Network Communications News (NCN) June 2016 | Page 25

industry collaboration

F E AT U R E

The way to develop a position that reflects the
needs of the industry is to work collaboratively.

Get together

Steve Martin of the Electrical Contractors’ Association (ECA) explores how the
data centre industry can improve client awareness and combat future skills shortages.

T

he data centre industry in the UK
is at a crossroads. The market is
predicted to grow in size over
the next five years and is tipped
to be the biggest in Europe by
2020. Some of the largest names
in the world of technology
provision are planning to build data
centres in the UK in the next year, which
highlights the strength of the offering
we have in this country.

Understanding
But at the same time, a number of clients
don’t have the necessary awareness
of the technology and its role within
the business that’s needed to ensure it
functions at its optimum level. Typically,
data centres only become a key issue for
businesses when something goes wrong,
and by then it’s too late – the client’s
service and reputation will have suffered

as a result. Many businesses are caught
in a quandary of needing the service
the technology provides and needing
it to work at its full potential, but not
having the resources to develop a deep
understanding of how it works.
Part of the issue is the fact that
there’s next to no guidance for them –
particularly when it comes to awarding
design and build contracts for data
centres. As a result, price is often the
deciding factor when choosing who
to work with, and, although this can
result in short term savings, it can also
cost more in the long run if the data
centre needs fixing or upgrading to
improve its resilience. As the industry
is unregulated, it’s easy for firms who
don’t have a quality-first approach to
undercut the market leaders when it
comes to tendering for work – and this
doesn’t always benefit the client in the
long term.

The simple solution to this would
be to develop something for clients that
enables them – or their procurement
department – to know what to look for
when reviewing tenders for a data centre
contract, and help them understand
that price shouldn’t always be the main
factor in deciding who to work with. But
this is easier said than done. There are
a large number of organisations who
can all legitimately claim to support the
industry, but no single voice has been
speaking for it. As a result, developing
one set of client guidance that has the
entire industry’s backing is a difficult task.

Skills shortage
This lack of a single voice is also an
issue when it comes to addressing the
industry’s absence of an established
training pathway. As demand for data
centres increases, and we need a larger
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31/05/2016 15:39