Tech in the mid-market

Today technology is pervasive across all aspects of commerce and yet gaining a useful advantage from its use can be challenging.

Today technology is pervasive across all aspects of commerce and yet gaining a useful advantage from its use can be challenging.  In this edition of Chartech (the Tech Faculty's magazine), we explore how practices in the mid-market are adopting technology to remain competitive. ICAEW has convened the Mid-Market Tech Forum to promote the sharing of experiences of implementing new technology. This group, which consists of over 20 firms, the NAO and the FRC, has been meeting regularly and we share highlights from the discussions here.

Expectation gap – there was a feeling that clients are perhaps expecting more due to the amount of material out there on how AI and data analytics is taking over the world, when perhaps it isn’t!

Access to data – is a major task, with a note that, in the mid-market, even structured data isn’t that structured. The issues get more difficult with badly built or unknown data systems, and firms have to rely on their own IT resources for complex cases or obscure data. 

Terms and conditions covering data – it was suggested that companies involve clients as early as possible in the planning process and make sure they understand what the analytics will be used for. It was felt that written terms and conditions covering data extraction would be valuable, but they would not need to be re-signed every year.

The group has also spent time discussing skills, culture and regulation. The feature also provides an outline of how one firm has approached using data analytics to differentiate itself.

The forum is open to any member working in a firm that operates in the mid-market – to find out more, please mail techfac@icaew.com. 

The full article is available to faculty members as part of their subscription.