Struggling Online for Business goes off-line
Government's SME initiative shelved after missing targets
The government's UK Online for Business scheme, aimed at encouraging more SMEs online, will be shelved at the end of April after it missed crucial targets, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has confirmed.
A key target, outlined by trade and industry secretary Patricia Hewlett at the scheme's launch in 2000, was to get one million SMEs online. By the 2003 deadline the figure was only 450,000.
A DTI representative said: "Following a review of government-funded business services, the work of [UK Online for Business] will continue as a mainstream activity within the DTI."
Related schemes, such as the channel-focused Technology Means Business (TMB), which kite-marks suppliers, will continue under the umbrella of the Chartered Institute of Managers.
Steve Wood, managing director of reseller Parity ICT, a TMB member, said he was not surprised by the missed targets.
"UK Online for Business set targets such as getting SMEs online, but it should have addressed the need for technology infrastructures," he said. "This is what TMB does, but it needs more publicity."
Wood said that if TMB received as much publicity as UK Online for Business, it was more likely that the targets would have been met.