The UK government’s Spring Statement and its ambition to provide economic stability went down well across the channel, but there were few signs that growth was going to come easily this year.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves used the statement to cover a range of forecasts, including inflation, which appears to have peaked and is heading back towards 2%.
Her main message was around the sense of progress made and the stability that the government had gained economically.
“This government has the right economic plan for our country,” she said, adding that it had been able to deliver stability in an uncertain world.
That sense of stability was welcomed across the channel, but there were fears that pressure on customers remained, which could impact much-needed IT investment.
Rob Sinclair, CEO of Point74, a supplier to the food and drink industry, expressed concerns that those sectors would not be given the support they needed from the government.
“The chancellor’s focus on stability is great in theory, but this needs to translate into genuine support for sectors still feeling the effects of prolonged high costs, such as food and drink,” he said.
“While inflation may be easing at a headline level, it remains a real challenge for food manufacturers, which are under increasing pressure to manage complexity across innovation, compliance, factory operations and cost,” added Sinclair.
Paul Kenny, managing director of Aquatrust, said the majority of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were keeping their heads down and trying to deliver growth, and a stable economic environment was key to enabling that to continue.
He added that when it came to improving their position, the majority of SME customers understood the role technology played and the need for investment in both products and people.
“There are two clear levers for growth right now. First, embracing digital transformation – from automation, to AI [artificial intelligence], to more efficient systems – can unlock capacity and competitiveness overnight. Many SMEs are only scratching the surface of what this could do,” he said.
In a slow-growth environment, the fastest way to strengthen performance is to remove friction and unlock measurable productivity gains from within
Richard Farrell, Netcall
“Second, investing in leadership and development. We’ve seen the impact of programmes like ‘Help to Grow: Management’ in our own business. It gives SME leaders the headspace and structure to step back, plan properly and scale with confidence. For many owners, the challenge isn’t the lack of opportunity, but the lack of time to think strategically – these programmes change that,” he added.
That sense of customers using funds and strategy widely to improve their position was echoed by Richard Farrell, CIO of Netcall.
“With GDP growth expected to remain modest and productivity still underperforming, organisations cannot rely on economic tailwinds to improve performance. Waiting for the economy to lift results is no longer viable,” he said.
“The real opportunity lies inside their own operations. Many organisations are still held back by manual processes, disconnected legacy systems and inefficiencies that go unnoticed day to day. The first step is visibility, mapping processes end-to-end to identify where time, cost and effort are being lost. From there, leaders can redesign workflows and use orchestration and automation platforms to rebuild and automate processes rapidly and at scale,” Farrell added.
“In a slow-growth environment, the fastest way to strengthen performance is to remove friction and unlock measurable productivity gains from within.”
