EMBEDDING digital technologies into business operations has delivered tangible benefits for both business owners and the wider Scottish economy. This proved particularly true during the pandemic, when unprecedented restrictions required a step-change approach in how businesses engaged with customers. Owners responded quickly and adopted technologies at an extraordinary pace, taking advantage of consumer shopping trends that are showing no sign of reversal.
Many business owners now have the basics firmly in place, and the next challenge will be understanding how to effectively utilise technology to grow their business by developing new products and services. This is why Business Gateway, through its DigitalBoost initiative, is working with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to deliver the AWS Digital Innovation Program to help businesses it supports adapt to a changing economy and to meet customer needs.
The AWS Digital Innovation Program will introduce business owners to Amazon’s unique, customer-centric approach to innovation and will give businesses examples of how to use cloud technology to accelerate digital transformation. At the heart of this approach is Amazon’s Working Backwards methodology, which takes customers as the starting point, and gives businesses a new way to gain insights and develop services, products, and solutions that their customers want.
This initiative will help prime businesses for growth in 2022, by providing a much-needed opportunity to identify and address problems and opportunities that will benefit business owners.
Amanda Sleight, Head of Commercial Sales, Small and Medium Businesses, UK, at AWS commented: “We are proud to work with DigitalBoost and Business Gateway to help Scottish businesses accelerate innovation, build new ideas, and bring them to market more quickly and easily. Embracing the inherent advantages of cloud computing such as flexibility, scalability and cost effectiveness, will allow businesses of all sizes to drive digital transformation within their organisations, and in turn, help to fuel economic growth in Scotland.”
For the Scottish Government, ensuring business owners are aware of the vast range of benefits they can capitalise on by using new technologies like cloud computing to drive digital innovation is crucial for economic growth post-pandemic.
Kate Forbes, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy, said: “Digital technologies are transforming the way we do business across all sectors. The Scottish Government’s additional £25 million investment in the DigitalBoost Fund and this collaboration between Business Gateway and AWS will support even more businesses to invest in their digital capacity. We are determined to support businesses to improve their digital skills and technologies to ensure they can help drive forward our economic recovery and support net-zero.”
Ultimately, digital transformation will be an ongoing priority for the country as businesses recover from the pandemic. Collaborations like this can help the recovery of Scottish businesses, and ensure Scotland prospers in an increasingly connected and competitive world.
