A survey of 600 large enterprises in the UK conducted by Vanson Bourne on behalf of Olympics 2012 sponsor BT found that businesses saw an average 14% revenue increase during the Games.
Furthermore, the surveyed organisations said they have continued to enjoy an 11% increase in revenue since the Games.
There was general optimism about that uptick continuing, too. Four in five (80%) organisations feel that the benefits of London 2012 will still be felt in a year’s time, 58% think they will still be felt in 3 years, 29% think this will be the case in 5 years and 16% in 10 years.
A third of organisations (35%) think they now receive more international business than they did before the Games, mainly from Europe (86%) and Asia (46%).
There was more of a mixed bag in terms of businesses’ preparedness for the Games. While three quarters made preparations for London 2012, with the benefit of hindsight 61% said they wish they had done more; most commonly re-train existing staff (16%), hire extra temporary staff (16%) and increase network capacity (15%).
The public sector was a little less organised – only 57% of public sector organisations made preparations, perhaps quite rightly, as 54% reported experiencing no major issues.
The most common preparations related to flexible working and boosting the capability or numbers of staff, which fits well with the greatest issue being increased absenteeism.
BT’s role as provider of all telecommunications and networking infrastructure was highly praised by the various Games stakeholders. Sebastian Coe, Chair of LOCOG, said: "It’s inconceivable that we could have delivered the 2012 Games without BT on board. We needed someone we could trust and who could provide the technical know-how and the creative solutions to ensure the London 2012 Games were the very best they could be. BT gave us all of this."
Vanson Bourne surveyed 600 UK business decision-makers at companies of at least 1,000 staff, in November and December last year.
Related: Olympic Countdown: Game on CBR talked to Emer Timmons, president of BT Global Services in the UK, about what organisations needed to do to prepare for the Games and what BT itself learned from the project.
Related: Olympic Countdown: Game theory: Jason Stamper talked to Howard Dickel – who led BT’s technical delivery programme – about the people, process and technology that would be called on to help make the Games a success.
