The UK is considered as the digital technology capital of Europe. From the World Wide Web to the micro-computer, UK has been at the forefront of technological innovations, helping economic growth and promoting social change. The SIN team works closely with UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) on digital innovations. Merlin Rory Picardo, who is the lead officer for Information and Communications Technology (ICT) at UKTI India shares with us an interesting initiative to support innovative UK companies.
On my recent trip to the UK, I met a UK based ICT startup that was keen to work with one of the biggest Indian companies in the infrastructure space. And guess what – the two are already discussing ways in which they could work together! This illustrates how the innovation cycle is changing within the Indian landscape – more and more big Indian companies, across sectors, are showing interest and willingness to work with technology startups/SMEs. In addition, the use of social, mobile, analytics and cloud (SMAC) technologies is already enabling forward-thinking organisations to work in more connected, collaborative and real-time ways. While each of these forces in isolation is transformative in nature, when combined the impact is profound and offers enterprises the opportunity to shift from old-world industrial models to new friction-free digital ways of working. One of the best places to get a glimpse of the future is the world of startups.
This brings me to an interesting initiative that UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) is working on along with and Cognizant- a leading provider of information technology, consulting, IT infrastructure and business process outsourcing services to most Fortune500 brands.
UKTI and Cognizant, are working together to support UK high-growth technology businesses. The showcase event will be held at the Cognizant’s London office at 1 Kingdom Street, Paddington Central on 19 September 2013
What’s in it for the UK businesses?
Cognizant is in a unique position to connect startups to Cognizant clients, to create new business opportunities. This could be achieved either by a sale of products or services, technology licensing, or co-innovation.
But before they can do that, they need to get to know their potential collaborators a little bit better. This is why UKTI and Cognizant are jointly organising the Startup Showcase Day at Cognizant this year. You will have a chance to pitch your business in 5 mins, followed by 10mins of question & answer session with our board of Cognizant leaders.
We have selected four themes, which we believe have an ability to be significantly disruptive in the short to medium term:
- Mobile Innovation
- Big Data Analytics
- Social Collaboration
- The Future of Banking and Insurance
So, if you have a B2B product or intellectual property that fits one of the four themes – you are welcome to apply.
For more information or to register your interest you can contact my UKTI colleague Rashmi Priyesh.