E-Business Support Programme 2018-2020

The Council is inviting tenders for the delivery of a second e-Business Support Programme. The programme will offer a package of flexible and responsive support aimed at improving the knowledge, skills and application of digital business tools by businesses based in the Royal Borough. The contract will run for a period of three years, starting from January 2018.

Additional information: It is anticipated that the programme will run from January 2018 and support a minimum of 400 Royal Greenwich based businesses over three years. The programme is intended to benefit trading SMEs and is not a start-up programme. It is aimed at SMEs who have a trading history or have already started trading from all areas of the Borough.

The emphasis is on business support; this is not intended to be solely a training programme although training will clearly feature. There will need to be a balance of one to one and group activities that ensures the service is responsive to the needs of individual businesses drawn from a diverse base in terms of sector, size, experience and technical knowledge.

The programme should deliver a package of flexible and responsive support that will help businesses identify and build or expand their on-line presence and increase use of digital media and tools. This should include provision of one to one business support including help to develop bespoke digital business plans and follow up support to ensure implementation and application of knowledge/ skills gained.

The programme will need to offer a menu of support to develop skills and knowledge of digital technology and applications in the following key areas:

NB This list is not exhaustive; other areas will be added in response to business needs and changing technology.

The service should include support to encourage groups of businesses to grow their on line presence and marketing where this helps to promote specific locations (e.g. shopping area) product group (e.g. food, crafts) or events (e.g. markets, Tall Ships etc). Support to help grow supply chains should also feature in the programme.

Success measures will include improved SME skills and knowledge; improved SME business performance (e.g. increased sales/turn-over,) jobs safeguarded/ created and an increase in local supply chain activity/ multiplier effect. All KPIs will need to be evidenced through transparent and auditable records and independent evaluation.

To express an interest and apply please follow the instructions from the link https://royalgreenwich.proactishosting.com/