13 minute read
Membership of Sussex Innovation providing real value beyond the workspace
Helena Jevons, Head of Sales and Marketing at Sussex Innovation, shares details of how the University of Sussex business incubator has continued to back its community of growing companies through the lockdown
M E M B E R S H I P O F S USSEX IN NOVAT I O N
PROVIDING REAL VALUE BEYOND THE WORKSPACE
Back in March, none of us were expecting that, come Christmas, we would still be largely working from home with all the challenges that brings to businesses. It’s been a year of huge change, and it’s been wonderful to see the way our business community has pulled together and supported each other through the ups and downs.
I’m particularly proud of the way that our consultancy and support teams at Sussex Innovation have responded, continuing to deliver great work for our members and clients while adapting to remote working, unfamiliar technology and asynchronous schedules.
There’s sometimes no substitute for the close relationships you can have while working face to face with start-ups and scale-ups in the real, physical world, and it was great to see some familiar faces from the Sussex Innovation community – from a safe distance of course – during that all-toobrief period when the country started to open back up. We’re remaining open for business and providing a space for those companies who simply can’t keep doing their work from home, but our centres are far from their usual busy hive of activity.
Luckily, we have a whole lot more to offer than being simply a space. We’ve been working hard to create meaningful value for businesses across the South East during the second lockdown and have an exciting new offering to support your business at this time. Become one of our co-working members, and while you can’t physically join us for the moment, you can still access our powerful network remotely, and receive more than $100,000 in benefi ts.
As an accredited university incubator, we have three exclusive deals with leading platforms and cloud technology services which you, as a member, can access through us: n Up to $100k Amazon Activate credits, enabling your business to improve your cloud infrastructure through Amazon Web Services and be able to effectively add scale without adding cost at this critical time n Up to $20k Google Cloud for
Startups credits, providing access to their Spark package of Cloud and
Firebase credit, access to Google engineers and in-depth 1-on-1 architecture reviews n 90% off Hubspot for Startups fees for your fi rst year, enabling you to maximise your marketing communication and touchpoints with your customers, increasing leads and conversions from your CRM data
That’s an immediate return of more than $100,000 in benefi ts for your business, when you become part of our community for around £1,000. If you want to join us and claim one or more of these incredible deals to drive your business forward, you can call me on 07719 305796.
“AWS provides Uniqodo with a secure scalable cloud infrastructure that enables us to focus our resources more on product development and less on infrastructure management. Not having to dedicate a lot of resources to infrastructure management helped us launch Uniqodo by delivering our MVP quickly at a much lower cost.
“At the early stages of the business, the $10,000 AWS Activate credit that we received through Sussex Innovation allowed us to upgrade our infrastructure and improve our technology without having to worry about the additional cost incurred for a few months. Our entire platform is now powered by AWS with plans to incorporate more AWS services in the future.”
Julius Somoye, CTO at Uniqodo industry reports, competitor anal-
If you’re planning to use the next few months to prepare and get your plans in place for 2021, our members can also access a full range of consultancy and coaching products to help address key business challenges:
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n Strategy: work with our experienced mentors to redefi ne your business model, assess the opportunities and threats in your sector or build out a roadmap to launch a new product Marketing: reboot your sales plan, audit your social media and content marketing channels, or refi ne your PR tactics with media training and n
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n Funding: get investment-ready with help building a compelling story, feedback on your pitch deck or support from seasoned grant bid-writers Research: develop new insights with copywriting advice
yses and white papers prepared by our team of market researchers Finance: navigate risk and get on top of your cashfl ow with plans from our scale-up accountancy team to maximise your fi nancial position for the year ahead.
These products are available part or fully-funded to qualifying businesses through our partnership with the European Regional Development Fund visit www.sinc.co.uk/products to fi nd out more.
Sussex Innovation has received funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (and in London the intermediary body Greater London Authority) is the managing authority for the ERDF. Established by the European Union, the ERDF helps local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support innovation and businesses, create jobs and regenerate local communities.
The pros & cons of UNIVERSITY EDUCATION
Has your teen been re-evaluating going to university in the wake of the pandemic?
At this time of year, thousands of A-Level students across the country are making decisions on university courses and institutions, and whether university is even right for the next stage of their life. For many, university may not be the right choice. To help pupils with their considerations, MyTutor (https://www. mytutor.co.uk), the UK’s leading tutoring platform, have launched a careers ebook.
WHY UNIVERSITY MIGHT BE THE RIGHT CHOICE
n Pupils have the chance to study a subject (or subjects they’re passionate about); n They can make friends for life; n They get 3-4 years to try out different career options; n Long-term, a degree could help financially. In 2019, 66% of graduates were employed in high-skilled roles, compared to 24% of non-graduates and on average are £115,000 better off than those who do not go to university (after taxes and student loans).
WHY UNIVERSITY MIGHT NOT BE THE RIGHT CHOICE
n Lots of employers today don’t ask for a degree as a must-have; n Students can go straight into work, getting a few years ahead of graduates; n No student debt! Universities cost £9000 a year for UK and EU students, which graduates pay off over several decades. On average, students are £40,000 in debt by the time they leave university; n 1 in 5 graduates would be better off financially if they hadn’t gone to university.
If teens are still debating, the UCAS website is a good source of information on some other options that are out there. If students are interested in going to university but are yet to make their mind up, have a look at the list of degree subjects on the same site. There are lots of subjects that are not taught in schools which might spark their passion.
APPRENTICESHIPS
Another viable choice to continue learning, without the backdrop of university, is to explore apprenticeship options. MyTutor teamed up with WhiteHat to help teens learn more. An apprenticeship is a great way to combine education and on-the-job learning. They are normally 15-18 months long, during which time an apprentice works full time for a business. They will spend 20% of their time training as they work to earn a qualification, while earning a salary and applying what they’ve learnt to their day-to-day role. They’ll also meet people they can learn from and make valuable connections in the industry. With an apprenticeship, teens can:
n Study a profession rather than a subject, learning practical skills and knowledge they will use in their career; n Grow a network of professionals from day one; n Learn with the support of a community of other apprentices; n Learn from people at all stages of their career; n There is no need to relocate –teens can find one near home if desired; n Hands-on learning, rather than going to lectures. Bertie Hubbard, Co-Founder and CEO of MyTutor, comments on the need for support through the UCAS process:
“UK parents are increasingly worried about the impact of school closures on their teens’ long-term career prospects. Teens have also missed out on months of UCAS prep with their teachers, and packing the process into the Autumn term gives them less time to get ready than previous cohorts. As a result, many teens fear they’ll have to lower their university choices, and their career ambitions as a result.
At MyTutor, our tutors are subject experts from UK unis and they have up-to-date curriculum and exam knowledge. Being just a few years older they can explain things in a way that teens really understand. In one-to-one lessons they guide teens through the curriculum and train them in exam technique so they can get the best grades in retakes and mocks. And because they’re at university, they also help with UCAS applications and double up as role models and mentors, all in one.”
More information can be read in MyTutor’s World of Work ebook, available on their website: https://m.mytutor.co.uk/ the-world-of-work-ebook
2020:
THE YEAR OF BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION
Platinum is delighted to announce our new resident tech expert, Scott Nursten, who will be writing a ‘plain English’ IT column throughout 2021. With IT having become such an enormously important subject thanks to covid, Scott will sort the wheat from the chaff to assist you in getting ahead of the curve and staying safe. We sat down with Scott to fully understand his company, ITHQ.
}Tell us about your tech background and how you started in business As soon as I got my hands on a computer, I was hooked. I left high school at 15 and became a systems admin for Data Control & Systems, the first Internet Service Provider in Zimbabwe. It was my uncle’s business.
When ITHQ launched in January of this year, a global pandemic was not part of the plan. While challenges have been plenty, cyber, cloud, digital working and data solutions are now in greater demand than ever before. A new normal requires a new way of looking at IT. Enter ITHQ. When he sold it in 2000, I used my earnings to come to the UK and launch S2S. My brother and I grew this business – a Cisco Gold Partner, also in Crawley – until 2007, when we sold it to NG Bailey.
}You have particular skills in cyber security. How did that interest fi rst get sparked? I learned how to code when I was 13 and then, as greenhorn techies do, I dabbled in hacking. Nothing serious; I did wangle some free phone calls courtesy of a well-known insurance company before I was caught.
Thankfully, I found the business of keeping hackers out far more interesting and if you want to keep your network secure from hackers, employ a reformed hacker. Over the years I’ve accumulated some of the most senior certifi cations in security including my CISSP, which is equivalent to a master’s degree.
Working with cutting edge partners means we learn continually about the latest cyber threats. This intelligence helps us to better educate our clients and sharpens our solutions. With an estimated 350,000 pieces of new malware released every day, we need to stay on our toes.
}You say 2020 has changed business for the better. This is surprising. Care to elaborate? It’s been tough, there’s no doubt. Never has ‘sink or swim’ felt more relevant.
As a technologist, however, seeing businesses embrace digital transformation faster, more effectively and creatively, has been exciting.
McKinsey published a survey in October that shows years of tech change has happened in just a few months, which ties in with what we’ve seen. Staying competitive in this new world requires new strategies and practices and staying open to change as we go.
Simple example: video meetings. RingCentral, Zoom or Teams meetings have become completely normal for everyone. Whereas this time last year, physical meetings were preferred. We’ve all benefitted from saved travel time and cost, cleaner air and emptier roads. Even online meeting fatigue has its positives, because it makes us think twice about whether a meeting is necessary in the first place.
The business continuity benefits of cloud infrastructure and SaaS are now obvious. But again, it’s the pain points that have thrown more interesting issues into the spotlight. Firewalls for example – we all work outside them now so security must be viewed differently. With critical data all stored in the cloud and on endpoints, it’s clear we need layers of defence. The most positive change for me is seeing mindsets shift. Businesses are breaking free of the old technology paradigms and starting to understand that there are new ways available to solve problems such as password management, user access to applications and endpoint protection.
COVID-19 has forced businesses to see the massive potential in tech and given us the perfect remote working testing ground.
} What’s allowed the ‘swimmers’ to swim, rather than sink, in your view? For me, the difference is very clear. Businesses that solve problems using technology effectively and effi ciently are the winners. Identifying a clear need and asking the right questions of your IT team; this is the way to direct your research and reach the best solution fast.
Too often I see tech used because it’s what a business has always used, or it’s a name known to the decision-maker, despite it perhaps no longer being the best choice. It’s important to choose tech to solve problems as they arise and not get blinded by the instantly recognisable.
Most of our partners are Gartner or Forrester Wave Leaders, for example, some are record breakers in terms of performance: all of them are innovators. They outperform legacy vendors but if leaders are closed to the new, it is their businesses that suffer. In a world where things have moved years ahead in months, this can be dangerous. }Let’s come back to cyber security. What should be top of the list to protect businesses from the 350,000 pieces of new malware you mentioned? Top of the list is that security should be a board-level discussion point rather than an afterthought. Cybercriminals have moved much faster than businesses have during the pandemic. Travelex was effectively put out of business by a single attack and this was a billion dollar business.
I said earlier that knowing the right questions to ask is a big part of getting tech right. To businesses that have invested in remote solutions with no security budget, I ask this: ‘Do you have a ransomware budget, then?’ Because you’re going to need one.
