Managed.IT issue 66

22 01732 759725 COMMS Is Return on Relationships the key to business success? Gamma research suggests it might be an award-winning strategic insight agency, and surveyed 800 senior decision-makers at companies in the UK, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands to find out if there is a correlation between good relationships and business success. The research shows that even in tough market conditions businesses can still thrive and that human factors play a big role in commercial success. Nearly three-quarters (72%) of business leaders think that building good relationships is more important than price and capabilities when choosing a partner or supplier. While most businesses get that relationships matter, not all of them treat it as a priority over other factors. For those that do, strong relationships are a big indicator of success. Comparing businesses with revenue growth in the past year to those with declining revenue, there’s a noticeable difference in how they rate their customer and colleague relationships. Almost three-quarters (73%) of leaders in growing companies feel they have strong client relationships, and 64% say the same for colleagues. In contrast, only 61% and 52% of leaders in companies with declining revenue feel that way. Success and company culture are clearly linked, with successful businesses more likely to rate their workplace culture highly compared to those that didn't do as well (67% vs 55%). Plus, three-quarters (75%) agree that having strong relationships with colleagues is just as important for business success. Half of business leaders (51%) say that losing staff can lead to loss of customers or a weakening of key business relationships. With over a third (37%) of all respondents thinking about switching careers in the next year, building positive working relationships should be a top priority for businesses in 2024. In response to these findings, Gamma has identified a metric which tracks the correlation between strong relationships and revenue growth. It calls this the ‘Return on Relationships’ (RoR) and has built a calculator to help businesses evaluate their performance. Find out your score and download the Return on Relationships whitepaper at https://gammagroup.co/goodtogether/. A successful provider of UCaaS, CCaaS, Mobile and Security solutions, Gamma has enjoyed strong growth for more than 20 years thanks to an extensive network of channel partners and a large enterprise and public sector customer base. Gamma has always placed strong relationships at the heart of everything it does, and the feedback it gets from customers and partners highlights the importance of this to its success. The questions is: is this unique to Gamma or is the value of relationships, a high return on relationships (RoR), common to all growing businesses? To find out, Gamma partnered with Opinium, The specialist data centre facilities needed to support the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) are significantly impacting power and water usage, warns BCS (Business Critical Solutions), a specialist services provider to the digital infrastructure industry. In a survey of 3,000 senior data centre professionals across Europe for its Summer 2024 industry survey, over four-fifths of respondents reported a rise in demand for their services as a direct result of AI. At the same time, 85% believe the speed and widespread adoption of AI is being restricted by the lack of available power and facilities tailored for AI workloads. BCS CEO James Hart said: “There is real concern that the pace of AI adoption may be restricted by the ability of the market to deliver sufficient supply of data centres to house it. AI data centres are power-intensive by nature, primarily due to the high computational demands of AI workloads and the need to power the cooling systems required to maintain optimal operating temperatures. The environmental impact of this power usage is significant, with many data centres still reliant on non-renewable energy sources despite efforts to transition to renewables, as the pace of AI advancement often outstrips these sustainability initiatives. In addition to power usage, AI data centres also have a substantial impact on water resources used for cooling.” https://bcsconsultancy.com/ insights/thought-leadership/aiperil-or-promise/ Is ROR the new ROI? AI growth restricted by data centre supply

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