How are businesses innovating?
For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the ‘middle’ can often be overlooked. Medium-sized businesses, employers of millions across the UK, significant economic contributors, pioneers of nationwide change through innovation. At Three Business, we know the importance of the M in SME. We’ve also seen first-hand the ways connectivity is helping these businesses lay the foundations for successful growth.
Our new report uncovers how 5G connectivity and technology is driving growth and optimism for medium-sized businesses. We interviewed 400 businesses with 50-250 employees to find out what’s in store for the future across four key areas:
01
Full tech ahead
02
Growth goals
03
Powering progress with connectivity
04
Securing the future
Read on to discover how growth, optimised processes and game-changing technology are helping businesses unlock their potential.
What’s the next step for medium-sized businesses?
Full tech ahead
It’s all things go regarding digitisation. During the pandemic, just 33% of medium-sized businesses made investments in technology. Moving to 2024, we found that less than a quarter are using the same digital solutions today that they were two years ago.
Respondents heralded digital investment as a driver for anything from greater agility and responsiveness to opening up new revenue streams. There’s little surprise then that 60% are building on their existing digital solutions and 86% plan to increase their investment in tech.
The top benefits of digital investment so far?
Growth goals
Medium-sized businesses are growing, and they have been for the past two years. Despite economic uncertainty, widescale transformation in operations and a big shift to digital processes, 80% of medium-sized businesses overall saw a net increase in revenue, employee, and bottom-line growth in the last two years.
And there are clear parallels between rising revenue and digitally evolving industries. In fact, our research found that 93% of those that experienced revenue growth plan to invest further in tech.
93%
Of growing businesses plan to invest further in tech
85%
Expect further employee growth
73%
Of growing businesses see tech as a key driver
Powering progress
Our research highlights another key parallel between digital investment and growth: connectivity. As many businesses have experienced setbacks from disrupted connections (70%), rapid and reliable connectivity is crucial. Essentially, any investment in tech to drive growth must be underpinned by strong connectivity.
With the use of 3G expected to gradually decline in the coming years, 5G usage will naturally increase. A game-changer in modern business, 5G can drastically enhance performance, productivity, and dependability. From healthcare to logistics, different industries are already benefiting from the speed and reliability of advanced connectivity.
The standout benefits of rapid and reliable connectivity?
Securing the future
Security concerns, while not necessarily new, do seem to be rising in specific sectors. The way data is stored, managed, and shared online today means there are more ways it can become vulnerable. At the same time, the rapid adoption of AI technology and tools has presented more questions around the unknown.
From retail businesses hyper-targeting customers using data to national strategies aiming to digitise healthcare services, organisations from different key industries have growing concerns around security.
47%
Of retail & wholesale businesses have security concerns
23%
Of all respondents feel adequately protected at the current time
43%
Of all respondents believe connectivity facilitates the adoption and integration of AI
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Explore the full report, with more key statistics and industry trends.