UK's hottest tech prospect revealed

NEWS

The UK's hottest tech prospect was announced on Monday night at the European Technology Forum, as companies were given some salutary advice on how to survive the next decade. Diners at the awards dinner were told that the consensus opinion that telcos paid too much for 3G licences was not necessarily correct, before hearing that there were some valuable lessons to be learned from being mistaken for a valet in California. Delivering the pre-dinner speech Mike Lynch, founder and chief executive of knowledge management firm Autonomy, said many of the things predicted during the dot-com boom will come to pass, but perhaps just not as soon as everyone thought. "To say the dot-com boom didn't have an effect is wrong," said Lynch. "We are changing everything." Lynch, whose company's success made him the UK's first software billionaire when its valuation soared in the late 1990s noted that some types of business never really stood a chance. "There was one dot-com laundry company in San Francisco, which took your smalls away, laundered them for free and returned them," Lynch told his audience. "Their business model was to analyse your smalls, from which they could get an analysis of your lifestyle, which could then be sold." The main flaw (of many) with this plan, said Lynch, was that "everybody knows that civil servants like to wear women's underwear underneath their suits, so not only would this company have to cleanse underwear, but it would also have to cleanse the database afterwards. The data would simply be wrong." Conversely, said Lynch, Tesco.com is a formidable dot-com business model. But the rise (or survival) of dot-coms with sustainable business models has not been as easy one: Lynch noted the rise, during the boom, of MBAs, "which popped up with no particular expertise." A good analogy for MBAs, said Lynch, was eels, "not because they are slippery and slimy, but because no one knew where they came from. Now the MBAs have all disappeared again. I even looked under the investment banking rock and there is nothing there." The imperative now, said Lynch, is for companies to deliver the chief information officer what is needed. "The CIO has had a hard time of it lately," said Lynch. "They bought customer relationship management software, but needed 300 people to type the data in. They have to have return on investment in the medium term." Taking a different tack, former Wang European general manager Ken Olisa, who is now chairman and chief executive of the IT investment and advisory company Interregnum, which he founded, had some insight to impart based on his experiences with Americans in a parking lot. Most in the audience were too steeped either in wine or in Olisa's anecdotes to receive the wisdom, but they did get his most important message, which was that in ten years there will be only two camps in the tech world: the Microsoft camp and the non-Microsoft camp, led by IBM. "If you're not with Microsoft and you don't work for IBM, you'd better find out what it means for you," said Olisa. "You need to make the decision now." And the UK's hottest technology prospect? That award went to Searchspace, a company that develops enterprise decision automation software for monitoring business activity. Executive Search Firm of the Year Award went to Renoir Partners, and Deal of the Year Award went to nanotechnology pioneer Oxonica, which last year won £4m in first-round funding. Alliance Partner of the Year Award went to Quester. Individuals who came away with awards included Simon Mills, head of knowledge management at BT, who won CIO Innovator of the Year Award, David Andrews of Xchanging, who won Technology CEO of the Year Award (private firm) and Stephen Purdham of SurfControl, who won Technology CEO of the Year Award (public firm).

For a round-up of the latest tech business coverage, see the Business News Section. Let the editors know what you think in the Mailroom.

Post your comment

In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.

You can also log in with Facebook. Log in or create your ZDNet UK account below

By signing up for this service, you indicate that you agree to our Terms and Conditions and have read and understood our Privacy Policy. Questions about membership? Find the answers in the Community FAQ

ZDNet UK Live

Make that 13 people now - I got refused today at Manchester airport. I thought I was up to date on this legislation - I knew of the EU ruling from...

3 hours ago by bootlegger on UK airport body scans will not be opt out

Don't forget to check out apps like GoodReader or SlideShark either, they're indispensible for people on the go in presentation situations. Best...

5 hours ago by tinycg on Four top iPad apps for people on the move

Well it seems there is something a number of us agree on. Why is the Ubuntu Unity launcher so ugly? I thought perhaps it was something to do with...

10 hours ago by TerryRK on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Duplicate comments are not made intentionally. Its very good to know that now you are keeping check on this problem because sometimes a commenter...

19 hours ago by Freebies202 on Microsoft fixes blog comments, speeds up blogs with open source

"the very significant number of users" and "many (most) of us" - you have no evidence for these statements. It is a fact that most users are saying...

1 day ago by kevinmchapman on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Another grammar faux pas is the improper use of "you". When sitting down down in a restaurant, for example, I get cringe when the waitress...

1 day ago by Marg Menzies Harrison via Facebook on 10 flagrant grammar mistakes that make you look stupid

And NOW, folks, for Canonical's next trick... Kubuntu is late. Here's a pencil. Draw your own conclusions. cf.:...

1 day ago by zdnetukuser on Linux Minterface

@kevinmchapman. The discussion here reflects the very significant number of users who really do like the traditional menu system and who wish to...

1 day ago by Moley on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Er, no... It is an efficient means of finding the application/file/setting you need in one place. The icons are a simply a fallback for when you...

1 day ago by kevinmchapman on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Isn't the provision of a text based search an admission by the developers that the mass of icons approach does not work? I don't need to use a...

1 day ago by TerryRK on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

"Unity and GNOME 3 both abandon the old text-based cascading menus in favour of a graphical icon-driven system." Point truly missed. Both use a...

1 day ago by kevinmchapman on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

whs001 - Thank you, I'm glad you liked the article. I absolutely agree with you on your first point. I should perhaps have made it clearer that...

1 day ago by TerryRK on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

If we allow corporate interest to dictate the way our government circumvents due process against foreign entities then we should accept the same...

1 day ago by Dennis Nilsson via Facebook on ACTA stumbles in Germany

I totally dislike pirating of works, I fear that artists will be deterred from creating works if they think that they are going to get ripped off....

2 days ago by GHar123 on ACTA stumbles in Germany

How dare film makers, artists or anybody that invests in creativity stop us pirating their works for free. I want to be able to walk into my local...

2 days ago by JCB33 on ACTA stumbles in Germany

@GrueMaster. I prefer horses for courses rather than one size fits all. I, and I suspect most other computer users, do not really wish to have...

2 days ago by Moley on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

The product that scares me every time I have to use it is the Office 2007 version of Excel. The first bug that I found was applying the median...

2 days ago by greycynic on Ten flawed products that derail productivity

Nice review and very informative. One thing I'd like to add (in reply to whs001's 1st question), the main reason to have the same interface from...

2 days ago by GrueMaster on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

I'be been using Mint 12 since the RC came out, and I am far more happy with the Cinnamon, the Mate, and, yes (with extensions), theGnome 3...

2 days ago by Frederick Wrigley via Facebook on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Excellent article. One small correction, though--although a fresh installation of Linux Mint 12 will, indeed, provide the user with a version of...

2 days ago by bdantas on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

UK's hottest tech prospect revealed

Daily Newsletters

Topics

Related stories

Never mind the Brits, here are the ISPAs

Vice City, iPod, iMac nominated for design award

Internet Hero nominee walks off with Villain award

Heart of England NHS begins massive digitisation plan

Hard-drive woes hit PC shipments in fourth quarter

Post your comment

ZDNet UK Live

Latest in IT Strategy

Heart of England NHS begins massive digitisation plan

Hard-drive woes hit PC shipments in fourth quarter

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

PHP Web Developer - html, css, javascript

Java Developer, Online Gaming, London

Quant Dev, Hedge Fund, FX, Excel VBA

Inside ZDNet UK

A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

2012 Predictions: VCE FastPath, VI SAN Probe & Hadoop

BlackBerry Bold 9790

Make faster, smarter decisions using BI

Ten factors that make Ubuntu 11.10 a hit

Toshiba Portégé Z830-10P Review

BT's archive: Pictures from the vault

News & Analysis

Reviews

Blogs

Resources

About Us

Member Services

Special Features

Advertising Features

ZDNet UK / News and Analysis / Business of IT / IT Strategy

UK's hottest tech prospect revealed

Daily Newsletters

Topics

Related stories

Post your comment

Get ZDNet UK's daily newsletter

Enter your email address to sign up

ZDNet UK Live

Latest in IT Strategy

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

Inside ZDNet UK

Resources

About Us

Member Services

Special Features

Advertising Features