ITWALES.COM - Christine Lloyd, Opportunity Wales.

Posted: Mon, November 18, 2002

ITWALES Interview: Christine Lloyd, Opportunity Wales.

By Matt Pearce

Q: Opportunity Wales - why should an SME need to know about it, and under what circumstances should they approach you?
A: E-commerce is no longer something new and different; it has become an essential business tool that offers benefits to all businesses across all sectors. As e-commerce knows no boundaries, a small business in Wales can now find themselves competing for business against companies from across the world.
Opportunity Wales understands that for many small businesses e-commerce can present a confusingly large range of technology based solutions and that all too often it is easier to ignore this technology than to embrace it.
To overcome such inertia the Opportunity Wales initiative has been specifically designed to help small businesses to identify, equip and implement effective and beneficial e-commerce strategies.
Any SME based in the Objective One Area of Wales can approach Opportunity Wales for support; the main requirement is that they wish to make effective use of e-commerce in their business. This can mean supporting those who currently make no use of e-commerce, through to those businesses that are already users, but who wish to maximise the potential of e-commerce for their business.
Q: What has the response to the project been like so far?
A: The response has been excellent, a pilot study that was put in place to trial the initiative before going live undertook 400 e-commerce reviews. This was based in just four areas and without any promotional activity to support the initiative.
Since full rollout across the Objective One area, the total number of clients supports now exceeds 1600. Client feedback has been very positive - they greatly appreciate the quality of the impartial advice that is delivered to them by our trained advisers.
This appreciation is further magnified when they have opted to take advantage of the subsidised implementation support we offer to help businesses to make further e-commerce developments.
Q: Opportunity Wales is relatively big in terms of initiatives - Ł22 million. Do you think this gives you the critical mass to succeed where others may not?
A: Scale was a key factor for us in developing the programme. To make a real difference in the overall use of e-commerce in Wales, to generate interest across all businesses and to create an `e-commerce culture' we had to ensure critical mass.
There are also a number of factors that have combined to help ensure that the initiative has been successfully established. The starting point was market research conducted in 2000; this helped to quantify the need for e-commerce support for SMEs.
Added to this is the partnership nature of Opportunity Wales, where partners from the public, private, voluntary and education sectors have been brought together to drive the initiative. This has created a `no stones unturned' approach to the formation of Opportunity Wales and has allowed it to go from a proposal to a fully operational Initiative in a short space of time.
Key e-commerce expertise has been utilised by the close involvement of Cardiff University's e-commerce Innovation Centre(eCIC). Its renowned e-commerce knowledge has been used in the formation of the support model, the Web site and the adviser training.
Further, by using a network of local delivery partners, Opportunity Wales has been able to take advantage of the local business support skills that already exist in Wales. This negated the need to set up our own offices throughout the Objective One Area, which has proven to be both time and resource efficient.
Q: Rather than just providing financial assistance, Opportunity Wales offers a low-cost consultancy service. Is the key to tailor help to individual companies' needs?
A: Absolutely, as the e-commerce requirements are different for different businesses, so are the e-commerce solutions. By offering implementation support at a subsidised rate, Opportunity Wales can provide small businesses with a level of affordable e-commerce support to which they previously have not had access.
Q: What does the e-commerce review entail? What can Opportunity Wales advisers specifically provide to SMEs?
A: The e-commerce review begins when a fully trained, impartial Opportunity Wales e-commerce adviser visits the premises of the small business. They will spend a day with the business in order to gain a full understanding of the business' current operations, the challenges it is facing, the current level of e-commerce usage in the business and also gain to an understanding as to where the business is looking to develop.
The adviser then goes away to prepare a bespoke e-commerce review report. The report clearly outlines where the business is in terms of e-commerce usage and makes clear recommendations as to what next steps the business needs to make in order to make e-commerce work effectively for the business concerned. The advice is backed up with additional pertinent information that is included in the appendix.
The report recommendations also highlight the further ways Opportunity Wales can help in terms of financial assistance for the purchase of recommended software and hardware, and the ways that subsidised implementation support can be used to help deliver the recommendations. All Opportunity Wales e-commerce reports are completely free and are presented to the client without any obligation.
Q: The Opportunity Wales Web site states that, when it comes to e-commerce technology, `any implementation should be driven by business needs rather than by technology'. Does this underpin the Opportunity Wales approach?
A: All the work undertaken by Opportunity Wales is intended to focus on the benefits that businesses can gain from the use effective use of e-commerce. While very advanced technology is available, Opportunity Wales, through the e-commerce review report, always aims to identify for businesses the most appropriate e-commerce solutions for them.
Q: In developing the Opportunity Wales programme, you have been keen to create case studies and set up best practices. Why was this an important move?
A: Case studies show other businesses the benefits of e-commerce in a clear and simply way. Behind every case study is a story, and reading about the experience of others acts as a very powerful incentive for a business to start making use of e-commerce.
Opportunity Wales has identified a diverse range of case studies that show no matter what sector the business is in, no matter what size the business is and no matter what level of current e-commerce usage the business has, there are other business that have faced the e-commerce challenge and are already reaping the benefits.
This is an important approach for small businesses as it counters the high tech, jargon-laden approach often used to promote e-commerce to larger businesses who have the luxury of an IT department.
Q: How are you letting businesses know that you exist? In particular, how are you reaching rural businesses?
A: Providing e-commerce review reports is a qualitative service. To this end Opportunity Wales carefully manages the flow of information regarding the service. This is done to ensure that all of our 15 local delivery partners are kept busy, but are not swamped with enquiries.
Our local delivery partners attend and in cases arrange business events where they will promote the service direct to small businesses. Further, the initiative is promoted through an ongoing PR campaign that results in a high level of news coverage. This is supplemented with e-commerce features that are place in the press to raise e-commerce awareness.
Specifically, to help promote the initiative to rural areas: Opportunity Wales was present at the Royal Welsh, has produced specific literature for the agriculture sector and works through the delivery partner ADAS.
Direct mail campaigns, organised and managed from the Opportunity Wales Contact Centre allows the Initiative to be promoted directly the geographical areas and/or business sectors as required.
Q: What role does the Better Business Wales organisation have in running Opportunity Wales?
A: Better Business Wales (Holdings) Ltd is the not for profit organisation incorporated to oversee the delivery of the Opportunity Wales Programme. The executive team report to the directors on the board drawn from our public, private and voluntary sector partners.
Q: Why do you think there has been such a low take-up of e-commerce technology in Welsh business? Are attitudes changing?
A: There are a number of factors as to the low take-up of e-commerce in Wales - these include a lack of confidence in using IT, concerns regarding security, but most importantly an uncertainty as to the benefits e-commerce could bring.

For further information, contact:

Opportunity Wales Tel: 0845 8500 888 URL: www.opportunitywales.co.uk or www.cyflecymru.co.uk

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