Learnings from 2020 and the roadmap ahead
by Alan Jones
2020 has been challenging for everyone, from a personal and business perspective. At Blu Wireless, despite having to shift objectives to mitigate the impact of Covid-19, we are proud to say that growth has been steadily progressing.
One common challenge for technology companies is that many rely on manufacturing from other countries, therefore, can experience delays in acquiring parts in normal circumstances. In Q1 and Q2 of this year, factors out of our control due to the pandemic, meant that we did have a knock-on effect on some parts of our business but despite that, we managed to stay strategically on track. Having a team, a board and customers who really believe in the direction of travel for the company meant that we could execute against our plans.
However, learning from this experience, to help mitigate some of these delays in the future, and to prepare for any further global crises, we have taken into consideration a more localised and distributed approach. By onboarding local manufacturers and providers, we can now speed up the provision of parts and equipment and get projects done even quicker than before which is a silver lining.
Boosting agility
While there were no drastic changes to business operations because of the pandemic, we have had to become more agile and have looked to market diversity to help drive the business.
We operate in multiple markets, including but not limited to high-speed transport, industry 4.0, public safety and defence as well as smart cities. When one market slows down, another one tends to pick up and so there is always a dynamic cycle of demand that Blu Wireless needs to respond to.
With a highly agile, refreshed approach and newfound resilience, we are continuing to grow our customer base.
We’ve been making great progress in partnership with FirstGroup where we’ve developed a commercial end-to-end track-to-train infrastructure solution that will transform customer journeys forever delivering Gbps speeds. The Isle of Wight is the third and final sequence of trials that proves this technology beyond doubt is ready to deploy on South Western Railway.
Creating a motivated and engaged workforce
We’ve always tried to ensure that we communicate our mission and goals to our employees, being transparent about company processes and articulating what is going on throughout the business.
In this turbulent year, we’ve invested additional efforts into fostering a sense of belonging and ensuring every employee feels like they are part of the bigger journey. Everyone in the business has a key role to play and they deliver on these responsibilities which is testament to their dedication and motivation even in tougher times.
Looking ahead to the future
In 2021, we’ll be pursuing a number of varied opportunities that have arisen because of the confidence in our technology and the capacity we can provide when delivering a solution across multiple markets. So when looking to the future, we see some interesting use cases illustrating clear problems where Blu Wireless technology is a perfect fit – providing a fully integrated solution that enables our customers to solve a whole host of challenges.
Keeping customers connected
With the confidence in 5G technology on the rise, the outlook for companies operating in this space is excellent. However, there is still a lot of work to be done.
The best way to keep on track with our growth objectives is to make sure our customers are happy, while also being innovative and staying ahead of the curve. This is only achievable with organisational agility. Communicating frequently with employees, customers and shareholders will be critical, and will put businesses in good stead for tackling whatever 2021 throws our way.