Technology PR: we mean business

One of the things that I love most about working in technology PR is the knowledge that the companies, products and services that we work with are in no uncertain terms, changing the world. This may sound like a grand claim, but I stand by it. Rather than PR-ing baked beans, nappies, or celebrity perfumes, the technology sector is fast paced and dynamic, and we get the pleasure of working with and promoting tools which help businesses to become better. OK, so we may not attend glamorous and celebrity-filled parties, but in our line of work, we get to help people work smarter and more productively. Rarely a day passes when I don’t feel like my job is genuinely valuable to the wider world.

But it’s nice to have some outside confirmation of that too. The latest report from The Centre for Economics and Business Research is titled “How ICT technology drives the UK office economy”. It outlines that the rapid adoption of key technologies over the last 40 years - including mobile phones, email, and business software - has meant the contribution of ICT to office worker productivity per hour is nearly five times more than what it was in the 1970s. According to the study, the productivity businesses are seeing from adopting new technologies is an important driver of economic growth. It allows businesses to get more done in a shorter amount of time, so they can focus on reaching new customers, providing a higher level of service and ultimately growing their business.

As technology becomes more deeply embedded in every aspect of our lives, there soon won’t be a single business that is not tech driven, and throughout every department too. Mobile devices and the rollout of 4G networks mean that we can now work from almost anywhere; Big Data analytics tools permit the most complex of forecasting; Cloud services are playing an increasing role in changing the very fabric of how businesses run and operate. Working in technology PR, it’s our job to demonstrate how adopting these technologies and trends drive growth, both from the perspective of an individual business, and society at large. This makes the technology sector a pretty exciting place to work, even without the celebrity parties.