Member Article

The growth of the UK tech sector

It’s technology focus week on Bdaily. Here, Chris Sykes, chief executive of digital agency Volume, shares his thoughts on the UK technology landscape and his experiences in running a dual-national firm.

In our clients’ experience, the UK is still a major technology hub, with many United States’ technology companies having their European headquarters here. We started off supporting Dell and Oracle in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and are now a globally approved agency vendor for both companies, developing solutions and campaigns that are easily replicated and localised for other regions including Latin America, Asia-Pacific and emerging markets.

However, while the UK technology industry continues to grow, the US still leads the way in creating and developing technology through its continual investment in Silicon Valley and providing easy-to-access funding for start-ups, something which is far more difficult to achieve in the UK.

In terms of running a dual-location company, many businesses have looked at offshoring operations, with varying degrees of success. At Volume, we have always employed a high number of industry developers, mainly recruited from the network community in Sri Lanka.

Our office in Sri Lanka came about initially through an employee who was keen to return to the country and we were interested to set up a technology facility in Sri Lanka. There was coupled with an increasing appetite within the Sri Lankan government to develop the country as a business hub, offering a viable alternative to leaders such as India and Malaysia, which means we’ve been able to set up a successful base there.

Of course there are still challenges working across two locations, and in Sri Lanka we have faced infrastructure issues such as Internet speed being slower, but there are huge benefits of a dual-location company.

One of the principal benefits is that we have local expertise; employees that know how the business works and effectively replicates these operations in Sri Lanka. We measure this in the same way we do in the UK, through behaviours, and benefits are identical in this territory to those in the UK.

Rather than being seen as distinct entities, our UK and Sri Lankan teams work together as counterparts, using collaboration software, holding quarterly ‘town hall’ meetings and arranging conference calls to accommodate the five-hour time difference. Communications across the business are consistent to keep everyone informed. We even send out the same newsletter! Communication is key, and adjusting working practices means operations are smoother and there is a feeling of cohesion across the company.

Another benefit of operating across multiple locations is the opportunity to develop our teams. We second our UK people and allow them to work for four weeks in Sri Lanka, and vice versa. This includes managing visas and making sure that there is a smooth transition between offices.

We’re also working on recruiting in Sri Lanka. Graduates there prefer to work for global brands rather than local brands as a status symbol. However, as we build our presence there, working with universities and sponsoring sporting events such as rugby tournaments, we’re seeing a marked increase in the number of people wanting to join us.

Check out some of the technology week articles, including: Bdaily talks IT technology; the UK tech sector: a health check; and the web-developers perspective; Bdaily talks to Care.com.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Volume .