardise and gain operational benefits by using singular products to address their market opportunities.“
Video products distributor Peter Nice noted: “Video-conferencing and unified communications are becoming far more important because they
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – JULY/AUGUST 2012
Euros Evans: CTO, Airwave
Dan Havercroft: Relationship director, Barclays
Philip James: Partner, Pitmans LLP
Phil Kingsland: Director of marketing, Nominet UK
David Landew: Head of relationship marketing, Star Technology Services
Peter Nice: Head of new business, Imago Group
Kevin Scott-Cowell: CEO, Voicenet Solutions
Sue Staunton: Partner, James Cowper LLP
David Murray: Managing editor and publisher of The Business Magazine, chaired the discussion
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