Our Connected North East debate explored the digital divide impacting the North East. We discussed the need for greater access to technology, better digital connectivity and a growing call for comprehensive learning in digital skills for both businesses and the wider North East population to allow for the same opportunities available elsewhere in the UK.
Chamber and Mediaworks join forces to boost companies’ digital skills
North East England Chamber of Commerce has teamed up with Mediaworks, one of the region’s largest marketing agencies, to support North East business through their digital transformation.
Mediaworks will deliver a series of four events hosted by the Chamber of Commerce, that will outline how businesses can capitalise on the power of data, technology and creativity, to set out a market strategy to fuel the growth of North East business through customer focused technologies.
Chamber Partner member, Mediaworks, will be sharing its extensive expertise from its work with their global clients such as Puma, GAP and Cath Kidston in addition to more local businesses that includes work with Home Group, Newcastle University and Northumbria Water.
The first of these events will underline how business can capitalise on better understanding the data accessible through their existing digital platforms. The session will show how understanding customer data and applying smart persona techniques is key to developing a successful digital roadmap.
The second workshop will outline why a powerful digital brand is key to supercharging sales growth online. It’s increasingly critical for all businesses to stand out from their competition and protect their business from future disruption.
The third session will focus on retaining and growing customers by utilising digital platforms to create immersive online experiences that match the rise in customer expectation.
In the final session, Mediaworks will set out how the right combination of search engine optimisation, paid online advertising, relevant content production, and digital PR and online reputation, accelerates new customers wins and increases market share.
Brett Jacobson is CEO and founder of Mediaworks and will host the Chamber events. His company now has more than 150 digital communications specialists and in the last 18 months has expanded to launch successful operations in Leeds, Edinburgh and Dublin.
Brett says: “This is a region we proudly call home, so we’re honoured to be in the position to step up, alongside our friends at the Chamber, to meet the collective responsibility to improve the understanding of the transformational business opportunities that exist online.
“The need for a successful digital footprint has accelerated at a frightening pace in the last 18 months. We’re really looking forward to the forthcoming series of events that’ll equip our business leaders with the tools to own their digital futures.”
Jonathan Walker, Chamber policy director said: “We are delighted that Mediaworks will be sharing in-depth expertise on how to use digital technology to market a business effectively. These webinars will be invaluable to learn how to use data and on-line sales techniques to really increase business growth. The speed of Mediaworks’ own growth over recent years is testament to how successful these strategies are in the marketplace.
“It is so important the North East not only encourages and supports the growth of its tech sector as with success stories like Tombola and Sage, but also makes sure traditional businesses embark on their own digital transformation journey. We need companies here to be able to exploit the opportunities digital technology can bring or risk falling behind.”
These events are part of the Chamber’s digital campaign and commitment to work with partners and experts to digitise the region’s businesses.
Bridging the digital divide in the North-East
Throughout June we’ve been focusing on the North East’s digital capabilities as part of our Great Reasons campaign. Here, our Partner members Pulsant explain how the traditional North-South technology divide is beginning to close as businesses in the North start to move more rapidly than those in the South.
A common perception is that the North-South divide creates challenges for businesses in the North East of England. This is particularly the case with digital transformation, with businesses closer to technology hubs in the South often at an advantage. However, with strong signs of regional resurgence and the emergence of UK-wide edge networks, businesses are poised to break down barriers of location and accelerate their growth plans.
A growing economic opportunity
Much has been reported on the worsening North-South divide in England, driven by an array of social, cultural and economic differences. While many perceptions persist of the South benefitting from location, the North East is bucking the trend, achieving a sharp increase in private sector activity during May. The NatWest North East Business Activity Index, which measures the output of the region’s manufacturing and service sectors, rose from 55.2 in April to 63.6 in May. The data also shows that new business grew for the third month in a row and private sector firms’ optimism about the year ahead rose to its highest level since March 2016. Increasingly, innovation is also making its home in the North East, with 13 of the Northern Tech Top 100 businesses now situated in the area.
The acceleration of digital transformation
Digital transformation is crucial to that growth but all too often businesses in the North of England have lost out on a competitive advantage to those in the South, due to their closer proximity to highly connected technology hubs such as London. According to new research from Pulsant, 61% of organisations in the South East and London say their location is advantageous to their digital transformation ambitions compared to just 41% in the rest of England.
However, the North is now moving ahead quicker than the rest of England, with 82% of businesses in the region saying the pandemic has accelerated digitalisation compared to 71% in the South. Pulsant’s research also found that when it comes to accelerating transformation, businesses in the North are deploying new Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications (67%), migrating traditional workloads and data into the cloud (65%), and creating their own cloud-native applications (65%) faster than any other region, including the South.
The emerging edge opportunity
What’s clear is that the North East holds huge potential for growth and this is reflected in the region’s growing appetite for digital transformation. A crucial driver of that continued growth will be the emergence of UK-wide edge networks that bring connections closer to those regional businesses and end users.
Delivering services to end users relies on performing analysis on data as close as possible to the location where it is generated. The challenge with traditional data centre deployments in hubs such as London is that, for businesses in the North East, they are too far away from these sources.
In response to this challenge, Pulsant has made a significant investment in a new national network enabling edge computing. Our partnership with Zayo will see our 10 data centres across the UK, including Newcastle East and Newcastle Central, connected via Zayo’s high-performance fibre network to build a unique digital ecosystem. As a result, businesses in the North East can remove any pre-existing hurdles around location and benefit from high-capacity, low latency and agile connections to the edge.
A foundation for future growth
Advancing innovation and digital transformation has been at the forefront of our plans for many years – with our opening of the technology centre of excellence in the North East in 2019 one example of our work in regions. We’ve supporting 1000 clients in the North East region and as a partner member of the North East England Chamber of Commerce we’ve been a vocal advocate for digital transformation growth in the area.
While the North-South divide might continue to present challenges, there are clear and positive signs that businesses in the North East are bridging the digital divide to capitalise on the region’s economic opportunities. Continued innovations, particularly around the availability of edge networks, will be crucial in truly levelling the playing field, enabling every business to become a digital business and reach their true potential – regardless of where they are based.
Simon Michie, Chief Technology Officer at Pulsant
Photo by Shahadat Rahman on Unsplash