For a number of years now, it has been the small, quick-to-move players in the tech sector setting the pace of innovation in the UK. While start-ups and other small businesses have the benefit of dynamism and agility, recent findings by O2 and the Centre for Economic and Business Research (Cebr) confirmed the cost that Britain’s biggest businesses are facing as they struggle under the weight of inefficiencies that come with size, particularly when it comes to adopting new productivity and connectivity technologies. As a result of this connectivity deficit, the report estimates that the UK economy is missing out on growth to the tune of £30bn.
That is a staggering figure – one that should give big businesses reason to pause and ask what we can learn from Britain’s dynamic tech sector to tackle inefficiency and deliver multi-billion pound productivity gains to UK PLC in a period of crucial economic growth. I believe businesses of all sizes can start to work smarter and more productively in 2014 with three key measures:
1. Equip employees to work from anywhere. It sounds basic, but the fact is that 80 per cent of businesses report that employees do not have full access to the key business systems that would make their working lives easier and more efficient, including the technology to work away from the office. Without those tools, employees are tethered to an office environment, and productivity suffers as a result.
2. Make journeys more efficient. Businesses of all sizes spend too much time and money on travel that they don’t always need, whether it’s between home and the office or between multiple corporate locations around the UK. And when journeys are necessary, they’re often nevertheless unproductive. Simple measures like investing in remote working technology, from webmail to 4G connectivity for laptops, could save employees 127 hours per year.
3. Collaborate from everywhere. Less than 30 per cent of teams in British businesses have access to ‘read and share’ collaborative document viewing and editing services, such as Google Docs and Microsoft Office 365, which stifles productivity on team projects. Collaboration technology, which is now widely available, makes it possible to work together without physically being together.
These are great ways for big businesses to give an instant boost to their productivity. Of course it’s not only big businesses that are affected by inefficiency. Recent data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) shows that the British economy on the whole is in the midst of the worst productivity gap in more than 20 years, with rates now nearly 5 per cent lower than pre-recession levels – and falling. As such, and with SMEs accounting for nearly half of total business turnover, businesses of all sizes in all sectors need to take heed of the connectivity deficit and ensure that they’re proactively building smarter working practices right into the heart of their businesses as they grow.
The reality is that too many businesses pay lip service to the benefits that technology brings without adopting it in earnest. 2014 needs to be the year we hear the wakeup call – every employer, whether private or public sector, must understand its own connectivity deficit and take measures to close it. Even small improvements, such as using smartphones, mobile apps, and cloud computing services, will help drive business productivity and restore the UK’s competitiveness within Europe and beyond.
