Scale of digital transformation set out at Chamber report launch
Businesses were given an insight into how they can keep pace with Greater Birmingham 's digital transformation during the launch of a major economic report, writes Dan Harrison.
The scale of the transformation - including the challenges and opportunities it presents - were set out during Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce 's Quarterly Business Report briefing for Q2.
Delegates attended the briefing in person at Birmingham City University 's Curzon Building and virtually via a live stream on the Chamber 's LinkedIn channel.
The event coincided with the launch of the GBCC 's Future in Technology campaign - an initiative designed to help businesses maximise opportunities related to technological development and digital access.
Kasam Hussain, regional partnerships manager at broadband and communications giants Openreach, explained the size of the task involved in future-proofing the region 's digital infrastructure.
Openreach 's £15bn UK-wide full fibre broadband build is the second biggest infrastructure project after HS2.
On a local level, the project is hoping to bring full fibre broadband to 450,000 Greater Birmingham homes by the end of 2026.
There is also a significant project ongoing to transfer the phone lines from analogue to digital networks.
Mr Hussain appealed to businesses - particularly landlords - to play their part in helping these transformations.
He said: “If you look around at the skyline, there is lots of development all over the city and that will continue.
“It is really, really important that when those buildings do go up - whether it 's universities, homes or businesses - that we put the infrastructure in from the first day that they are in or, in fact, beforehand.
“It is really important that we do it from day one as the last thing we want to do is for new buildings to appear and have to retrospectively upgrade those. ”
A shift in digital services and applications - some of which were accelerated by the pandemic - were brought into focus by Mike Osborne, managing director of managed services at Chamber patron Intercity Technology.
Mr Osborne explained the biggest challenge facing many firms was how their IT infrastructure is financed because of multiple changes occurring simultaneously to incorporate hybrid working.
This has brought about a shift towards an 'as a service ' offering rather than using capital expenditure on IT infrastructure.
He said: “It is not how tech is used - it is that businesses are becoming tech businesses and that 's also reflected in how people have come to finance.
“You 've got to have that balancing act now in terms of delivering that innovation, delivering the services but you 've also got to save cash.
“From a tech side, you have to make sure it dovetails into strategy moving forward. ”
When asked about increased cyber security threats, Mr Osborne said hybrid working has potentially left holes that need to be addressed.
He said: “A lot of things that happen within our customer base happen because they are using a phone or tablet which isn 't secured by their organisation.
“This move to hybrid where people are at home using broadband of anyone 's type - you 're moving out of your secure office environment using your laptop that is secured by enterprise security and you 're pushing people out to home using a public broadband and their mobile phones.
“So, my concern would not necessarily be at Cloud level - which I think is professionally done. But at a business level where hybrid has changed the working dynamic, we 're leaving holes in our security by not securing devices. ”
Delegates at the event were welcomed by the Chamber 's CEO Henrietta Brealey and Birmingham City University 's director innovation enterprise employability and business engagement, Jo Birch.
Raj Kandola, head of policy and strategic relationships at the Chamber, also provided an overview of data from the Q2 Quarterly Business Report.
Pictured: Kasam Hussain, Jo Birch, Henrietta Brealey, Raj Kandola and Mike Osborne