Business news round-up: Sage Summit highlights, digital migration & post-Brexit economy

Sage Summit 2016: highlights and round-up

On the 25th July, Sage CEO Stephen Kelly kicked off the start of the 2016 Sage Summit in Chicago with a private keynote session, to welcome over 2,000 partners from around the world.

He reaffirmed Sage’s commitment to its partners and revealed what’s to come in 2017, saying: ““We have a very clear vision: to become the clear leader in cloud accounting.”

Partners were encouraged to immerse themselves in the next few days at Sage Summit.

During Sage Summit, over 15,000 customers and prospects came to McCormick Place in Chicago to hear inspiring sessions from thought-leaders and network.

If you missed Sage Summit read the highlights of keynote presentations from international celebrities and entrepreneurs here.

Post-Brexit decline in business output

According to Lloyds Bank’s latest Purchasing Managers’ Index, business activity across the country has suffered a decline since June’s EU referendum, with London businesses the hardest hit.

The monthly survey is considered the leading barometer of economic health in the UK, and takes into account responses from manufacturing and service sector businesses about the value of goods and services.

In the first such decline in over three years, overall UK productivity dropped from 52.5 in June to 47.4 last month, its lowest level since April 2009. Readings below 50 signify a contraction, according to the banking group.

London posted the biggest contraction of all the regions with a reading of 44.4, with cost pressures borne from a weaker sterling putting pressure on firms.

However, this decline was expected in the wake of a leave vote, reassures Tim Hinton, Managing Director of Mid-Markets and SME Banking at Lloyds Banking Group.

96% believe migrating to digital is critical to business success

In response to a survey revealing that 96% of the respondents believe that digital transformation or digital migration is critical to their organisations' futures, Progress Software advises executives and IT to work together in planning for enterprise digital migration jointly or risk falling behind.

Progress Software is a leader in the development, deployment and management of business applications, on premise or on cloud. The company most recently released a 32-page manifesto on the topic of cloud computing, calling for action for both small and large businesses.

To explain in more detail what it is calling a "digital ultimatum," Mark Troester, vice president of solutions marketing at Progress, spoke with SearchCloudApplications. He said: “We believe as developers work on projects they need to think holistically about mobile and web content, and work within their organisations at a high level for building true omnichannel experiences.”

Read the interview in full on the SearchCloudApplications website here.

Survey shows continued security and compliance concerns surrounding cloud services

Despite rapid cloud services adoption, security and compliance concerns revolving around inappropriate use or access of sensitive cloud data continue to loom large, a survey has revealed.

More than one-third of information security professionals polled said cloud providers should turn over encrypted data to governments when asked, according to the survey by the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) and security firm Bitglass.

But 55% of all respondents were opposed, with a higher proportion of US respondents being against government co-operation (63%) compared with peers in Europe, Middle East and Africa, where only 42% were opposed.

Read the full article here on ComputerWeekly.com.