ScotlandIS

Five areas of potential !

Jeff Wacker, Chief Futurist, EDS

There are five areas worth highlighting with real potential for Scotland. The first is information technology, where we will see a new fourth wave of innovation starting around 2008.

The second is biotech, which will be driven by the ageing baby-boomers' need for better healthcare technology.

The third is robotics, particularly personal robotics, and the fourth is nanotechnology, which I don't think we have grasped the significance of yet. In reality, nanotechnology will have a dramatic impact on our daily lives and will change the nature of all sorts of materials - from clothes that never become dirty to components for engines that allow incredible levels of performance.

And finally the area of eco-technology to help with the re-greening of our planet will demand new technologies.

The full text of this article is at ScotlandIS News

Developing an Incubator Mindset

Andy Mulholland, Global Chief Technology Officer, Capgemini

While Scotland has lots of small technology companies, it has no real big companies.

So how does Scotland grow companies? I suggest that you need to identify a niche that permits you to be a global company and have the combination of market muscle, financial stability and so on that it takes to grow those businesses.

There is a tradition of exceptional engineering talent in Scotland that goes back more than 300 years. I believe the long-running tradition that Scotland has for engineering is a very powerful brand. There is even a brand identity for Scottish engineering, even if comes out in a slightly funny way in things like Star Trek.

But to accelerate the growth of the technology industry Scotland needs an incubator mindset - the way universities can help incubate and the ability to get your idea to market. If you look at the Americans or the Israelis then they are very good at this. There are companies who specialise in doing nothing more than finding these kinds of start-ups and getting them out into the big wide world and taking a cut on the sales in the meantime. These types of companies are generally absent inside the UK market - particularly in the Scottish market.

The missing link !

David Farquhar, chief executive of 2in10, a specialist in technology product marketing

Why is Wolfson Microelectronics the only IT company we've got that has made it onto the FTSE 250? Innovation is not the problem. Building quality is not the problem either. The problem is we're not commercialising it.

Bob McDowell of Microsoft said last week that there is a lack of ambition in Scots who stay at home. I don't agree with that. It is just that that ambition is not being translated into the right methods to take our technologies global.

We've got brilliant innovators. We've got great engineers developing and designing great products. But the problem is most of the time they are products that do not solve the market's real problems, so they sit on the shelf as technologies that never get used. Or they are not being sold to the market in the way the market wants to buy.

If our companies are going to get their great technologies to the market, the managers have to structure their companies and design their strategies around the way that others in the industry want to buy things.  That's the only way to create companies of global scale. 

The full text of this article is at ScotlandIS News

Working together - the missed opportunity

Ann Budge, CEO, Sopra Newell and Budge UK's view is the industry needs to work together more.  "To grow more companies from a small base into larger ones we need to collaborate more. One of the things holding us back is what appears almost an unwillingness to co-operate and work together. I do not know if it is because we are all frightened of competition or because we are all so focused on our own businesses.......

And, yes, of course you've got to be fairly aggressive in business. But recognising that by co-operating and working collaboratively we might get more out is, I think, an attitude we need to encourage.

I also think companies in Scotland don't understand the value of marketing. I am not convinced a lot of Scottish companies understand what marketing actually is or what it can bring to the technology market.

(The full text of this article is at ScotlandIS News )

Sunday Times Coverage

A big "thank you" to the Sunday Times Scotland for their coverage of the debate on the future of Scottish Technology - Standing at the Crossroads.  The global speakers article is at Times online and the follow up article with a number of Scottish industry representatives is in this week's paper.  The articles are also reproduced in the News section on the ScotlandIS website.

So what do Scotland’s own IT experts think? The cream of the industry will meet at the ScotlandIS Global Forum at Scotsoft 2006 in Edinburgh on October 5. Ahead of the conference, The Sunday Times asked some of the best-known figures in the Scottish IT industry to respond.  We have posted their responses and interviews with a number of others on this blog. 

Agree or disagree add your comments and join in the debate !
Polly Purvis

Innovation in the right places?

Paul King, Senior Security Adviser, Cisco

We're working with a number of authorities in Glasgow where we now have community academies up and running. We are looking to get some of this work adopted as part of the curriculum in Scotland.

There's a general concern about the falling number of people going into IT and obviously as we're driving more technology into people's homes and businesses we need skilled people to be able to do that.

It's not just a challenge for Scotland - it's a worldwide problem. The last few years of the education being offered to students before they make a decision as to what career path they are going to go down will hopefully improve the skills that are out there.

I don't think we are bad at innovating, we're bad at not innovating in the areas that the industry is moving to.

Stop talking and start acting !

Bob McDowell, Microsoft's Vice-President for business critical solutions and a member of the International Advisory Board set up by Scottish Enterprise, started the "Technology at the Crossroads" debate, with his controversial comments to the Sunday Times Scotland.

"Scotland is at a crossroads. The problem is it has been standing there a long time, unsure where to go. Your politicians talk about having a "smart successful Scotland", but won't take the steps to make it happen.

There's a lot of thinking going on in Scotland right now, but while they're talking, other countries are acting.....

So where does that leave Scotland? One of the first things is to deal with higher education. Either the state can cut its funding and force the institutions to really compete or it can impose more effective central control. I'd prefer the first option, but that may be politically unacceptable. The best solution might be to create a "University of Scotland" and concentrate resources to make each school focus on key subjects, making them world class in those areas.

Then you have to create an economic environment that is genuinely encouraging to business. In those areas where the Scottish parliament has control, it needs to cut red tape and improve the tax regime.

Above all, you need to push the whole business growth debate up everyone's agenda. There's going to be an election in Scotland next year. All the parties need to think about their business-growth policies and engage in the kind of debate that ensures these resonate with everyone in the country."

View the full text of this article at www.scotlandis.com