With much of the UK still in the midst of a national lockdown and the majority of high street stores temporarily closed, the online activity surrounding Black Friday (taking place on November 27th) is set to be higher this year than ever before.

Thousands of new businesses are setting up during the pandemic, a new report has revealed. 'How Startsups Can Kickstart The Economy', published by law-firm, Harper James Solicitors, details how 41,620 more incorporations happened in the first quarter of 2020 than in the first quarter of 2012. This represents an increase of almost a third (32.5%).

Startup founders tend to share a common personality trait - one which makes them the ‘doers’, the kind of person who believes in action and knows that ‘if you want a job done properly, you do it yourself’.

The payment practices of big businesses during the pandemic have been revealed in a new report which calls for legislated 'fair buyer' 30 day payment terms, as part of a plan to support SMEs in their economic recovery.

With CES 'going virtual' for 2021, one might think that opportunities for startups to launch their public and media presence in conjunction with the world’s largest showcase of consumer technology might fall by the wayside, but according to the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), just the opposite is true.

Most businesses have a website. Fact. But what role does it play in the overall strategy of your business? Now that global business is going through one of the toughest and most challenging times, you might need to blow the cobwebs off your website as it could be what actually saves your business.

Customer service organisations need to prioritise business continuity plans to ensure their customer service efforts remain unaffected by any future disruption. That means investing in digital contact centre technology to emerge from the disruption with both customers and employee satisfaction intact.

Subscriptions seem to be everywhere around us these days; they are here, and they’re growing more than ever. The benefits of shifting to a subscription model is motivating many of today’s disruptive tech companies. Take a look at Apple, for instance; this is a company that used to be known for their premium consumer devices, and now they have expanded their business to offer additional services and subscriptions.

Entrepreneurs spot gaps and opportunities. What sets them aside is that they have the drive, energy and ambition to turn those opportunities into successful business ideas. What they often lack is the right guidance and expertise to make it happen.

London is quickly cementing itself as a top global hub for impact tech, according to the latest data from London & Partners and Dealroom.co, showing that VC investment into London’s purpose-driven tech companies has increased by almost eight times between 2015 and 2020.

During lockdown, the UK Government awarded over £130m of grant funding for Research and Development (R&D) activity to innovative businesses and their collaborators in the United Kingdom. The awardees were from multiple sectors including creative, engineering, digital health, education and sustainable energy.

OVHcloud have announced a strategic partnership with Google Cloud to accelerate French and European organisations’ ability to digitally transform and reimagine their business. The partnership aims to bring cutting-edge technologies, built on trusted infrastructure, to European organisations to help them meet their growing needs for strict data controls, security, transparency and privacy while deploying cloud native applications. OVHcloud will introduce a new Hosted Private Cloud offering by bringing Google's open source-compatible Anthos technology to its own highly scalable dedicated infrastructure, fully operated and managed in Europe by OVHcloud teams.

UK businesses have been doing it tough in 2020 and with the recent announcement of the UK's unemployment rate jumping to 4.8%, as 314,000 people lose their jobs, there is no denying many companies will be facing an economic downturn.

To celebrate a decade in business this month, digitalbeans is supporting local businesses to invest in digital and keep growing in spite of tightening COVID restrictions.

Simply put, working in a team means collaborating with other people to achieve a common goal. This, of course, presents several benefits. For starters, working together in a project ensures that work is completed on time, hitting deadlines much easily. What’s more, a team pulls together people with different talents and skills, making problem-solving easier and enhancing creativity and innovation.