Spotlight on Newcastle's growing tech sector

Newcastle has been highlighted as one of the fastest growing cities in the UK in new research according to PwC’s Good Growth for Cities index 2017.

The report also shone a light on the North East’s contribution and importance to the UK’s growing tech sector. Valued at £170bn in 2015, the UK’s technology sector is booming, with Newcastle alone providing over 20,000 jobs in the region.

Newcastle is home to a plethora of digital and technology businesses including accounting software giant Sage, the only FTSE 100 tech company in the country. (And we couldn’t write a blog without dropping in that TSG’s HQ is also situated in the heart of Geordie land).

Newcastle Upon Tyne, (Ouseburn in particular) has been dubbed as the UK’s answer to Silicon Valley, due to its quirky culture, tech talent and phenomenal growth.

Certainly, from our perspective it’s interesting to see how the tech landscape has evolved to accommodate start-ups and SMEs, giving them the competitive edge which has previously only been available at enterprise level and to those with upfront capital and big budgets.

Technology solutions such as Office 365, Sophos, Datto and Gamma take into consideration scalability, giving businesses the option to grow quickly but also scale down if necessary – an equally valuable option for agile businesses looking to adapt quickly.

Digital transformation for small businesses is now more accessible than ever before. As a concept digital transformation may sound quite daunting to those looking to take on new technologies however this doesn’t mean you must change everything about the way you work.

It does mean utilising tech solutions designed to help your business grow and add value where you need it most. Datto for example ensures you can continue to do business in the event of a disruption or disaster. Office 365 allows your employees to log-on from anywhere and get straight to work.

Flexible working has impacted the way in which businesses function, historically a workforce would be tied to a physical office, applications such as Office 365 mean employees can work from anywhere and still have the freedom and capabilities they would have if based in the office. The ‘work anywhere, anytime’ concept has revolutionised productivity, effectiveness, culture and business continuity to name a few.

As technologies have moved to the cloud, we’ve also seen a rise in a monthly subscription-based pricing model for many tech solutions. In order to utilise this type of technology in the past businesses would need a big investment in IT, meaning enterprises would be able to adopt these effective new technologies but would leave the smaller businesses out of the game.

This report certainly highlights how the technology sector is growing, with start-ups and smaller businesses adding to that success. The transformational technologies available are showing us not only what these solutions have the capability to do, but the real impact they are having on productivity and ultimately the success of businesses across the UK.