Welcome to In The Spotlight, a series where Manchester Digital interviews its members to shed light on their work within the digital and technology industry in Greater Manchester.
In this edition, we have the pleasure of speaking with Peter de Bruyn - Smith, Head of Partnerships at Business Stack.
What does your organisation do?
Business Stack means different things to different clients. To our large clients we are at the forefront of their fight for customer advocacy, retention and brand loyalty.
To their SME clients, we are a lifeline- a risk free modular support platform, connecting them with trusted professional services. This ranges from legal support to HR, accounting and more, invaluable to small businesses in a rocky economic climate.
What do you think is currently the biggest issue facing the digital and tech industry?
The rise and risk of Artificial Intelligence is at the forefront of every tech business's mind. AI has the potential to either revolutionise or decimate the digital and tech industries and Chat GPT4 is either causing concern or elation depending on your job role.
Sundar Pichai, CEO of both Alphabet Inc and Google, has said worries about AI keep him up at night “the urge to work and deploy it in a beneficial way, but at the same time it can be very harmful if deployed wrongly”.
The ability of AI to automate tasks is music to the ears of the purse holders when it is implemented correctly, yet it will continue to cause concern to others in digital and tech teams whose jobs are put at risk.
What is your organisation’s biggest achievement this year?
We’re really proud of our continued partnership with one of the leading banks in the UK. We’ve been in partnership since 2020, we work well together as we’re both drivers of digital transformation and care deeply about customer experience.
Covid-19 unfortunately spelled the end for thousands of businesses, yet our partners transformative thinking revolutionised how they support their clients and we’re proud of the work we’ve done together. They wanted to increase their support to their SME base so their clients didn’t just survive the pandemic and post covid turbulent economy, but they thrived.
We worked with our partner to rebuild and relaunch their Business Stack offering, creating an easy to use platform that benefits their members. Through Business Stack, 180,000 SME and SOHO business banking customers now have instant access to multiple business modules, advice and resources. The support that this provides to their customers is immeasurable and the investment showcases how much our partner cares about their clients.
What would you consider to be your organisation’s biggest challenge going into 2023?
Like all B2B businesses, a predicted drop in revenue due to rising interest rates is a cause for concern. When businesses have to reduce overheads they often look at renegotiating with their suppliers and agencies, or dropping the service completely.
Luckily, this isn’t something we have much experience in at Business Stack, as we become key partners, integrating with our clients quickly and easily, to reduce revenue loss to their companies. Our platform helps giants in the world of finance, tech and telecoms to transform their approach to customer retention and advocacy, ensuring that in turbulent times, their customers remain loyal.
We have found our smaller clients are feeling the financial pinch more, which is why we offer fluid plans and frequent business health checks to all of our partners.
What do you think the future looks like for Manchester’s digital and tech sector?
I don’t think that the Manchester tech scene has ever looked brighter. We have world-leading and established tech companies like Peak AI, who have helped Manchester place ahead of Brussels, Lisbon, Rome and Warsaw for tech startup hotspots and success stories.
Manchester has always been known for its innovation, from the Suffragettes to the music scene and as a city we have now fallen in love with tech, with over 1,600 startups and scaleups employing approx 70,000 people (enough to fill Old Trafford on a Derby Day!).
If you go to any tech meetup in Manchester you will find an abundance of people who are willing to give advice and help you with business ideas - we’re a city of founders, not gatekeepers.
Tell us something we might not know about your company?
We are based on Deansgate in Manchester, but our team are global, living and working all over the world. We’re part of a family of businesses and together we are revolutionising how the UK does business, through digital transformation, automation and AI. Our team is made up of a diverse bunch of people who really understand how businesses tick, with business founders, legal CEO’s and former SME owners amongst us. Our office is surrounded by cafe’s, bars and restaurants so we’re always open to meet new businesses to knowledge share - like many other Manchester businesses, we love helping others succeed.
If you and your business are looking at increasing customer retention and creating additional revenue streams, as well as seeking business support for your SME customers please contact Peter at peter@businessstack.pro
Thank you Peter
