The Tech200 represent the fastest-growing tech companies in the UK public sector: what can we learn from them about how to sell more effectively to the public sector?
We've been talking to Thomas Ridgeway, the founder of Public View - a Tech200 company that ranked 87th in this year's list.
Thomas has shared his thoughts on what this year's Tech200 list tells us about the public sector tech market, his advice on how to achieve & sustain growth, and his top tips on how to sell more effectively to the public sector.
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With a background in the NHS as a Senior Manager and a Head of Performance, Thomas is well-versed on the needs of the healthcare sector and how to be successful when selling to government.
Who are Public View, and why did you start the business?
Public View was founded in 2018 and was acquired by BCN Group in March 2022.
Public View is a benchmarking service for the NHS that gathers all of the data from 170 different websites that are put into the public domain: data about hospitals, GP practices, community trusts, mental health trusts, ambulances, and the system in general, and how they're performing against thousands of different indicators.
Public View brings all of this together and has created one easy-to-use, benchmarking and scorecard system, which is used predominantly by executives.
Tom created Public View whilst working for the NHS as he was regularly asked by the board how his hospital was performing against other hospitals on various indicators and measures. Tom told us that before the creation of Public View, the answer to these questions could only be found through manual website searching and lots of time!
What do you think have been the key factors to your rapid growth and success?
Tom explained that during the first COVID-19 wave there were widespread delays in expected sales within the public sector marketplace.
Within the public sector healthcare market specifically, hospitals were so focused on dealing with the crisis at hand that preparing board reports ceased to be a priority, meaning the need for Public View wasn't so apparent.
In Tom's experience, "there was a change in tempo towards the end of the pandemic" - the end of 2020 - organisations were starting to look to get back to "normality" and assess what had happened. This led to an uptick in organisations looking into Public View.
Thomas' advice for healthtech suppliers in the public sector...
For Tom, the most important piece of advice is to "try to understand the problems that healthcare currently faces and the limitations they have".
Whilst this sounds like a big task, Tom gave some practical insights to help suppliers achieve this.
Healthcare bodies produce monthly board papers and hold public board meetings that anyone can attend. Through these, you can begin to understand: what pressures they're facing, what they're proud of, what they're excited about, what they're worried about, what's keeping them awake at night. That can fuel inspiration for solutions that you might want to create or a way that you think you might be able to contribute to help healthcare.
It's important to remember that NHS organisations are open and transparent organisations so you can find a lot of the information you need freely.
Tom also emphasised the NHS is willing to listen if you can help them solve a problem they are facing, rather than presenting a straight-up sales pitch.
As with most other markets within the public sector, being on the right procurement frameworks is fundamental to your success as an NHS supplier in the public sector healthcare market. Understanding that procurement frameworks are used differently in this market is important to acknowledge too, as Tom points out - frameworks serve as a "transactional basis for contracts to be put through rather than any kind of advertising or for engineering searches".
Getting on the right procurement framework for you is a critical route to market for doing more business with government. Tussell can tell you exactly which frameworks are actually being used by your target accounts, your competitors, and in your sector.
Tom gave a pertinent piece of advice that is relevant to suppliers in any sector - have fully open and transparent pricing. Having one price that is clear for everyone to see makes it easier for you to qualify your leads, saving you time and money.
Tom summarised it with a simple phrase: "the best is the best" - you don't do better for one company just because you charge them more than a smaller company who have a smaller contract. Ensuring that your company provides the best quality goes beyond the size of your buyer.
The last piece of advice from Tom picks up on the aforementioned theme of word-of-mouth. Tom could not express enough the importance of networking and networking events as a way of successfully getting your name out there and in turn increasing your contracts with the NHS.
What advice would you give to a tech start-up company trying to break into the public sector tech market?
Tom gave one piece of advice that was particularly pertinent for start-ups and smaller companies trying to break into the public sector tech market: "ensure that each new team member raises the average capabilities". This is easier said than done but it can be worth sacrificing some speed to ensure that you get the best people for your business.
As Tom said, "sometimes compromising on some degree of speed of growth to make sure you've really got the best people joining your team and waiting an extra month to find the best person for your team, will bring the whole team up". Looking at the bigger picture and the long-term trajectory of your company's growth is an important aspect to remember when making new hires.
What do you think of this year's Tech200 trends?
This year we identified 3 key trends within the Tech200:
1️⃣ Digitial transformation
2️⃣ A continued soar in healthtech
3️⃣ Cyber-security is more important than ever
To find out more about these 3 trends, the companies that are a part of these trends, and some key events that impacted these events check out Tussell's deep-dive blog on the Tech200 trends in 2022, here.
From speaking with professionals from within Tussell and members of the Tech200 list, we can say with confidence that no one seems surprised by these trends, and Tom was no anomaly to this. Tom said that "in such rapid acceleration of digital capabilities, I can't think of many industries out there that can benefit more from the adoption of those discoveries than healthcare".
As Tom acknowledged, digital transformation is seen across the board within the public sector and with good reason - the benefits are huge!
"There are several companies I noticed on the Tech 200 which have very much been companies that I've looked to and admired the work that they do - they do real incredible work."
Digital transformation in healthcare can make a really meaningful difference, helping free up time for staff to engage more closely with their patients.
Regarding cybersecurity, Tom reminded us of the significant impact that the Advance Cyberattack had on the NHS sector. The attack really put cybersecurity as a significant agenda item and that started to create a greater understanding of a requirement, and a greater understanding of a threat.
Looking forward, how do you think these trends will fair? Do you think they will continue into this year?
The strength of these trends this year means that the general consensus is that they will be felt into next year, and beyond.
However, certain niches within these trends progressing faster than others is something that Tom picked up on, particularly in relation to Artificial Intelligence. He said, "the capabilities of the rapid progression capabilities of artificial intelligence and in particular, the public release of the GPT, the natural language GPT algorithm, will be adopted quickly." As a result of this, it is likely that these changes will be felt in other industries.
Alongside AI, Tom felt that there would be rapid progression in the education sector. In terms of student essays and writing, "education will likely need to either identify robust ways of detecting AI, which I'm not certain is possible." Perhaps as AI evolves so will technology companies that work to monitor and track the use of AI in sectors such as education. If not, "there will need to be a significant change in the way that education happens and education is assessed, and how that takes place and what is the purpose of education".
The growth in cybersecurity is an interesting trend. Tom argues that the trend will still exist but in a different way: organisations need to mature from "cybersecurity being a function, to preventing cybersecurity". The thing that boards should take very seriously is "what are our capabilities to recover? How quickly can we get our systems back online? How quickly can we restore the integrity of your data?"
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Talking to Tech200 companies and hearing their insight and advice is invaluable for other tech companies within the public sector who want to grow more and do more business with government.
We have lots of new and exciting Tech200 content and insights already out, including:
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A deep-dive blog with further quantitative trend analysis;
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Interviews & comments from the companies who made the list, including a video interview Open Medical who made the Tech200 for the 2nd year in a row;
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A bite-sized video on the key takeaways from this year's Tech200
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