PRESS RELEASE
10/12/03
eBUSINESS CLUBS HELP SMES TO WORK ON THE MOVE
The British Chambers of Commerce delivers e-business advice via the existing Chambers of Commerce network, fostering and developing e-business by working to identify and spread best practice .
Small businesses across the country are finding out how they can work more effectively on the move and stay in touch with the office by understanding the business benefits of information technology, thanks to the eBusiness Clubs partnership. A recent BCC survey found that 53 per cent of businesses now have staff working from more than one location for at least one day a week. Meanwhile 11 per cent of companies said that more than half of their employees work at more than one location for at least one day a week. The construction and professional services sectors have the highest share of staff working in multiple locations: 22 per cent. of construction companies say that more than half of their staff work at more than one location for an average of one day a week or more, as do 17 per cent of professional services companies.
eBusiness Clubs, developed by the BCC, UK online for business, BT, Hewlett-Packard and O2 aim to provide small-to-medium enterprises, (SMEs) with the essential information and help they need to blend mobile working practices into their businesses.
David Frost, Director-General of the BCC, said, Mobile working practices are already a major feature of larger companies as they have the investment capabilities and expertise to push mobile technology into the workplace. Now, thanks to the eBusiness Club partnership, SMEs can also benefit from the introduction of mobile working and gain first-rate advice and expertise from companies like Hewlett Packard.
David Smith, SMB Manager, HP UK & I, said, SMEs are becoming far more aware of the benefits of mobile working practices but most believe that implementing them would be prohibitive in terms of cost and resource management. Through the eBusiness partnerships we are helping the SME market realise that isn't the case. SMEs can enjoy the same productivity gains as larger businesses without large capital investment.
Ends
For further information please contact:
Marija Popovic
Business Development Manager
The British Chambers of Commerce
024 7669 4484 m.popovic@britishchambers.org.uk
www.chamberonline.co.uk
Notes to Editors:
1. Case studies
Case studies can be provided upon request.
2. Where are eBusiness partnerships operating?
- Birmingham
- East Lancashire
- East Midlands Nottingham, Derby, Northampton, Leicester, Chesterfield, Lincolnshire
- Essex Chelmsford, Colchester, Brentwood, Ilford, Romford
- Scotland Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow
- Thames Valley Slough, Reading, Oxford
- London
- Manchester
- Norfolk Norwich, Kings Lynn
- Surrey Guildford, Woking, Kingston
- Sheffield
- Wales Cardiff, Swansea, Newport, Bangor
- West Yorkshire Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield, Huddersfield, Hull and Humber
3. What do the eBusiness Clubs offer the partners?
- A channel to market an opportunity to influence the small business market place. With 12,000 existing members as a result of the pilot phase, and impressive targets of a further 17,800 registered member businesses in the second year, eBusiness Clubs is the only programme of such magnitude in the UK.
- Access to third party influencers partnering with the Accredited Chambers of Commerce, UKOnline for Business, the Business Link network and Regional Development Agencies, there is a unique opportunity to take advantage of local and regional relationships with principal business support service infrastructure across the UK.
- Continued partnership by strengthening its engagement in this market, the partners further align with the work of UK online for business and the BCC through a holistic approach to the promotion of the eCommerce Awards.
4. British Chambers of Commerce
The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) represents, through a quality assured UK network of Accredited Chambers of Commerce, more than 135,000 businesses of all sizes in all sectors of the economy. Accredited Chambers seek to represent the interests and support the competitiveness and growth of all businesses in their communities and regions.
5. Hewlett Packard
HP is a leading global provider of products, technologies, solutions and services to consumers and business. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services, and imaging and printing. Our local representatives for the eBusiness Clubs are members of the HP Centre of Excellence Reseller programme who are independent businesses serving their local community with information and communication technology products, solutions and services.
6. BT Business
BT Business is a dedicated business unit within BT Retail, part of the BT Group. It was created to serve the needs of smaller companies, from one-person start-ups to those employing around 500 people. BT Business aims to help its 1.1 million customers overcome barriers, which may prevent them from adopting the information and communication technology (ICT) they need. BT is Britain's number one business broadband supplier and the number one ISP for small businesses (1-250 employees).
For further information about BT Business visit www.bt.com/business.
7. O2
O2 aims to enrich customer's lives by enabling them to get the most from their mobile. As a leading provider of mobile services to consumers and businesses in the UK, O2 offers a range of services including text, media messaging, games, always on data connections (via "GPRS") and much more. Other services under development include music over mobile and mobile video. O2 is the UK market leader in mobile data services such as text, with over half a billion messages being sent by O2 customers each month.
O2 (UK) Limited is a subsidiary of mmO2 plc which also delivers O2 branded services in Ireland and Germany. O2 has approximately 12 million customers in the UK.
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