UK Online aims to boost e-awareness among small businesses. But
will it work, asks Robert Dunt
The Government plans to generate a "buzz" about e-commerce among
small businesses by blitzing them with £25m worth of advice about
the Internet over the next three years.
The money will be used to fund training and provide Web-enabled
call centre experts to give e-commerce advice online .
The Government has admitted that the existing DTI service - the
Inform-ation Society Initiative - has "low awareness in the SME
(small to medium-sized enterprise) community". This is despite the
fact that the target of getting 1.1 million SMEs on the Internet
has been beaten, with 1.7 million small companies now using the
Internet.
UK Online aims to get one million SMEs actually trading online
by 2002, as part of a drive to get a higher percentage of
business-to-business and business-to-consumer transactions taking
place online in the UK than in any other G7 country.
But will it work? Durham-based company DGC Distribution was
cited in the UK Online report as an example of best practice, after
it won this year's national e-commerce award. Initially, DGC
launched the online musical instrument ordering service guvnor.com
to cut down on operating costs - but putting transactions online
also achieved 30% sales growth.
DGC managing director Simon Cohen was dubious about the value of
the online advice service. Would he have found advice centres
useful? "To be blunt, no," he said, and added that not even Silicon
Valley specialists had been of much use.
"It was massively difficult to set the site up. The learning
curve was enormous, as there was no technology that could do what
we wanted and we had to develop it ourselves," he said.
Cohen said the award had been very useful for boosting the
profile of the site but slammed the UK's e-commerce infrastructure.
"In England at the moment we're in an Internet black hole. We don't
have the pipes or the resources here."
Federation of Small Businesses spokesman David Hands said that
although the Government's initiatives were promising, they had
failed to focus on micro businesses - those with less than 10 staff
- which are the ones that could benefit most from the Web.
Hands pointed to the e-incentive which rewards small businesses
with discounts of up to £150 if they file their tax returns on the
Internet.
The scheme is being picked up by medium-sized companies but not
the smallest ones, he said.
According to the DTI, 55% of micro businesses are now online
compared to 15% last year.
Hands also questioned the value of e-transactions as a target.
He felt that smaller companies could benefit through online tax
returns and using the Net for research rather than commercial
transactions, which he said were "still a long way off" for
most.
But Hands also praised some sections of the initiative -
especially the fiscal incentive, which allows small businesses to
write off against taxable profits 100% of their first year capital
investments in information and communications technology.
British Chamber of Commerce spokesman Andrew Parkinson welcomed
the report. "I think it is a positive step in the right direction,"
he said, and added that small businesses were crucial to an online
culture.
UK Online's 25 commitments
1. Drive forward competition in Internet-access markets:
- Consult on competitiveness of dial-up access to
Internet
- Consult on competition for leased lines
- Promote rapid uptake of digital interactive TV
- Ensure competitive roll-out of 3G mobile telephones
2. Establish a new framework for regulation of the converging
markets of telecommunications and broadcasting in the new White
Paper
3. Identify and remove all remaining regulatory and legal
barriers to electronic ways of working in the UK
4. Take action with international partners to develop an
effective, light-touch global framework for e-commerce
5. Implement a package of measures to improve access to the
Internet at home, at work and in the community
6. Embed information and communication technology skills in the
education system and throughout lifelong learning
7. Work with industry to ensure a secure environment for
e-commerce and to help people trust the Internet, including:
- Work with industry to promote the TrustUK hallmark for
e-commerce Web sites
- Draw up "Consumer Trust" standard for use online by government
departments
- Encourage credit-card industry to establish online address
verification system
- Create advisory body on implementation of ISP interception
arrangements
- Ensure industry is fully consulted on fair contribution to
interception costs
- Establish National High-Tech Crime Unit
- Expand DTI's promotion to business of information security best
practice (BS 7799)
8. Help increase people's motivation to access the Internet by
driving up the amount and quality of social content
9. Invest an additional £25m over three years to help small
businesses exploit the potential of ICT:
- Boost marketing of UK online for business
- Additional advisers for UK online for business
front-line
- Create a Web-enabled call centre with "virtual expert" support
system
- Raise awareness of fiscal incentives for small
businesses
10. Support industry in improving competitiveness through
e-business technologies and processes
11. Get all government services online
12. Drive forward towards e-procurement and e-tendering
targets
14. Drive forward citizen participation in democracy as part of
the UK online citizen portal
15. Drive forward the use of authentication services both for
e-government services and within government itself
16. Implement a strategy to make the UK the number one country
for the supply of high-level ITec skills, taking account of the
recommendations of the Skills for the Information Age report
17. Invest in leading-edge e-science
18. Facilitate ITec knowledge transfer
19. Implement an action plan for growth for the digital content
sector, including through liberalised access to government
information
20. Work with industry to develop a UK strategy for
m-commerce
21. Establish new mechanisms to co-ordinate access and skills
initiatives at national, regional and local level:
- Michael Wills, parliamentary under-secretary of state, DfEE, to
take the lead in co-ordinating community-based IT access and skills
initiatives at national, regional and local level, working with the
e-minister, e-envoy and DCMS ministers
- Government Offices in England and Wales to co-ordinate
implementation of these initiatives at local and regional level,
reporting on progress to the parliamentary under- secretary of
state every six months
22. Further develop and implement the UK Online campaign
23. Secure international agreement to a common framework for
measuring e-commerce:
- Complete agreement on a common definition
- Agree a core set of common questions
24. Improve e-commerce measurement in the UK
25. Implement a programme to evaluate the net economic impact of
e-commerce