2 August 2018 | Herpreet Kaur Grewal
Over half of UK businesses believe Brexit will trigger a drop in revenue in 2019, according to research by business intelligence and analytics provider MHR Analytics.
The findings are contained in a report titled Business Insight: The Data Surge, which contains detailed polling of 200 senior decision-makers in large and medium-sized UK businesses about their investment plans.
When asked which factor was most likely to trigger a drop in revenue for 2019, most believed that it would be Brexit at 57 per cent, followed by reduced customer spending at 22 per cent.
Of those polled, 10 per cent think the recently implemented General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) would have an impact on revenue. Only 7 per cent of respondents said no factor would trigger a drop in revenue.
The survey found that businesses were boosting investment in key areas to tackle the revenue drop, with IT coming top by a significant margin, suggesting that tech spend is of huge importance to companies.
It found 59 per cent of businesses would increase spending on IT in 2019, 48 per cent believe that marketing will also see an increase and 46 per cent are planning to boost investment in sales.
When asked about the importance of data, 96 per cent of business chiefs said they understood the importance of data for their company's future. However, one in 10 businesses has yet to implement big data strategies, and less than a third regularly conduct big data projects.
Nick Felton, SVP at MHR Analytics said: "It's clear that businesses are braced for significant turbulence next year and are planning major investment in key areas to power through an anticipated drop in revenues. Despite these fears, companies are adopting a combative approach to this problem, with departments such as IT, marketing and sales all set for a cash injection."
Felton added: "Nearly three-quarters (72 per cent) of the decision-makers we surveyed believe their company's response to big data has been positive, yet only 4 per cent recognise that managing big data will lead to less administration. Early analysis of these results suggests that a sharper focus on data management and analytics could be advantageous to companies in this constantly changing economic climate."