ICT to the United Kingdom

(Last updated: 5 Oct 2011)

Trends and opportunities

ICT business opportunities

• Digital content: The UK is positioning itself as a provider of digital services and media. The government is active in promoting start up Britain and areas like Shoreditch in London have become hubs for the European digital community.
• Process automation: Public sector cuts that began in April 2011 are creating opportunities for technology that can improve productivity and replace expensive legacy systems. Proven solutions with impressive customer credentials may be able to leverage them.
• Financial services: The UK is the world’s first equal financial centre. This industry is coming out of the downturn and is once again creating jobs and opportunities for Australia’s technology entrepreneurs.

Why is this market attractive for Australian companies?

• UK tech customers tend to be slow to acquire but very loyal. For Australian companies who are prepared for the long haul, the UK can provide a strong and lucrative market in the long term.
• The UK also provides an excellent internationally-regarded case studies and an entry point for doing business in Europe.
• Australian companies have been successful across all of the sectors outlined above, along with ‘best-of-breed’ solutions for business process improvement.
• UK government is following through on its commitment to working with SME vendors. They are introducing two initiatives in order to make it simpler for SaaS providers to sell to whole of government without tendering to each department. The G-Cloud and the Government App Store.
• Shared cultural and business environments.
• Investor base that rivals the USA.

Marketing your products and services

Top tips to be successful in the United Kingdom:

• Have something truly different and be prepared to work hard conveying that message
• Be prepared for the long haul – have a four year strategy
• Be prepared to outlay a lot of cash, over a long period of time, before you see returns (are your board or investors comfortable with this?)
• Be prepared to invest in long-term relationships
• Careful localisation of the product is required. A great deal of attention must be paid to ensuring that an IT product or service is perceived as being 100 per cent targeted at UK users

How does doing business in the United Kingdom differ from Australia and what do Australian companies need to do in approaching this market?

• Buyers in the UK tend to be very risk-adverse, and prefer traditional ways of doing things. It is not unusual for decision-makers to choose a technically inferior but mainstream product in order to avoid risk-taking
• The language of business in the UK can be very ambiguous and it can be hard to tell what people have really thought of a product or solution. People will rarely provide negative feedback as ‘politeness’ is highly regarded. Australians can be considered very direct and even aggressive
• UK buyers can be very dismissive of experience and case studies achieved outside the UK. It is advisable to have multinational customers as reference sites, yet it is still not until you have a genuine UK customer that you will begin to gain credibility. Whilst Australians and Australian innovations are generally well-regarded, Australia can be seen as ‘a long way away’ and care is needed to address both real and perceived concepts of distance, eg. through setting up a local presence

Key ICT Events in United Kingdom

SmartGov – 14-15 June – www.smartgovlive.com
Cloud Computing World Forum – 21-22 June – www.cloudwf.com
Telecoms for Smart Grids – 21-22 September
GeeknRolla – March 2012 – www.geeknrolla.com

Links and industry contacts

ICT-related resources

Intellect UK – The UK’s technology industry association – www.intellectuk.org
Techcrunch UK – http://uk.techcrunch.com
British Venture Capital Association – www.bvca.co.uk
Digital Shoreditch – http://digitalshoreditch.com