Digital Stores is an online retailer and leading supplier of complete end-to-end e-commerce and fulfilment services in the UK. It specialises in running online stores for personality and character brands in the music and entertainment industry.

Lime & Tonic is a business that used the model of Ecosystem Economics™ in order to disrupt the retail and leisure market. Lime & Tonic provides affluent consumers with access to unique social activities and dining experiences in the world’s most dynamic cities, in the form of a social agenda.

Simply Zesty is a great example of Ecosystem Economics™ in action through its ability to act as a digital enabler to a large media corporate. An Irish social media agency and the only Irish social media agency listed in the world’s top 100. Its client base of over 100 firms includes blue chip companies such as Sony, Vodafone, Teradata, Volkswagen Group, News International, Kaspersky Labs and ebookers.com. From a strong national foundation, Simply Zesty is steadily building its international presence, which now represents 16% of revenues and is growing strongly.

PIE Mapping (PIE) is a digital enabler to the transport industry, providing expert mapping and journey planning solutions as well as being a leading player in the fast growing $15 billion Intelligent Transportation System (“ITS”) market. They take big data and creates practical solutions to allow for better use of digital transport infrastructures. Their big data play has impacted on traffic, they have worked on the London Olympics and they also work with Tfl and Freight Companies.

BeatThatQuote (BTQ) is a great example of 'Ecosystem Economics™' in action in the financial services sector. Through the support of entrepreneurcountry, BTQ succeed as a digital enabler because they understood the vital role they played in their ecosystem, were able to identify and secure natural allies, as well as structure their business model around existing corporate architecture.

It often seems that the David and Goliath business relationship between America and the Middle East is a one-way street. The recent acquisition of Israeli startups such as Waze and Intucell by Google and Cisco respectively suggest a wealth of entrepreneurial talent, but a lack of in-country venture capital to enable sustained growth.

The fast data set revolution is being created by you. Every time we text, search, travel or buy we add to the data mountain of some 2.5 billion gigabytes a day that humanity is collectively writing, bringing a new consciousness into existence.

Tony Speakman (pictured), Regional Director at FileMaker International, shares why The National Health Service (NHS) is now ripe for digital innovation.

Over the next five years we will begin to manage our homes in the cloud. Getting access to our information and monitoring our energy use, controlling devices and automating appliances when we are not there will be commonplace. 

In February 2011, founder of Net-a-Porter Natalie Massenet told the Financial Times; ‘Media companies are going to become retailers and retailers are going to become media companies” Fast-forward two years and Massenet’s predictions prove true, as announcements of new partnerships between media and e-commerce companies and emerging shoppable magazines are proliferating.