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BT is branching out from its telco business into household appliances and a subscription service in a rebranding effort to accelerate customer growth.
EE, BT’s mobile and retail division, will diversify its offerings by introducing household electronic goods, such as smart fridges and coffee machines, as soon as next year.
The company is also set to expand into subscription services, with a digital platform called ‘EE ID’, a suite of products and services including payments, gaming and insurance.
EE chief Marc Allera, said the move will “transform” customer experience beyond mere connectivity offerings.
“With an EE ID, customers nationwide will be able to access a wide range of exciting new products, services and experiences across new sectors – easily and conveniently, in one place.”
Allera said telcos are more irrelevant than they once were. “People are not thinking about their network provider…we are worried about it and want to do something different,” he told the Financial Times prior to the launch today.
BT is currently on a cost-cutting drive to reinvigorate its performance, as the company grapples with a 25 per cent drop in share price over the past six months.
“This is a significant moment for BT, the new EE, Marc Allera and UK consumers,” said Paolo Pescatore, leading media analyst and founder of PP Foresight.
“Consumer behavioural patterns have changed, and it is about time telcos evolve. This latest revolutionary move represents a radical and fundamental shift in thinking and approach in the way a telco operates.
“Strategically, this puts the new EE in pole position compared to its traditional telco rivals. Others have their own challenges and will fall further adrift given the need to be more flexible and agile in a radically converged and cut-throat marketplace.
“This will force them to accelerate their own efforts, platforms, mindset, and strategic vision,” Pescatore explained.
Allison Kirkby is poised to take the reins as BT chief executive, after Philip Jansen announced in July he will step down “at an appropriate moment” within the next year.
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BT set to sell fridges and subscriptions in push for more customers

Avalara, Inc., a leading provider of cloud-based tax compliance automation for organizations of all sizes, has announced that it is partnering with Oracle NetSuite to help customers to streamline invoicing even more within NetSuite.
NetSuite Electronic Invoicing, which is powered by Avalara, will allow organizations to increase efficiency, reduce costs, and address compliance with global e-invoicing mandates.
More than 60 countries worldwide have announced or already have mandates for e-invoicing, a number that could more than double by 2030. Additionally, a growing number of countries have introduced other digital reporting requirements, including live reporting of invoice data and e-reporting of international sales and purchases. As the number of mandates for e-invoicing and other digital reporting requirements increases, it would have become more challenging and expensive for NetSuite customers to address compliance without a centralized approach that this new solution offers.
“E-Invoicing is no longer just a local compliance issue and cannot be solved without technology, it is a global phenomenon that is fast becoming a business continuity risk that requires a strategic and scalable solution,” said Meg Higgins, SVP of Global Partners at Avalara. “We enable NetSuite to bring leading e-invoicing technology to its customers and help ensure they remain compliant as mandates continue to evolve.”
With this new solution, customers will be able to; Quickly support e-invoicing models by country or region. NetSuite will connect to Avalara’s global API to fulfill e-invoicing mandates, including digital signatures, QR codes, and tax authority clearance and approvals.
The solution would also facilitate easily access e-invoice exchange networks and government platforms. Organizations can connect to national and international networks, like Peppol, as well as government e-invoicing platforms directly from within NetSuite.
“Staying ahead of regulations across the globe can be a fulltime job and e-invoicing compliance is often outsourced to local vendors, which adds cost and complexity,” said Scott Derksen, Senior Director of Business Development, Oracle NetSuite. “With NetSuite E-invoicing, which is powered by Avalara, our customers can eliminate inefficient processes and automate compliance with local e-invoicing regulations to improve operations, reduce costs and mitigate risk while expanding into new markets.”
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Avalara Expands Partnership with Oracle NetSuite to Deliver Integrated E-Invoicing Solution  

Communities Secretary Michael Gove has signalled the Government will make a fresh bid to scrap environmental rules to boost housebuilding.
The House of Lords last month defeated an attempt by ministers to scrap EU-era rules that force developers to mitigate the impact new homes have on river health.
Earlier in the month it was reported that activity in the UK’s construction sector decreased at the fastest rate since May 2020 as housebuilding rapidly declined.
Last week during Labour’s party conference, Labour leader Keir Starmer called himself a ‘Yimby’, or Yes in My Back Yard, as he announced a new housebuilding policy, to create new towns and cities, if he was to become the prime minister.
Conservative MP Andrew Lewer (Northampton South) said: “When the department tried to change the nutrient neutrality rules the Labour Party fell at the first hurdle in showing that they’ve changed with their claims to be the party of housebuilding. They blocked it, so will ministers commit to pushing through these essential changes afresh?”
Gove replied “absolutely” before criticising Labour for making a “crude, nimbyist appeal” to voters in Mid Bedfordshire ahead of a by-election just a week after Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he was “in favour of the builders not the blockers”.
Gove added: “But who could be surprised when… we put forward legislation for 100,000 new homes, Labour blocked it. It is unbelievable that that crew of gangsters there are peddling the same nonsense week in, week out.”
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle advised Gove to “moderate” his language, with the minister later saying he withdrew “gangster” and he should have said “huckster” instead.
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Gove in a fresh bid to scrap green housebuilding rules calling Labour’s ‘crude, nimbyist appeal’

Oracle NetSuite today announced a series of new product innovations to help organisations reduce costs and run more efficiently so they can grow their top and bottom lines.
The latest NetSuite innovations include both traditional and generative AI-powered capabilities across the entire suite; new field service management and enterprise performance management (EPM) solutions; and new capabilities that help finance and customer experience professionals improve the speed and accuracy of business processes. 
“Over the past 25 years, our mission has stayed the same: deliver a unified suite of cloud applications that enable customers to do more with less and grow their businesses,” said Evan Goldberg, founder and EVP, Oracle NetSuite. “We continue to extend the capabilities of NetSuite to support this mission and help our more than 37,000 customers benefit from the latest cloud and AI innovations. Our new updates include traditional and generative AI capabilities embedded throughout the suite to help increase user productivity, reduce costs, and improve overall business efficiency.”
NetSuite has introduced new generative AI-powered capabilities across the entire suite and added new traditional AI capabilities to help customers enhance planning and budgeting, reduce manual data entry, and expand business insights. New AI-powered capabilities include: 

NetSuite Text Enhance: New generative AI-powered capabilities help users create contextual and personalized content for any text area in NetSuite based on a few starter words that describe intent. Supported by the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) generative AI service, NetSuite Text Enhance helps finance and accounting, HR, supply chain and operations, sales and marketing, and customer support teams improve productivity by leveraging AI to produce relevant drafts that they can quickly and easily review, edit, and approve. To learn more about NetSuite Text Enhance, please visit: Oracle NetSuite Embeds Generative AI Throughout the Suite to Help Organizations Boost Productivity

NetSuite Planning and Budgeting: New AI-powered capabilities in NetSuite Planning and Budgeting help organizations automate data analysis to improve and accelerate decision making. With predictive algorithms that continually monitor and analyze plans, forecasts, and variances, customers can quickly and easily uncover and highlight trends, anomalies, and correlations.
NetSuite Bill Capture: New AI-powered capabilities help organizations intelligently capture and categorize expenses based on historical data. With NetSuite Bill Capture, customers can reduce manual bill entry to help increase the productivity of accounting teams.  
NetSuite Analytics Warehouse: AI-powered capabilities in NetSuite Analytics Warehouse consolidate and centralize data from a multitude of sources and help organizations accelerate access to data visualizations and reporting. With increased visibility and deeper understanding of transaction-level activity, customers can spot patterns and gain faster insights for better decision making. To learn more about NetSuite Analytics Warehouse, please visit: NetSuite Extends Analytics Warehouse to Help Customers Gain Greater and Faster Value from Data

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Oracle NetSuite unveils AI additions to help businesses do more with less

UK SMEs are investing nearly half of their annual turnover on technology to counteract rising costs and retain competitiveness.
That is the findings of the latest Barclays Business Barometer  and according to the bank’s research, the most innovative SMEs in the UK are spending 48% of annual revenue on technology, with 45% doing so to increase productivity and 44% to future-proof their business.
Barclays said that 57% of the SMEs it monitors reported an increase in revenue in the latest financial quarter, which is the most for 18 months. The bank also said research of its credit card and debit card transactions showed an increase of just over 1% in the volume of transactions to SMEs in the second quarter of this year compared with the same period last year.
Colin O’Flaherty, head of SME at Barclaycard payments, said: “It’s promising to see that SMEs are feeling more optimistic about revenue growth and are eager to invest in cutting-edge technology to future-proof their companies.”
Retailers in the are confident about growth over the next year, with 85% reporting a positive outlook, according to Barclay’s barometer. It also revealed that 66% of retailers are open to embracing new technology. Dedicated IT teams have been set up by 41% of the SMEs surveyed by Barclays, with an average of 13 people in these teams.
“Retail SMEs in particular have displayed a remarkable agility in adapting to evolving consumer behaviours by adopting emerging technologies – setting the stage for a brighter year ahead,” said Barclays.
Separate Barclays research revealed the importance of retail SMEs using technology to reach customers. It found that 70% of consumers use the internet to inform how they shop and make savings, with online grocery websites seeing an increase of 54% in online traffic, with traffic to non-grocery up by 42%.
It also revealed that 93% of retailers believe that harnessing data is key to their future success.
The past year has seen retailers actively investing in cutting-edge technologies to enhance operations – 18% of the SME retailers surveyed have invested in data analytics, and 12% in artificial intelligence and machine learning.
According to a recent report from SME-focused fintech SumUp, UK SMEs take the lead in Europe when it comes to adopting the latest technologies. For example, 90% of UK SMEs now accept near-field communications (NFC)-based card payments, compared with 85% in Switzerland, 78% in Italy, 68% in France and 67% in Germany.
Nina Etienne, global vice-president of marketing at SumUp, said UK SMEs have taken strides in embracing innovation. “The uptake of digital payment tech highlighted in this data demonstrates the adaptability that puts UK SMEs at the forefront in terms of using technology to improve user experience,” she said.
“While the economic landscape has created difficulties for small businesses, these statistics offer some insight both into the resilience of SMEs, as they find new ways to improve their business, and an increased trust in digital payments amongst the public, as more transactions take place through contactless methods.”
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Innovative UK SMEs spend half of turnover on tech to boost productivity

UK house prices are rising at the slowest rate for this time of year since the 2008 financial crash, according to new data that highlights the impact on the housing market of higher interest rates.
The average new asking price rose by 0.5% in the month to 7 October to £368,231, but it was the smallest post-summer bump since the 2008 crisis, according to property website Rightmove.
House prices dropped by 0.8% in the 12 months to early October as the lower activity fed through, Rightmove said, while the number of agreed house sales fell by 17% compared with a year earlier.
Separate figures from Halifax bank earlier this month showed the fastest fall in annual house prices in 14 years in September.
The Bank of England had raised interest rates at 14 consecutive rate-setting meetings up until last month as it tried to tame inflation. In September, its monetary policy committee finally voted to hold its key rate at 5.25%, but that is still the highest rate since the financial crisis of 2008.
Tim Bannister, who studies property data for Rightmove, said asking prices usually rise after the end of the summer holidays, but that the increase this year was “much more subdued” as sellers adjusted to the weaker market.
He said that estate agents were describing the market as “the most price-sensitive ever”. The number of people enquiring about each property advertised on its website was still up by 8% on 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Renters are being squeezed as landlords try to pass on their higher mortgage costs, amid a continued shortage in housing across much of the country. Separate data from estate agent Hamptons showed that the average rent in Great Britain rose to £1,325 per month in September, up from £1,186 a year earlier.
The steepest rent increases were in outer London, where prices rose by 16.2% on average, compared with 5.2% in Wales, the region with the slowest rental price growth. Overall, rents in Great Britain rose by an average of 11.7%.
Mortgage interest costs for landlords rose by 40% in the year to August, to £15bn a year, according to Hamptons analysis of data from lobby group UK Finance and the Bank of England. The company said interest costs could hit £20bn a year within the next two years, as more and more landlords come to the end of their fixed-rate deals.
Aneisha Beveridge, Hamptons’s head of research, said: “Even if there are no further rate hikes by the Bank of England, we could see the amount of mortgage interest paid by landlords exceed £20bn over the next two years. This has the potential to eat up just over half the amount mortgaged landlords receive in rent.”
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UK house prices rise at slowest post-summer rate since 2008 crash

MG Motors has said it is in a “very strong position to take advantage” of the shift to electric cars as it posted UK sales worth more than £1bn for 2022.
The brand, owned by Chinese company SAIC Motor Corp, said its sales volumes more than doubled thanks to demand for its electric and hybrid vehicles.
It posted bumper pre-tax profits in the UK of £54.2m for 2022, compared with £4.3m the year before.
The results come as China threatens to corner the market in electric cars.
Fuelled by state subsides, Chinese firms have ramped up production of batteries, with several new car companies emerging. A growing number of vehicles, including MG cars, are shipped from Shanghai across the world.
MG Rover was the last UK-owned volume car maker before it collapsed in 2005.
SAIC, a state-controlled company and China’s largest car manufacturer, bought much of the brand, with rival Nanjing Automobile Group acquiring the rest. The two companies merged in 2007.
Production of MG vehicles, which has roots dating back over a century, was moved to Shanghai in 2016, ending manufacturing at the UK’s Longbridge plant.
But the brand has been reinvigorated by its owners, who said in its latest financial results release on Saturday that the company was in a “very strong position to take advantage of the increasing consumer moves into electric cars” in the next 10 to 15 years.
It added its UK latest sales were boosted thanks to the MG ZS, MG 5, and HS PHEV models and added it had more cars in the pipeline for 2024.
“MG are turning a lot of heads – they’ve benefited from having good stock availability and being affordable,” said Ian Plummer, commercial director of car selling site Auto Trader.
“They’re quietly outselling the likes of Polestar and Tesla, so they are one to watch.”
The MG ZS is among the cheapest electric cars available in the UK, and was one of five most popular cars last month, according to car trade industry body the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
“We have seen an increasing number of Chinese brands – and cars made in China from other marques – enter the UK new car market in recent years with considerable success,” said Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said.
“These models, which are often electrified, are finding strong demand in a market that is fiercely competitive.”
China exported more than a million vehicles across the globe in the first three months of 2023, according to official figures, taking over Japan as the world’s biggest exporter of cars.
As well as demand for electric cars rising, exports from China have also been boosted by sales to Russia, with many Western countries imposing sanctions on Moscow after the invasion of Ukraine.
As well as exports, Mr Hawes said China was also in the top five export destinations for UK-built vehicles, adding the UK needed to “ensure trade is free and fair, with strong engagement to ensure the UK can equally take advantage of fast growing Asian markets”.
Latest figures from the SMMT showed sales of new electric cars to private buyers in the UK fell sharply in September compared with the same period a year ago.
Last month, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed a ban on new petrol and diesel car sales was being pushed back five years from 2030 to 2035.
The announcement was met with a mixed response from car makers, many of which have begun investing heavily in electric vehicle production.
But despite the delay in the ban, firms will still be forced to meet strict quotas for selling electric cars from January, with just over a fifth of vehicles sold having to be electric.
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Electric cars drive UK MG sales to more than £1bn

A growing number of social ventures are emerging from universities, aiming to make a real difference to communities across London and further afield.
These companies need capital if they’re to grow, and a new project launching this autumn will lay the foundations for a self-sustaining social venture fund.
The London Social Venture Fund will seek to provide early funding for new London startups pursuing a social goal. To get there, a new project arising from a collaboration between Queen Mary and UCL, has brought together an innovative coalition of London universities and partners to generate a critical mass of new social ventures activity which will provide the foundations to raise an investment fund that can back university social ventures emerging across the capital.
Dr Phil Clare, Chief Executive of Queen Mary Innovation, comments: “This project is all about benefiting London through social entrepreneurship. There’s been an explosion of interest in social ventures in recent years, as academics, students, and indeed all members of university communities are turning to commercial tools to tackle the myriad problems we face in our society.
Entrepreneurship allows researchers to implement innovative ideas in a new way – whether it’s cleaning up London’s air, developing new medical technology for the NHS, or tackling ingrained poverty. But without support, structure and capital, many new social ventures will find the early stages of growth challenging. Our new Social Venture Fund programme will offer all three.”
The project will build a pipeline of new ventures from London universities and develop a London-wide university support network of legal support, business model development and mentoring. Furthermore, the universities hope to gather sufficient data to demonstrate proof of concept for this approach and share the lessons learned with like-minded colleagues across the UK.
Social ventures set up by academics and students are going from strength to strength in Britain, yet significant hurdles remain which the Social Venture Fund seeks to address.

Firstly, the field is too new for financial or impact data on how student and research-based social ventures perform. Early-stage social funders must therefore work harder to attract investors – who prefer established markets with rich data on performance. This project seeks to generate that data.
Secondly, social ventures by their nature often work in areas covered by the public sector – particularly health and social care. Public procurement is complex, unwieldy and – worst of all – slow. An established business can absorb this. A new social venture cannot. This project will provide support for companies to navigate the procurement process – thereby promoting innovation in public services.
Thirdly, investors are less likely to fund startup founders from minority backgrounds or female founders. University social ventures have a higher percentage of female founders, and London has the most diverse student body in Britain. By backing university social ventures, this project could improve the diversity of London startups.

Dr Steven Schooling, Director of Engineering and Physical Sciences at UCL Business, comments: “We’re delighted to collaborate with other London Universities and partners to see this important initiative get off the ground. UCLB is proud to have pioneered technology transfer for university social ventures. Our social ventures have made real impact on causes as diverse as improving sustainable farming practices in developing countries, helping promote healthy eating to under-5s, and even creating paint from coal mine waste. Early-stage social ventures, however, require pre-seed capital, access to public sector procurement and leveraging the local ecosystem, which the London Social Venture Fund will seek to provide.”
Professor Colin Bailey, President and Principal of Queen Mary University of London said: “I am delighted that this unique partnership of universities, companies, and local authorities has come together to harness our capabilities and experience to deliver a social venture pipeline that will benefit our communities for years to come.”
The London Social Venture Fund Project launches this autumn. The participating universities are Queen Mary University of London, UCL, London Metropolitan University, London Business School, King’s College London, University of London, Goldsmiths University of London, University of the Arts London, London School of Economics, University of East London, and City University. Other partners and investors include Barclays Eagle Labs, Sodexo, Central London Forwards, Royal Docks, Royal Albert Docks, the London Borough of Newham, and the Federation of Small Businesses.
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London universities team up to support new startups with a social purpose

A strong leader who demonstrates caring for their team is more likely to have a team who in turn care about their own personal goals and successes. A team that cares can mean the difference between moderate and maximum productivity and performance.
Not everyone is born with the skillset to lead a team. However, like many skills, it can be taught. The more you practice a skill, the better at it you become. The steps below can form part of the building blocks to developing this skillset.
Have Their Back
A good leader is one that takes the brunt of the force in order to alleviate the challenges of the team. They look out for their team members who can rest assured their leader has their back. This will increase their faith in you and establish a relationship of trust and cooperation.
Be Adaptable
Many team leaders can find it hard to change their direction considering new information or circumstances, or when plans fail. Most people don’t admit when they are wrong, mistakenly assuming that this may highlight weaknesses when in actual fact it can reveal their strength. Team members need to trust the judgment of their leader and support their decisions because they appreciate honesty and transparency.
Unite Your Team
The best team leaders try to get to know and understand their team members on a personal level. Creating and sharing positive social experiences with your team helps to establish a connection and build a trusting relationship. Spending quality time with your team, rather than hiding away in the office, is known to build trust as it leads to the release of oxytocin, a hormone that helps us empathise and relate to others.
Put Yourself in Their Shoes
It is said that the higher up in the company you go, the lower your emotional intelligence may become, including the ability to empathise. However, it is important to relate to, and engage with your team members, being able to put yourself in their shoes. Why they might do something, or how they might be feeling. Imagine the fears, challenges, and problems that they may be experiencing.
Set Goals
Think about the way a sports coach trains an athlete to perform. The athlete delivers the result and while the coach feels pride and happiness for them, they don’t stop there. They show them what can go wrong or how they can do better. They set their sights on the next goal and strive to achieve more. Teams appreciate leaders who challenge them and push them to reach and exceed their goals.
Don’t Get Too Invested
While it is good to genuinely care and engage in authentic, trusting relationships with your employees, too much emotion can lead to an unproductive team. Leaders are trusted to do what is right, not what is easy. It can be tempting to find an easier way out; however, this may not work in the long-term.
Communicate
You can probably tell when something is bothering a friend. That same skill set is drawn upon when things aren’t quite right with members of your team. We hear that people would rather deal with risk, as opposed to ambiguity. So, it is important to clearly communicate and listen. Provide as much information as you can for your team, otherwise they can come to lose trust in you.
Value Your Team
Feeling valued is one of the most important emotional, human needs to be met. Failing to provide recognition or advance people’s progression is the leading cause of employee dissatisfaction.
When you are at work, you want to know that you’re an integral part of the company. You want to know when you have done a good job. It is the same for the rest of your team. Teams feel happier and driven to improve when they receive recognition and incentives.
Do you want to lead your teams successfully?
If the answer is ‘yes’, then there are some simple easy-to-implement tools to help you to lead your teams more effectively.
Leading isn’t a skill that people are necessarily born with, and even those that are good at it may face difficulties at some point in time. You might like some help and in which case, our coaching service might be helpful to you if you would like to learn how to improve your leadership skills.
Good luck with these tips which will help you to get a better grasp on leadership and create more productive teams.
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Leading Your Teams Successfully