I am delighted to be invited to open
Experian’s new data centre. This state-of-the-art building is a testament
to Experian’s position as a global leader in providing data checks to
organisations and consumers.
Fairham House is a real landmark in the journey that Experian have taken
from a turnover of less than £20m in 1985 to more than £550m in 2004.
The company now works with more than 50,000 clients, worldwide, from
industries like healthcare, retail and automotive.
Much of that success is due to the management capability developed within
the company and the fine leadership of John Saunders the Chief Executive
of Experian International.
I can also say that the climate has not always been good. In the last
decade the world wide computing industry has been through a hard time,
largely through the over exuberance of the dot com bubble.
But the demand for new products, the need for the industry to stay ahead
of the technology curve in a fast changing world means that, as the world
economy recovers from the doldrums of 2001 and 2002, the ICT industry has
responded positively.
This year the OECD now forecasts a healthy world growth rate of three
point six per cent. The UK economy as a whole has performed well in recent
years, we avoided the problems of many other countries and have growth
well above the average for G7 countries.
Growth in the first half of this year has been about three to three point
five per cent. All good news for potential ICT demand from business.
We now know that in today's global economy, keeping at the forefront in
ICT is essential to a company’s, or indeed a country’s, improved
productivity and economic success.
And that’s not just rhetoric; a growing body of evidence and research
backs it up. For example, a recent report by the Economist Intelligence
Unit, concluded that ICT was strongly linked to economic growth.
There is evidence that the existing productivity gap between the USA and
Europe is mainly due to differences in the effectiveness with which we use
ICT.
Long-term wealth creation will increasingly be linked to the generation
and exploitation of knowledge, to a well-educated workforce and good ICT
infrastructure.
The clear message, then, is that the best use of ICT is important not only
for companies but it will feed through into improved productivity at the
national level.
Locally I’m glad to say that Nottingham is becoming a real leader in
e-Commerce.
As well as marking Experian’s success today I was pleased to recently
award the overall DTI/ Interforum e-Commerce national title for best e-
trading company to Trade Appliances, an online appliance retailer based in
the city.
E-trading and supply chain technology enabled Trade Appliances to grow and
manage its business more effectively doubling its turnover in the last 12
months with 80% of its sales coming from the web.
A World Wide Web that has rapidly become a mass commercial channel.
I understand that Experian’s success is also linked to way they have
invested in improved customer service and new products delivered through
the Internet.
It has honed its core competencies in acquiring, processing, managing and
operating very large and complex databases that underpin its global
information services.
The company has also had the foresight to develop delivery of almost all
its products and services via the Internet.
And that’s good news for Trade Appliances and all of the thousands of
companies that are discovering that the effectiveness and efficiency of
Internet based services are having a direct and positive effect on their
bottom line.
The Government’s priority to roll out Broadband throughout the country is
key to companies getting Internet based services on board.
We have achieved this in partnership with industry. The Broadband
Stakeholders Group has been a real model of collaboration.
Britain has moved from a low base two years ago to reach a position in
which the competitiveness and cover of our broadband market is among the
best in the major industrial countries.
Emda and its Sub Regional Partnerships are playing an important role in
increasing Broadband access and take–up in the region including rural
areas like Lincolnshire where wireless connectivity may be the solution.
Broadband infrastructure coverage, according to recent figures, is now 96%
in the East Midlands with a rapidly increasing consumer take-up now
standing at 12.5% from a 5% take up at the start of 2004.
There are now over 5.3 million broadband subscribers in the UK with 50,000
new connections per week.
An astonishing increase from just 350,000 at the start of 2002. By the end
of next year we may see in excess of 7.5 million subscribers.
To improve both business and consumer online activity further, the
Government has also set itself targets to ensure that key services are
available online and achieving high levels of use.
The businesslink.gov and the Director websites are already providing
businesses and citizens with valuable routes to government support and
services.
And the Prime Minister committed us to ensuring every home had the option
of accessing broadband by 2008.
So, in terms of having a positive environment for e-business, the signs
are very encouraging. But, of course, the Internet has its dark side too.
All of us – businesses and consumers -need to be able to protect ourselves
from the criminals who use the Internet to steal from the gullible – and
all too often recently, the cautious and careful too – using sophisticated
fraud schemes.
I applaud Experian’s work in creating new solutions to combat fraudulent
card transactions, identity fraud and money laundering.
Experian has developed a suite of products and services that enable
businesses to conduct secure, fraud free and personalised e-commerce with
their customers.
Preventing identity fraud and money laundering through the application of
these identity authentication and verification systems are now widely used
in the retail and financial services sector in the UK.
Finally, I want to mention Experian’s new measures to help combat the
growing threat, both to individuals and to the economy, of personal debt.
It’s well documented that low interest rates have encouraged consumers to
rack up debt at a record rate.
Total lending rose by £9.4bn in December, the highest monthly increase
since records began in 1993.
Experian has used its skills in data management, analysis and decision
support to enable financial services organisations to take a more
responsible approach to lending, with the introduction of its Consumer
Indebtedness Index (CII).
The CII helps lenders to identify individuals who are currently struggling
to manage their debts and who are likely to encounter difficulties in the
future if they take on more debt.
Because the CII is able to provide a specific measure of indebtedness, it
is helping financial institutions to more accurately assess applications
for credit and consumers' potential ability to repay new and existing
commitments.
This, together with Experian’s CreditExpert, the first service to provide
UK consumers with unlimited online access to their complete credit history
and give them the ability to manage much more easily their credit
information, provides two valuable tools to help people and organisations
develop a more sensible and reasonable approach to risk and debt
management.
All of the initiatives and developments I’ve mentioned in the last 10
minutes or so add up to a really positive picture for the way ICT is
developing in the UK.
In its annual international survey on e-Readiness - an assessment of how a
country's technology infrastructure and general business environment
influence Internet usage - the Economist Intelligence Unit this year
ranked the UK second in the world.
Experian’s impressive new data centre is one example of why we have
achieved that ranking and I am proud to wish you every success and now
declare the building open.
|
