Key Facts
External Challenges Increase Uncertainty
How external influences on businesses are evolving. GDPR is influencing sharing insightful data for development and emerging tech.
The Do’s and Do Not’s of Data
52% of respondents believe that their organisation is using its data “moderately” well. This indicates that whilst efforts are being made, the potential benefits of quality data analysis are not being fully realised.
Best Practice from Policy
There was a fall in the number of companies having to report breaches to the ICO. 87% of respondents have not had to report more data breaches in the past 12 months compared to 69% last year.
West Midlands Research
In recent years, the West Midlands has emerged from the decline of its traditional industries to become a thriving tech hub. We interviewed several key figures within the region to understand why and how this has happened and what the future holds.
This includes the history, location, infrastructure, talent, investment and initiatives of the West Midlands.
It’s Still Hard to Reach the Cloud
29% of respondents said they had no problems moving applications to the cloud. Whilst this was the highest response, it is not a convincing majority.
Interest Not Action
There is more interest than action regarding emerging technologies. The number of companies actively using these technologies is very small but for each technology at least 40% of businesses showed interest in adopting them.
Solving a Sector Wide Shortage
The two most common way to address the skills shortage were ‘recruitment’ and ‘training’. Recruitment is a good way of bringing talent in-house, but it does nothing to solve the sector-wide shortage. It moves workers around in an industry where they are in short supply.