? text size -a +A

Market Research

The first piece of work done by the West Midlands Knowledge Professional Services Hub was to commission a market survey to position the business and professional services sector in the region against its competition nationally, and to find out which areas for growth were of most interest to the sector.

The full report can be found here.  A summary of the preliminary findings is reproduced below.

Phase 1 Research

Preliminary findings

1. Key facts and figures

1.1 Fieldwork was conducted between 12th March and 16th April 2010 and split into two parts – professional services providers and current/potential clients.

1.2 Of the 214 BPS firms consulted, 139 completed an online survey and 75 completed the survey via telephone. 50:50 members of sub-regional networks/non-members.

It was important to sample both members of our networks and non-members to see if those who had already engaged through joining a group had a different view of the future opportunities from those not yet engaged.  The results from both groups are in fact very similar.

1.3 Of the 118 potential clients consulted, 104 completed an online survey and 14 completed the survey via telephone. Approx 50:50 West Midlands/national.  

We selected a balance of regional and national firms to see whether views of our strengths were different inside and outside the region.  Overall, there was not a marked difference in perceptions, although regional firms were more likely currently to procure their BPS from WM firms than those from other regions.

2. Interim Findings

2.1 Unique Selling Points

The West Midlands reputation as a provider of business and professional services is showing competence across a broad range of disciplines, with only a few, fairly niche ‘stand out’ areas identified.  Both the BPS firms and clients surveyed shared a similar view on this breadth of provision.

Some uniqueness was identified in areas of specialist technical consultancy, linked to other WM specialist areas such as digital media and low carbon, but the sample size was not sufficiently large to show national significance.

Through the work of the West Midlands Knowledge Hub, it will be a priority to explore and develop more areas of strength in the region, to bring some distinctiveness to our offer, above and beyond the strong base of diverse provision.

2.2 Client Awareness and Satisfaction

Clients generally were satisfied with the level of service provided, with the vast majority placing West Midlands services as competitive with other UK centres of BPS provision such as London, and many citing positive benefits of doing business in the West Midlands in comparison with other centres, for example 33% of those expressing a view thought value for money was better in this region and 38% felt location was more convenient.

We are therefore building on a positive client perception where services are well understood, and have a clear opportunity to raise awareness further amongst companies in other regions of the benefits of working with WM professional services firms.   

2.3 Future Markets

Both professional services firms and clients were surveyed on potential future markets to assess the scope for intervention by West Midlands Knowledge to grow those markets.  The results are encouraging in key areas of low carbon, ageing population and ICT - both as a business performance tool and as a growth market in digital and creative industries.  In these areas, BPS firms and clients were agreed that there was a substantial future market to access.   

Many firms however were not clear on how the opportunity could translate into profit for their firm, and this gives a clear steer for project delivery in awareness raising and providing clear intelligence on the emerging markets.

The specialist area of Islamic Finance was not well understood by many respondents, which was not unexpected as it is currently a relatively niche area in which the West Midlands is a developing force.  Next steps in this area will be to drill deeper into regional capability to see how best this can be extended to a more mainstream audience.

Other markets identified by respondents will also now be researched in more detail – there were some interesting leads in areas such as motorsport and e-learning that we will now explore with those respondents to see if there is a wider opportunity for other firms to engage.

3. Priority Actions

3.1 Phase 2 delivery plan

Using the findings of this research, coupled with the findings of the BIS 20:20 Vision for Business and Professional Services which reaches complementary conclusions on future growth markets, the Executive Team will bring forward a full Phase 2 Delivery Plan for approval by the Cluster Opportunity Group*.

The plan will contain recommendations to pursue low carbon, ageing population and ICT/Digital as the three first market areas, with a parallel strand of ICT as a business process improvement tool.  The final two areas that the project will support will come onstream later in the year after further investigation.

3.2 Events and activities

A series of sub-regional launches is planned, in which both the overall project and some of the key themes can be introduced. 

*To read the completed Phase 2 Delivery Plan please click here