Technophobia threatening the future of SMEs

Thousands of UK businesses are failing to adapt and introduce new technology meaning they are at serious risk of falling behind. Experts are urging SME's in particular to come to terms with their 'technophobia' else lose out on significant business opportunities because of their fear of change and reliance on outdated systems.

The ScreenBeam 1100 Plus is a standards-based wireless display receiver for Windows, Apple, Android, and ChromeOS and technical expertise, working with its channel partners to help them grow their business with ScreenBeam’s wireless presentation, conferencing and BYOD solutions.

“Alto Technologies leadership has extensive knowledge and experience in the markets of unified communications and professional audio-visual technologies with a reputation for providing hands on support and expertise for their partners,” said

“Business and education activities are driven by personal devices. Today users expect a familiar and intuitive experience when operating presentation and UC technology,” said John Vickerage, Managing Director, Alto Technologies. “ScreenBeam offers this at a compelling price point. Their history, understanding of the market and technology collaborations with other leading UC brands make them an ideal partner.”

Sencore unveils PlexusAV - a human-centric AV-over-IP ecosystem

Sencore, a broadcast production company providing a range of innovative products and services enabling efficient, high-quality video delivery, announces PlexusAV, a new professional AV division providing a suite of human-focused AVover-IP solutions. PlexusAV is designed and engineered as a standards-based AV-over-IP solution to provide products that are backward- and forward-compatible, reliable, capable and future-proof. Based on SMPTE ST 2110, PlexusAV eliminates the stress of selecting an AV-over-IP technology by leveraging a standards-based solution. As a result, PlexusAV is building interoperable, compatible, adaptable, and stress-free AV-over-IP solutions.

Backed by over 70 years of broadcast history, PlexusAV is researching, designing, and now manufacturing solutions for the modern integrator with their customers in mind. PlexusAV’s ecosystem improves AV-over-IP system performance and reliability and builds compatible solutions that are stressfree. The human-centric design behind PlexusAV eliminates traditional restrictions behind ecosystems and project design. With PlexusAV, integrators are not locked into a customized ecosystem that limits innovation or requires more network bandwidth than necessary.

“There’s a proliferation of broadcast companies entering the professional AV industry because of their experience delivering 8K resolutions with AV-over-IP technology. At the same time, the professional AV industry is moving towards IPbased networking solutions,” said Steven Cogels, global director of business development for PlexusAV. “Compared to other broadcast companies, we are taking a unique and new approach to the professional AV industry. We’re gathering our success in the broadcast industry through Sencore and translating the success into an entirely new product line-up built specifically for professional AV applications. You could say that PlexusAV is a start-up with 70 years of success.”

The PlexusAV ecosystem is built for interoperability because it's based on the AIMS Alliance

Small and medium UK businesses are being held back post-pandemic by a reluctance to adopt new technologies, experts have warned. Experts from TelephoneSystems.Cloud have warned that the future of many SMEs is at risk after the pandemic accelerated technological change across the wider business sector. They warn that thousands of small and medium sized UK businesses are struggling to adapt to these changes with many finding their businesses are struggling as a result. Now the experts are encouraging SMEs to come to terms with their technophobia and to adopt new innovations such as cloud and VOIP technologies. Those failing to evolve with the digital landscape are losing out on valuable business because of their fear of change and reliance on outdated systems.

IPMX proposed standard, which is built on SMPTE ST 2110. Designed to enable transport of compressed and uncompressed video, audio, and data over IP networks, PlexusAV’s integration of IPMX specifications and standards addresses the professional AV industry’s need for a single set of common, ubiquitous standards-based protocols that ensure interoperability for AV-over-IP. Designed for higher education, large venues, healthcare, enterprise, and other applications, PlexusAV simplifies AV-over-IP by offering multiple versions of encoders and decoders to create an innovative, accessible and human-centric ecosystem.

Communications experts say that fear of new technology is still deeply rooted in many leaders who are deterred by a lack of in-house tech knowledge and resistance to intimidating change. Juliet Moran, from TelephoneSystems.Cloud said: “Technology may seem scary, but decisions should never be based on what leaders are comfortable with: “Rather, the decision to change should be based on what will most benefit a company, aka the effectiveness of a system for operations, efficiency, and profitability. The business owners that have seen earlier technological opportunities have had the advantage of accessible and streamlined systems and are now taking huge strides in the post covid climate. It can be used for many benefits, including expanding customer base, improving internal and external services, minimising admin, optimising markets, and streamlining communication threads. There was once a time when people only shopped on the high street and watched films on vid- eo cassettes, but with time these industries have transformed, and the companies that didn’t adapt and embrace the change were left behind. This will be the case for SMEs failing to keep up because new technology has been proven to revolutionise business operations. Being on the wrong side of the digital divide will only continue to have negative implications for businesses as success continues to balance on their ability to modernise.”

The business world drastically changed during the pandemic and traditional working methods were questioned more than ever when lockdowns left millions without sufficient technology or software to work away from the office. Recent research has revealed that 48% of SME leaders in the UK still lack a tech investment strategy. Meanwhile, over 50% of small and medium-sized enterprises have accelerated their digital transformation since the pandemic, and those failing to adapt are now falling behind. The success of markets like cloud computing since the pan- demic has demonstrated that technology can be used within businesses to reduce costs while improving overall efficiency and productivity. The cloud market is estimated to have reached almost 400 billion pounds worldwide in 2022 as more businesses realised these technologies make work easier and more cost-effective, not harder, and more expensive.

In spite of this, there are still myths within traditional workplaces that concepts like “cloud computing” is too complex, and they’d rather stick to what they know best. Fear of change and a lack of technical knowledge is now incredibly destructive for a business. Without innovating with technology, UK businesses will fall behind. Finding technology partners that can help assist with the continual change can be really helpful for the SME business. It is important to understand that today, nothing is static with technology. Businesses need to embrace the idea of continual change and innovation, overcome fear, and build it into their way of working.