Mairi Henderson Project Manager Scottish Enterprise Regional Workshop

Mairi Henderson, Project Manager, Scottish Enterprise Regional Workshop: Alloa, Forth Valley Date: Tuesday 13 th May 2014

Regional Seminar Agenda • Welcome • Superfast Broadband Rollout – Scottish Government • Business Gateway – What we do? • Introduction to CREATE – Scottish Enterprise • Networking Session • Meet the CREATE Advisor • Mak-Lab

What is CREATE? • Developing approaches to encourage the take up & optimal use of Broadband & ICT by SMEs in rural areas • Working in partnership with organisations across different regions in North West Europe to share skills & ideas and to test approaches in different environments • SMEs will benefit from intensive support and business advice on how to exploit ICT

• The project is funded from the INTERREG IVB Programme which targets EU funding to encourage regional collaboration to develop new approaches to common problems € 2. 6 m EU Funded project (€ 1. 3 m of which is ERDF) • The funding will provide support for • SMEs to receive 1 -1 advice • Materials to be developed that encourage ICT & broadband take-up • Help SMEs to collaborate with other small rural businesses from across North West Europe.

Story so far. . • September 2013 - Launched project with Conference in Hereford • December 2013 - Appointed Leadership Panel of industry experts • January 2014 - Transnational Seminar in Dumfries, Scotland • February 2014 - Recruitment process for CREATE Advisors • March / April / May 2014 – Regional Workshops being delivered across all Partner regions

Aims to overcome • Structural Deficits of the Rural Economy – Isolation from markets & skills – Lack of infrastructure – Lack of scale – Poor clustering opportunities – Lack of ICT expertise – Reliance on traditional sectors

Collection exercise HSB Rollout/Demand stimulation • Specific marketing campaigns attached to a rollout in an area to get uptake from businesses • Bespoke seminars presenting specific advantages to the different target groups www. scottish-enterprise. com

Role of NGA Broadband • Digitally Mature SMEs grow at least 2 times faster • At the height of the recession digitally mature SMEs were 29% more likely to grow than those with only basic use of IT • More sophisticated IT – improves labour productivity - 10% in services; 5% in manufacturing – drives 20% of all productivity growth across sectors • The annual total turnover of U. K. SMEs could be boosted by £ 18. 8 bn if all of these firms sold and marketed online

Persisting Issues High awareness of speed issue Low awareness of potential Poor exploitation will continue Without action, economic effects will not be realised • Latent economic potential must be unlocked • •

Snapshot of Pan Partner Survey Don’t allow online customers to customise products Don’t offer order tracking on-line Don’t use an ERP package Don’t use automated e-invoices Don’t access tender docs from e. Procurement systems Don’t use video conferencing including Skype Haven't received orders for goods/services via a website Websites don’t host product catalogues or price lists Employees don't have business portable devices Haven't received foreign orders for goods/services Employees don’t have remote access to company email Don’t use any form of Social Media 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110

Why do this transnationally? • • • Technical capacity & skills Gain scale Technical & economic specialisms Test approaches Demonstrate how rural SMEs can benefit from the global economy

Leadership Panel • Recruit a Leadership Panel comprised of business & ICT experts from each partner region to the transfer of knowledge & skills across the partner regions

Collection exercise What will CREATE offer SMEs? • 1: 1 CREATE Advisor support (expert advice) • Business Directory • Business Review, identifying Action Plan specific to your SME • E-Guides – Best Practice guides • Digi-Labs - access to lab which showcases new IT Technologies • Clusters - Access to online knowledge platforms www. scottish-enterprise. com

Business Review Diagnostic • Develop dynamic & tailored tool for delivery to a range of SMEs with different levels of digital maturity • The tool will focus on ways that new technologies can be incorporated into the business processes of rural SMEs to – encourage resilience, – increase efficiency, & – boost competitiveness. • Delivered on the ground by local advisors until June 2015

Digi-Labs Develop physical & virtual Digi-Labs as demonstrators and to facilitate transnational communication & collaboration

E-GUIDES

Virtual Clusters Virtual clustering of rural SMEs across NWE To overcome barriers to market caused by remoteness & the lack of critical mass The Cloud Clusters will provide SMEs with • • • Significant exposure to other regions and countries Opportunity to gain scale Friendly environment to foster open innovation New suppliers New partners Transfer of new processes that can cut costs & increase sales

Keeping in Touch with #create. NWE facebook. com/create. NWE www. create-nwe. eu twitter. com/create. NWE linkedin. com/groups/ youtube. com/user/create. NWE flickr. com/photos/create. NWE Search Linked. In for: CREATE – Connecting Rural Enterprise for a Transnational Economy

Book Time with CREATE Adviser Contact Dan Annison, Scottish Enterprise dan. annison@scotent. co. uk Tel: 01387 245204 Mairi Henderson, Scottish Enterprise mairi. henderson@scotent. co. uk Tel: 01387 245223