Four in five UK companies ‘unable to scale’ digital transformation plans

People sitting at a table with a phone and laptop.

Many UK businesses are in danger of suffering stunted growth due to a lack of investment in core IT connectivity systems.

A new report has found that four in every five UK firms are unable to scale plans to their fullest potential with current connectivity arrangements. Just 20% of UK businesses state they are in a position to undertake digital transformation plans.

This comes as 84% of enterprise organisations state their digital transformation plans have accelerated...

17 February 2022 | Automation

How Gulliver’s Theme Park Resorts boosted customer engagement

A castle at Gullivers theme park.

Designed for young families who have children that are aged between 2-13-years-old, Gulliver’s Theme Park Resorts provide memorable family days out as well as a range of themed accommodation options for short breaks and sleepovers.

Already established in Warrington, Milton Keynes and Matlock Bath, the fun-fuelled organisation recently expanded and opened resort number four in the popular area of Rother Valley, South Yorkshire.

The problem:

With a 183,000-plus...

3 February 2022 | Automation

Most marketers are unhappy with their marketing automation platforms

A sad looking little dog.

More than half of marketing professionals (55%) do not believe they are getting what they need from their current marketing automation platform from a value perspective.

With individualisation and dynamic engagement the watchwords for 2022, marketers are demanding more from their marketing automation platforms with improved user experience (UX) for ease of use, additional tech-stack integrations, and automated updates to new compliance requirements cited as mission critical needs....

27 January 2022 | Automation

NICE and Google Cloud partner on digital conversations and self-service experiences

self service checkouts

NICE, a provider of enterprise software solutions, has collaborated with Google Cloud to address the growing demand for more effective and automated customer self-service systems that integrate with traditional contact centres. 

NICE is integrating its cloud-based, AI-powered CXone customer experience platform – used by 85 of the Fortune 100 companies – with Google Cloud Contact Center Artificial Intelligence (CCAI), a group of APIs that bring the best of Google AI to contact...

18 November 2021 | Automation

How M&S increased engagement and achieved listings consistency with 1,063 stores

Marks & Spencer's St Helens store.

Marks & Spencer (M&S) is a leading British retailer bringing quality, great value food, clothing and homeware to millions of customers across the UK and around the world, from everyday style on M&S.com, to the very best prawn sandwiches at convenience M&S Simply Food locations.

The problem:

M&S continued to serve its customers throughout lockdown and strived to find new ways to help them shop with confidence and find the information they need online...

18 November 2021 | Automation

Old School: The forgotten tech making a comeback with marketers

In the results-driven world of performance marketing, it can be tempting to jump from tool to tool, scrabbling at the latest must-have tech. 

Despite massive advances in the way that marketers work, at the core of many strategies lies some pretty reliable tech, which shows no sign of being dropped from the marketing mix. 

There is a reason why old tech works, there’s a layer of trust and acceptance that marketers can benefit from - big time.

Old tech,...

16 August 2021 | Automation

Alfi research shows promising growth for programmatic advertising

Half of senior advertising executives expect spending on programmatic advertising to increase dramatically over the next three years.

This is according to a survey by the Florida-based artifical intelligence (AI) advertising SaaS platform, Alfi. The research also found that, when asked to pick the three most important benefits of programmatic advertising, 94% of those asked cited automation.

Programmatic advertising involves the automated purchasing and management of...

9 August 2021 | Advertising Technology

HubSpot: Chatbot usage more than doubled during the pandemic

Hello Sign

Chatbot usage in the UK has more than doubled since 2020, with a third of all marketers now using them to engage with customers.

The findings come from marketing software provider HubSpot’s 2021 Not Another State of Marketing Report, which surveyed 1,500 marketers globally, and found that marketing and social media priorities are shifting to match developing technologies.

Part of a wider trend in the use of automation, the report reveals the acceleratory effect of the...

23 July 2021 | Advertising Technology

The next normal – The recovery will be digital

Tsunamis wipe out things quietly and quickly without giving you time to prepare and react. This is exactly how the year 2020 showed us - the overnight change. Throughout history, the most important lessons emerge from the worst humanitarian challenges. Understanding the development of human evolution motivates us to reflect on what digital transformation really means to humanity. The pandemic accelerated digital transformation. Futurist Gerd Leonard claimed that anything that cannot be...

10 June 2021 | Automation

Why automation is your greatest ally – if you use it right

As an agency owner or marketer, you’re in constant pursuit of two things: demonstrating return on investment and landing new clients. The past year has only intensified the necessity of these pursuits — especially the latter — as you likely tried to help clients through the challenges of the pandemic while shortening and digitising your sales pipeline.

When used properly, marketing automation can make your sales process more efficient and scalable. By automating tasks that...

21 May 2021 | Automation