Welsh Business Need eBusiness Strategy
By admin
Issued on behalf of Precedent
Welsh businesses have huge potential for growth by using the internet but must first learn to see their websites as income-generating business tools and not just additional costs, according to a top UK new media agency.
The claims were made by Neil Davis, director of strategy at Precedent Communications which opened an office in Cardiff in February. Precedent was ranked the overall No 2 agency in the UK last year in Revolution magazine’s new media awards, and No 1 for strategic thinking.
Mr Davis said many Welsh businesses are lagging a couple of years behind their counterparts in London where the large number of new media agencies has helped to raise awareness of a more strategic approach. But while this was understandable he warned Welsh businesses that if they don’t change their mindset and develop online strategies soon they will lose out to competitors who have.
“A website is a powerful tool for business. It should make money, save money and increase brand awareness. But the businesses that succeed with this are typically those that assign a business manager to look after their websites and invest properly in a fully integrated eBusiness strategy.
“London businesses were failing to do this a couple of years ago until the message started to get through. Whilst many London businesses still have a long way to go, Wales currently has far fewer companies approaching the internet from this strategic perspective and there are only limited signs of any change.”
His comments follow on the back of the report State of the Nation: eBusiness in Welsh SMEs 2006-07 published last month by Opportunity Wales and Cardiff University which not only highlighted the take-up of the internet among Welsh SMEs but also the lack of businesses with an eBusiness strategy or a dedicated ICT budget.
“Before we set up in Cardiff in February we had offices in London and Worthing and dealt with clients all over the UK. We came here having identified the potential for growth in Wales, but we knew precisely the challenge ahead of us,” said Mr Davis.
Mr Davis said Precedent’s Cardiff operation had already taken on significant projects but raising awareness among decision makers remained the key challenge in Wales, a challenge made more difficult by the relatively large proportion of SMEs in the Welsh business community.
“SMEs are often newer and smaller businesses and our experience with them shows they have a greater tendency to look at cost before strategy,” said Mr Davis.
“On the other side of the coin there are those SMEs that are well established, perhaps family-run businesses and there are plenty of them in Wales. But while some are quick to embrace change, a significant number have a tendency to say ‘we’ve never done that in the past and the business has been fine, so why should we bother changing now?’
“It really boils down to awareness. It will hit some harder than others but you will be hard pushed to find a single business that doesn’t suffer if they don’t develop their websites appropriately,” he warned.
And just as important as understanding what constitutes “appropriate development”, businesses must learn what is not appropriate, warned Mr Davis.
“In the past businesses bought in all sorts of applications and specifications for their websites that they simply did not need,” said Mr Davis.
“Too often, the sellers of internet products and services cultivated a lack of understanding. They baffled businesses with acronyms and invented terminology that people didn’t understand and essentially scared them into buying things they didn’t need.
“Of course, businesses should always ask themselves ‘do I need it?’ before investing in anything. If they can’t work out what it does for them, then they almost certainly don’t need it. And if the sellers can’t explain what their product does in terms everyone can understand, they either don’t understand it themselves or are just looking for a quick sale via the baffling technique. Our message to businesses is ‘forget features, focus on the benefits’.
“Apart from Precedent there are other people and organisations who understand the way forward. We are hosting a series of seminars in Cardiff aimed at precisely this (see www.precedent.co.uk/seminars ) and it’s encouraging to see that other experts in the field are starting to adopt the same message. Now we need businesses and organisations of all sizes in every sector to embrace it.”
