Central and local governmentisfailing to supporttheIT needs of SMEs.
A national survey conducted by researchers from the School of
Management at Royal Holloway at the University of London found
government is failing to give
IT advice to SMEs.
As a result the
businesses are not exploiting IT to its full potential, said
the college.
The college began a research project into the issue in 2007,
collaborating with Nammis, a software consultancy company.
The team contacted over 500 SMEs in the
food, clothing, manufacturing and financial services
industries, with most companies having been established for at
least five years.
Dr Romano Dyerson, a member of the college research team, said,
"SMEs find themselves in a difficult situation,
too small to employ a dedicated IT expert and lacking the
resources to buy consultancy advice."
While firms across all four sectors reported very high usage of
email and internet, very few firms embraced the potential of the
internet wholeheartedly and
most did not use the internet to receive customers' orders or to
order online.
None of the businesses in the financial sector had approached
government or a local authority for advice.
Only 3% of SMEs in the clothing sector had used government for
advice while in the manufacturing and food sectors the figures
stood at 1% and 5 % respectively.
"The survey finds that SMEs are poorly served by government and
policy providers," said Dr Dyerson. "What is unclear is whether
this reflects a lack of provision on the part of official bodies,
or is an indication of the quality of advice offered."
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