According to the European Information Technology Observatory, the UK offers the largest ICT market in Europe. Areas where imports are expected to grow include tablets, cloud-computing, real-time data analysis, and business software.
The UK is a market for new technology and design along with a sophisticated group of consumers who are patrons of new innovations in technology and well established channels for distribution.
Opportunities in the UK’s ICT market
E-commerce
In the world of e-commerce, UK’s business world has a stronger relationship with its consumers as compared to other countries. Like in online grocery shopping, that even though online retail only has a small share in the market, it is still higher compared to other major markets in Europe.
The creative sector
Art, literature, music, and film in the UK has culminated in the development of video games. These video games have been complemented by innovative studios and publishers in the ICT market.
Small-medium enterprises (SMEs)
The UK government encourages large companies to make use of more SMEs in delivering businesses. It has also committed to letting companies improve on the way they manage information and make collecting available data on reasonable terms. This will enable SMEs to develop innovative new applications. All these by devoting a great percentage on contract value to SMEs and a greater percentage on cloud computing via IT spending.
Small business research initiatives (SBRIs)
SBRIs have been popping out lately and are competing with each other in the market most specifically in IT security and health. SBRIs utilizes the government procurement to drive innovation and provide opportunities for innovative companies to engage with the public sector to solve specific problems.
Telehealth and E-health
Opportunities in telehealth and e-health have risen due to the following factors:
- An increase in the ageing population
- Reduction of government budgets for healthcare
- A drive to go paperless by 2018
The mobile market
Due to the increasing number of consumers who own smartphones and tablets along with an expansion of 4G services, the mobile market has found itself facing countless opportunities. One opportunity would be the transition to mobile transactions and payments which further reinforce the relationship between sellers and consumers.
IT security
- Video games require several purchases to upgrade their scope and these purchases need to be secure.
- Applications for matters concerning eGovernment require a high level of security for information collected on cities and organisations especially due to the advent of cloud-based solutions.
- Mobile applications need a high level of security for business transactions to be secured to retain users’ confidence.
- Healthcare also requires security due to confidential and sensitive health information of patients and consumers.
The government has acknowledged the importance of IT security for the economy and has placed a number of programmes to encourage greater understanding and use.
The UK offers companies in Europe large opportunities in the ICT market. The UK also has some of the strongest ICT skills in the continent. Not to mention, a high number of ICT graduates.
UK regional ICT clusters
Tech City, the most important ICT cluster in the UK is heavily promoted by the government. Because of this, it is often forgotten that there are more ICT clusters outside of London which were primary manufacturing locations before. These locations gradually declined in popularity though because of Asian and Eastern European competitors. Nevertheless, some have managed to hold on despite recent circumstances.
It is now very much possible for customs to engage in more outlets of economic growth like in the ICT market in UK. This industry is quite promising and will probably a great solution to increase the market shares of the country.
