Tech’s £20 million question: what to invest in now?

Tuesday, March 20, 2012 | Posted by: Grant Thornton
Categories: Media sector, Technology sector | Tags: Grant Thornton, report, technology, survey, insight, video, interview, analysis, trends, tech, voxpops, ICT, Phil Smith, Martin Balaam, Tony Henderson, TMC

What does the future hold? We asked three technology business experts: if given £20 million to invest in keeping ahead of the tech market, where would they place their bets?

That was the big question posed at ‘The £20 million gamble’, a Grant Thornton seminar on technology trends. Three senior executives from the largest technology corporates took on the challenge to identify the key growth areas where this sum of money could make the biggest difference.

We took some short video snapshots to catch their views; or you can read the text summary from the event at the end of this post.

1. What can the government do to best support growth in the UK technology sector?

 

2. What is your prediction of the most significant technology trend over the next five years?

 

 

3. Where would you invest first if you were looking to expand a UK technology business overseas?

 

 

 

4. If you had £20 million personally to invest in a technology, what would that technology be and why?

 

 

 

The £20 million Gamble: what the tech business experts said
Despite their different ICT backgrounds, there was a surprising degree of consensus between our three speakers that the development of cloud-based services and infrastructure is the single most significant medium-term opportunity in today’s market.

This, together with the challenge of managing and utilising the vast quantity of data being generated by internet and social media applications are seen by all as huge drivers for change.

Martin Ballam, former MD of BT, Engage IT, focused on small and medium-sized businesses: “They’re the driving force in our economy and the biggest innovators. What they need is a safe and secure marketplace where they can understand, experience and procure cloud services.”

• Where would he invest? In a ‘cloud club’ that identifies the best service providers and negotiates the best possible terms and conditions for SMEs.

Tony Hendersen, Account Director, TV, Operator Channels, Microsoft UK, said that the TV business was ripe for modernisation: “To rise to the challenge of online social and mobile media, broadcasters desperately need flexible, low-cost reconfigurable infrastructure.”

• Where would he invest? Cloud-based broadcasting services that are scalable, flexible and responsive to the audience in a way that traditional channels can never match.

Phil Smith, Vice President and CEO, Cisco UK & Ireland, focused on investment around the trend for mobile devices and the “globalisation, personalisation and consumerisation of IT” where all things are connected by cloud technology.

• Where would he invest? In developing the proper secure and scalable structure to cope with the growing amount of data that is being produced, and in those doing something useful with it.

Download the report
For further insights and discussion on where the smart money is going in technology, read our report: Thinking: Insights into technology.

Image: (CC) Micky Aldridge

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