UK online for business

Colin BluckSouth West Regional Coordinator

The Information Society (ISI)

Milestones• 1994 – EU Regional Information Society

Initiatives (RISI) leading to ERISA• 1995 – DTI Information Society Initiative• 1998 – Competitiveness White Paper• 1999 – ISI re-branded UK online for

business – National Targets set• 2000 – Initiatives to deliver targets• 2002 – Revised UK4b Targets and strategy

e-Europe Action Plan 2005

By 2005, Europe should haveModern on-line public servicese-governmente-learning services e-health services a dynamic e-business environmentand, as an enabler for these:

widespread availability of broadband access at competitive prices a secure information infrastructure

UK Online

Umbrella Brand

E-Government Public Services Online learning Business Development

(UK online for business)

Online Learning

ADAPT / University for Industry Pilots

Learn Direct – National Learning Help Line

Learning and Skills Councils

UK Online Access Centres

6000 UK Online learning Centres

Overall objective:to enable everyone in the UK to have

access to the internet and e-mail near to where they live.

It could be in an Internet Café on the High St, in a public library, in a college, in a community centre, a village hall or

anywhere available to the public.

To promote business competitiveness and productivity by:

ensuring the UK is best place to trade electronically

enabling business to transform itself through the use of e-technologies

Advisor Network 300+ ICT advisers, e-champions, 16 e-clubs, etc. Deliver front line advice to SMEs through the Business Links and other channels. Over the last 12 months, some 100,000 businesses have been assisted, with a further 175,000 dealt with through the web.

Media Relations & Market Awareness (April - March 2002) some 904 articles appeared in trade, regional and national press where UK online for business was specifically mentioned. Using standard industry measures, this equates to £476k equivalent advertising value and 191m opportunities to see

Channels Marketing Over 400 partners, around 30 key partners, plus a combination of small companies, intermediate bodies (trade associations, professional bodies etc), local authorities, OGDs and even a church! Partners provide either contribution to the programme in cash or usually in kind, or a channel to market, or both. The estimated value of this contribution for the last financial year was £1.5m.

Support for Events UK online for business provides a package of support for advisers/partners running events. Only recently on stream, but in the first two months of this financial year, some 122 events have been supported, with an estimated SME audience of 33,000.

Content & Collateral 43 publications covering a range of topics, business and technical, all providing independent and jargon-free information aimed at SMEs. In addition a wealth of case study material and CD-ROMs. An ongoing function.

Website Visitor Sessions average around 35,000 per month; 17,000 unique visitors per month. A spike during the Spring 2002 Campaign of, respectively, 98,000 and 53,500. So web-based campaigns to business appear to provoke interest.

e-Commerce Awards in 4 years the applicants have risen from under 200 to over 1,600. Generates significant press coverage, as well as providing additional case studies.

Call Centre In the last nine months the call centre has dealt with 6,400 calls and 10,500 emails. They have also distributed 1.6m items (annual figure), made up of publications and collateral material.

Demonstrations Live demonstrations about how the technology can be used and exploited for business benefit. Last year, some 129 sessions were run involving 3,183 SMEs.

Research An annual International Benchmarking Study measures the take up and usage of ICT within the UK and benchmarks this against the rest of the G7 and other selected countries.

IMPACT – 2002 Benchmarking Study

Both connectivity and trading have dipped.

The latter does not surprise but the former does.

What’s happening to the ‘lapsed’ users?

Is e-technology all over?

Sophistication rating by country - ordered by mean scores

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Very High

High

Medium

Low

Very Low

UK - Main Drivers for Adoption

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Costs &Eff.

ImproveCust Sat

KeepingUp

Did you see the Benefit? Costs & Efficiencies

87%

Improve Customer Satisfaction

88%

Keeping Up with Progress

83%

End-result = Lots of Satisfied Innovators

UK - Barriers to Technology

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Set UpCosts

RunningCosts

Time

No mention of doubtful business case

Govt to keep lobbying for tax incentives for start-up costs

re-energise partner networks and advisors to resell the business case

The ‘real’ deal– source ‘e-business Prospects : Findings

from an expert panel’ DRAFT, Clegg et al, July 2002

e business involves a systemic understanding of people, process, organisation, culture and technology.

it involves changes in all these areas and these outcomes need to be congruent

findings show undue focus on technology

“If e-business is a 4 lap race, most companies are on lap 1”

Strategy

Focus must be to re-energise second generation internet businesses to embrace broader e- technology innovation for business efficiency

improved communications reduced costs greater productivity improved profitability

maintaining existing materials for late adopters

UK Online for business

E-business

Customer relationships

Supply chain management

e-procurement

Trading online

Internal processes

e-Business

Delivery Ensuring technology is easy, affordable, available Re-messaging e technology as not just about

boosting sales through trading via websites Business growth & productivity through more

sophisticated e-integration and utilisation of Broadband

delivering a holistic framework for integrated business growth: technology business processes skills culture and organisation

Trading online

Integration

Connectivity

Transformed

Business Benefit

Sophistication

Sophistication

UK online for business Priorities

Ensure programme content is relevant and adds value to business today

Make measurements meaningful, trackable and achievable

Communicate offer and value more effectively Optimise resources & prioritise spend for best value

Programme spend (marketing, collateral, research, partner enablement)

Headcount focus (UKo4B team and funded headcount)

Encourage greater integration between partners: e-business clubs, BLO’s/LECs, SBS, DAs, ICT Vendors, other

government initiatives, RDAs

Educate our advisor and partner network

Regional Champion’s Role Regional UK online for business exec

Championing the mission Communicating & Observing Galvanising Action Tracking Execution & Trends

Maximising & synchronising resources across all bases BLOs RDAs Devolved Administrations ICT Partners BCC – e business Clubs EU – Objective one funding etc

Promoting the mission Ensuring localisation occurs Delivering the programme

  

Figure B - Region K businesses split by geographic area for Year 2000 (Source: Office of National Statistics, 2001)