Almost half of UK bosses say their tech is too complex
Key Points
- 66% of UK business leaders say tech decisions are getting more complex, and 49% say their own set up is more complex than it needs to be, according to a Censuswide survey of 502 leaders for O2 Business.
- Tech complexity is pushing up operational costs for 30% of firms, eating leadership time for 26%, and slowing growth for 19% over the past 12 months.
- Just 68% of UK SOHO businesses feel confident about long term growth, compared with more than 90% of mid-sized and larger firms.
- O2 Daisy has rebranded as O2 Business eight months after the Virgin Media O2 and Daisy Group merger, with customers including Sainsbury's, British Sugar, the RFU and the NHS.
- UK leaders should audit contracts, cut overlap and demand written service commitments before consolidating suppliers.
New research from O2 Business, the rebranded telco formed from Virgin Media O2 Business and Daisy Group, finds that 66% of UK business leaders say technology decisions are becoming harder to navigate.
A further 49% admitted that their tech set-up is more complex than it needs to be.
The Censuswide survey of 502 UK business leaders, conducted between 22 and 23 April, lands as O2 Daisy formally rebrands as O2 Business and pitches itself as the answer to what it calls a growing “complexity trap” for UK firms.
30% of leaders surveyed say technology challenges have pushed up operational costs over the past 12 months, 26% say the same challenges are eating into leadership time and focus, and 19% report that tech issues are actively slowing business growth.
76% of leaders also say personal pressure has increased over the past two years as they juggle cost control, growth targets and the constant need to adopt new systems.
A confidence gap is opening up underneath those headline figures. Just 68% of small and home office businesses surveyed feel confident about long-term growth, compared with more than 90% of mid-sized and larger firms.
Across the full sample, 16% of leaders say they are not confident in their organisation’s long term growth prospects at all, a figure that suggests the headline optimism in UK business is thinner than it first appears.
O2 Business already serves hundreds of thousands of UK customers, including Sainsbury’s, British Sugar, the Rugby Football Union and Southampton Football Club, alongside law enforcement, education and NHS settings such as GP surgeries.
The rebrand follows the August 2025 merger of Virgin Media O2’s business division and Daisy Group, and the company says it will roll the new brand out in phases across customer channels, live events and a UK roadshow programme over the coming months.
Jo Bertram, Chief Executive of O2 Business, framed the launch as a response to fragmentation rather than a shortage of technology.
“Most businesses don’t feel short of technology – they feel weighed down by it. Too many systems, too many suppliers and too much time spent trying to make everything work together. At O2 Business, we think it should be simpler than that.
“We’re breathing simplicity into the way business works by bringing connectivity and communications together in one joined-up experience that just makes sense. When technology is easier to deal with, businesses get back time, focus and confidence – and that’s when real growth happens,” she said.
The findings sit alongside a broader UK pattern in which connectivity, cloud services, mobile, collaboration tools and IT support are bought from different suppliers on different contracts with different renewal dates.
That sprawl is what O2 Business is positioning against, with a portfolio that pulls Virgin Media O2’s network, Daisy’s service operation, cloud-based services and Teams Phone Mobile under one roof.
