A third of business leaders have done little or no planning for the next five years’ advances in tech, BT’s The Future in 2021 survey has revealed. Rob Waugh redresses the balance by analysing how new products and services are helping UK companies grow revenue
How technology can help future-proof your business
The world has lived through a time of unprecedented change in the past 18 months – so how do businesses now plan for the future?
According to a BT survey of 1,217 business leaders, over the next five years the most important goal for United Kingdom businesses is to increase their revenue. Overall, UK companies’ primary goals are to increase revenue, improve productivity and reduce operational cost, as well as optimising customer experience.
The technologies that UK companies hope to use to achieve these goals range from augmented reality to analytics to machine learning. Two-thirds (66 per cent) of businesses have planned their next five years, according to BT’s survey – but another third admit to having done little or no planning. And the smaller the business, the less likely leaders are to plan for the next five years, with 53pc of small business leaders saying they have “little or no” plan for that time, compared with 24pc at large companies.
Applied futurist Tom Cheesewright, author of Future-Proof Your Business, says that it’s no longer enough for companies simply to streamline their operations. “The big strategic shift over the last decade has been from optimisation to adaptation,” he says. “We’ve taken a lot of friction out of the world of business. That means it’s easier and faster to create, produce and deliver new products and services than ever before. That’s great if you’re the one doing the innovating. It’s scary if it’s your competitor.
“The result is a shift in focus. Leaders accept now that any strategy based on extracting value from the current business [optimisation] is extremely risky. Instead they’re thinking about their legacy: have I built a platform for sustainable success? That’s all about adaptation. How flexible is the business? How diverse? How innovative?”
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“We are bringing in modelling to see what will happen in the future to help drive better decision-making. What are the consequences for the environment and for us if we don’t respond to climate change? We need advanced modelling to understand these ‘what if’-type scenarios to optimise our decision making. 5G enables us to push huge amounts of data out – not just to people in offices, but also to scientists and managers in the environment. This allows them to look at variables in near real time, such as changes in water quality, the value of carbon in the landscape or air quality.”
How emerging tech can help businesses achieve their goals
Professor Andrew Tyler, University of Stirling, working with BT 5G on climate modelling
BT is dedicated to digital transformation and wants its customers to be ahead of the game when it comes to tech. Find out more from BT’s Future in 2021 survey at
business.bt.com/insights/the-future-in-2021
Paul McGerrigan, chief executive of Loan.co.uk
“The total automation improvements so far have saved our 40 advisors and processors on average 3 hours and 45 minutes per day. Our smart AI underwriter can fully underwrite about 100 cases in about 30 seconds including credit search, where previously it would take an advisor about 20 minutes to underwrite a complex case with full credit search. We can process as many loans as our competitors with approximately half of the staff, which means we are currently twice as efficient.”
Leslie Marshall, head of experiential marketing at financial services firm Morningstar
“We want Morningstar events to be as accessible as possible to a wide range of investing professionals. From the feedback we’ve received in previous years, we know that our guests find the conference VR experiences memorable, intuitive and engaging. It’s a significant milestone in technology innovation for our sector.”
Scott McCulloch, chief executive of TheVeganKind
“We have used AI tools to go into our customer data and draw out the things which are most important to our customers. The volume of business we process via our website has increased an incredible 125pc since the pandemic started, with revenues increasing from £2.6m to £5.6m year on year. We’re moving towards a digital-first culture, recruiting more developers to enhance our offering and help us stand out from competitors.”
Up to two-thirds of UK companies plan to invest in emerging technologies such as AI, VoIP, 5G and augmented reality.
Many businesses struggled during the Covid pandemic, and had to focus on the short term. The pandemic accelerated long-term trends, futurist Tom Cheesewright says. “High-street retail was already in trouble. Goods were moving increasingly to digital channels. Home working was already on the rise.”
Almost a quarter of businesses are planning to invest in 5G technology (23pc), with artificial intelligence also popular (with 15pc). Nearly 13pc of businesses are planning to invest in virtual reality.
As the rollout of 5G networks accelerates, these numbers will likely continue to grow. In 2022, 5G subscriptions are expected to pass one billion worldwide, according to research by Ericsson.
Cutting-edge technology that improves the experience of customers creates a “virtuous cycle”, says Kay Peacey, digital marketer and founder of Slick Business: “Consumers expect instant gratification, clarity of options and a custom experience that speaks directly to their needs. When you make life easier for consumers, and have tech that helps you connect in a human way with just what they need, revenue rises fast. And customers who feel great about their experience with your business become evangelists, and spark the next round of growth. It's a virtuous cycle fuelled by smart business tech.”
Businesses should take the opportunity to improve the employee experience and offer hybrid working, says Matt Parker, chief executive officer of Babble. “Businesses should therefore be adaptable, imaginative and have an open mind as they evolve their ways of conducting business whilst keeping the employee experience front and centre,” he says. “Building strong technology partnerships and leveraging their deep expertise is critical. The hybrid model, in which companies future-proof their businesses by providing employees with the freedom to work as they please, will be the future.”
Technologies that are helping businesses achieve their goals
Business leaders believe that emerging technologies can help them achieve goals including driving revenue and cutting costs, according to BT’s survey of 1,217 business leaders.
Businesses were asked to rank which technologies they believed could allow them to achieve different goals. But 34pc of businesses said they did not plan to invest in technology over the next five years.
Most UK businesses plan in advance, with two-thirds saying that they have planned for the next five years, according to BT’s research.
Public sector organisations appear more likely to plan in advance, with 35pc doing so, compared to 31pc in the private sector.
Planning is increasingly crucial, says Cheesewright: “An amazing number of companies are fuelled by luck. In one study with a client, two-thirds of finance directors told us that their annual budget and strategy are, at best, loosely connected. That’s fine if what you did last year is going to appeal to customers again next year. But more and more, that is not the case. Every business leader needs to be a futurist now, devoting more of their time to scanning the horizon and planning their response to what they see.”
Consistent planning is key for companies that hope to grow, says business coach Tim Coleman. “Fail to plan and you’ll inevitably plan (albeit unintentionally) to fail,” says Coleman. “Planning allows businesses to work backwards from long-term goals with the end in mind. Without consistent planning processes, businesses are unlikely to fulfil their potential for growth.”
AI and automation have a role to play in delivering the data that businesses will need in the next five years, Coleman believes: “Emerging tech can help businesses establish KPI dashboards that allow greater levels of financial visibility for management boards, in order to maximise decision-making leverage towards their goals.”
Which sectors have ‘little or nothing’ planned for next five years
When it comes to increasing revenue, UK firms hope to rely on artificial intelligence and machine learning (which can be used to analyse customer data to deliver business insights, for example).
Almost a quarter (23pc) of firms said they hoped AI could help them increase revenue – followed by analytics and “as a service” solutions, both at 14pc. “As a service” solutions allow companies to buy new technology without up-front costs.
“Technology is cheaper and easier to implement than ever,” says Cheesewright. “What is expensive is the selection process and then training or encouraging people to use it. Those costs haven’t gone away, even if much technology is more intuitive than it was before. Ensure that they keep enough expertise on retainer or in house to make smart purchasing decisions. Companies need to be brave and experiment more.”
Partnering with a company such as BT can help businesses with long-term planning around tech investments: BT has expertise and resources for businesses of all sizes.
For small businesses, investing in technology is a big decision, says Shivvy Jervis, founder of the forecasting lab Futurescape248. “For a small business adopting new tech is a big roll of the dice,” Jervis says. “Business leaders who want to ensure their tech brings business success should make sure their employees are fully on board with the changes, and ensure that feedback on the technologies deployed comes from employees using it at the frontline. Promoting an honest, open feedback system is vital to tech success.”
Top six revenue-driving
technologies
“I think a lot of businesses may be hesitant to invest in new technology, especially since 4G is already a great solution and works for them. But there are huge opportunities for 5G that they can benefit from. For example, improving productivity is one of the key drivers. If we look at staff training, we recently carried out an experiment where we trained new recruits using mixed reality, as opposed to written manuals. This was incredibly effective, and it frees up staff who usually spend time training others.”
“For any data-driven business, I believe there are two strategic priorities. The first is to create the right data culture. The second is to implement a data architecture that is fit for purpose. A data infrastructure allows data teams across an organisation to use the same source of truth for artificial intelligence, and machine learning is critical to helping organisations reach their goals. Look at Uber, Google, etc: how these companies use data strategically is quite literally the reason they are successful.”
“Next-generation technologies such as machine learning, internet of things and predictive analytics can deliver a level of automation for businesses which will drive huge efficiencies in a multitude of ways. For the most part, it’s likely that these will deliver cost savings for businesses, but there are revenue-driving opportunities too. Technologies such as these require huge amounts of data, however.”
“The key issue is cost and agility. To build your own artificial intelligence department is very costly and time-consuming, especially when attracting the right talent. Even then, it would be on a case-by-case basis whether or not such a move would pay for itself. Instead, the ability to merely subscribe to and hire in talent means that a business can reap all of the benefits without having to hire staff or implement changes.”
“It is estimated that by 2025 some 24.6 billion devices will be connected to the internet. IoT enables us to gather the data we need to invest in the right solutions at the right time, and to predict building and equipment usage. IoT data analysis is also a compelling and bankable offer to building owners who wish to know more about how their buildings are used.”
“Immersive tech is a powerful tool in making data easy to understand, as it allows you to inject it in the world around you and communicate buildings spatially. It is allowing businesses to digitally represent the world around them in order to explore opportunities, pioneer new concepts, optimise their processes and develop a competitive edge like never before.”
5G
John Vickery, principal technology partner for 5G at BT
AI and machine learning
Chris D’Agostino, global principal technologist at Databricks
Predictive and augmented analytics
Peter Asman, managing director for public sector and enterprise at Neos Networks
“As a service” solutions
Shivvy Jervis, founder of the forecasting lab Futurescape248
Internet of things
Tom Harmsworth, UK MD of WeMaintain
Augmented and virtual reality
Linda Wade, CEO of Spinview
Driving revenue
AI and machine learning
23%
Predictive and augmented analytics
14%
As a service solutions
14%
Improving customer experience
AI and machine learning
31%
VoIP
25%
Virtual reality and augmented reality
20%
Flexible working
5G
36%
Hybrid/multi cloud
20%
VoIP
35%
Reducing operational costs
VoIP
26%
Hybrid/multi cloud
15%
AI and machine learning
20%
Find out more from BT’s Future in 2021 survey at
business.bt.com/insights/the-future-in-2021
Find out more from BT’s Future in 2021 survey at
business.bt.com/insights/the-future-in-2021
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) allows you to make calls over a broadband internet connection rather than the phone network. It is used in popular meeting apps such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams
39%
Other
Manufacturing
Construction/real estate
Retail
Financial services
Hospitality and leisure
Accountancy, legal, media
IT and telecoms
9%
Other
31%
29%
38%
28%
51%
38%
29%
24%
Other
Other
49%
49%
Other
49%
Other
49%
Other