Guest blog: Driving forward the SME Growth agenda…a personal perspective
Today, I placed my 7th order on Amazon within a week. As an IT professional, Amazon presents me with a perfect blend of product breadth, fast delivery and an ongoing stream of cardboard that keeps my youngest boy supplied with building materials for his school projects.
But, given my tendency to use the world’s largest retailer, I sometimes feel that I am missing out on the personalised touch that local, family run business can offer and the innovative and interesting new products that might be waiting for me just around the corner - if only I were to cast my shopping net a little wider. It got my thinking…is IT any different?
In the UK, the IT infrastructure market is dominated by a handful of big players, and Computacenter is proud to be one of them with a turnover of more than £6.7BN, employing more than 18,000 staff. But we’ve not forgotten our roots - we first opened our doors in 1981 selling Computers from a shop front. Since then our dress sense has changed, but our values haven’t. We’re doing more to encourage the next ‘Computacenter’ by creating a climate in which SMEs grow and do great business, delivering solutions collaboratively and competing for business on equal terms.
It’s for this reason that Computacenter is supporting the SME mentoring programme launched by Ed Bevan @ techUK - using our experience to help start-ups through business advice and providing networking opportunities.
But initiatives from the private sector need to be met by changes in procurement practices. In that regard, I was delighted to read the outcome of techUk’s SME forum which referenced an initiative by Government to lower the ‘barriers to entry’ for SMEs in competing for large contracts. That’s extremely welcome news, as all too often I’ve responded to tenders that ask for a commitment around SME business set against a backdrop of historic (and often irrelevant) terms and conditions and financial obligations that preclude SME utilisation interest in the first place! Together, we must get beneath the ‘mission statements’, ‘visions’ and ‘strategies’ and instead concentrate on real initiatives to support SME business development, growth, and competition.
And I’m doing my bit, too. I’ve realised that a combination of Amazon supplied cardboard, matched with locally sourced wire from the DIY shop, supplemented by buttons from the haberdashery store opposite make for a pretty cool robot. Sadly, my artistic talent is pretty poor, so I doubt Oscar and I will win the school competition, but apparently, they’re in need of some servers and pcs and I just love a negotiation…
I’m proud to be part of a team doing more than ever before to support the government’s Social Value ambitions and proud indeed to be part of the TechUK family. We’d love to talk about our story – just get in touch.
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