Manchester Asian Trading
Information Network

Manchester SME Teleservices Project

Lead Partner

Greater Manchester Bangladesh Association
for Manchester Asian Trading Information Network (MATIN)

Project Consortia

Greater Manchester Bangladesh Association
for Manchester Asian Trading Information Network (MATIN)
Contact: Ian Dempsey

Chorlton Workshop
Contact: Andy Robinson

Labour Telematics Centre
Contact: John Atkins

Soft Solution
Contact: Lucy Brotherston

MMU Centre for Employment Research (CER)
Contact: Steve Walker

Outline Description

The Project aims to stimulate effective use of the Internet for commercial purposes by SMEs in Manchester. To do this, it will adopt a three strand approach, covering multimedia, value-added services and support.

The aim is to make SMEs in Manchester and the Northwest more competitive, by introducing them to practical and effective commercial use of the Internet by providing support and facilitating quality interaction.

The project will:

MULTIMEDIA

  • Facilitate SME-to-SME sectoral development by establishing the Manchester Virtual Textiles Centre (MVTC), providing support to ensure it meets the needs of textile associated industries, and investigate the suitability of telematics for assisting inter- company work flow.

  • Bring Asian retail SMEs onto the Internet and help combat social exclusion in general by creating and co-ordinating Manchester's Cyber-Bazaar (MC-B)

  • Stimulate information flow to/between SME in the Northwest (and wider) through the development of electronic publishing activities, including a regular on-line trade magazine in a variety of electronic formats.

  • Investigate the potential use of telematics for on-line trade by establishing the Manchester Virtual Bookshop (MVB)

  • Assist SMEs in developing promotional information and public information strategies which exploit the potential of new electronic communication tools

    •

    VALUE-ADDED SERVICES

    Act as a value-added service provider offering:

  • Partnership Brokerage

    (putting manufacturers into contact with suppliers or raw materials, maintaining register of consultants for commercial services such as accountancy or quality assurance. Developing further partnerships and project based activities to extend the work carried out with ERDF funding)

  • Information Brokerage

    (obtaining commercial information from diverse sources, on behalf of a client company, assisting with marketing of electronic information to customers)

  • Resource Surveys

    (identifying electronic resources on particular sectors or areas of SME practice eg identifying electrical engineering resources on the Internet for a company producing generating equipment)

  • Sectoral Information Abstraction

    (regular monitoring, searches and reporting of electronic resources on particular sectors or SME practices, for example on EDI on behalf of a company evaluating that new technology; evaluating competitive information sources and organisations)

  • WWW/HTML Authoring/Electronic Publishing

    (producing pages for World Wide Web pages on behalf of client companies/SMEs. Creating examples of piloted, tested, and further developed World Wide Web sites as a core component of electronic publishing)

  • Information Maintenance

    (maintaining commercial information held electronically, eg updating product information and prices, undertaking customer feedback surveys etc)

  • Installation and Configuration

    (Installation of hardware, applications software and client software, standards, client configuration, format conversions, work flow & systems development, additional support tools such as file transfer, mail-lists, and 'newsgroups', to SMEs engaging in electronic publishing)

    •

    SUPPORT

    Provide support to commercial bodies/SMEs about the Internet on 5 main themes:

  • Awareness

  • Software

  • Human Skills Development

  • Improving Workflow in SME

  • Technical

    Project Management

    A work plan for the entire project will be constructed; within this each partner will have deliverables and dates (at least for the three key dates outlined in the form). Progress towards deliverables will be monitored at Monthly Co-ordination meetings.

    Submission of monthly reports to lead partner for consolidation

    The monthly reports will in turn be consolidated to form an interim report at 31/12/95 and a final report at 31/12/96

    Details of links with existing projects, planned future projects, other organisations working in this area

    The work on this project stems from pilot projects undertaken in 1994. Links exist with SMEs who took part in this previous work, the Department of Trade & Industry, Commerical Secretaries of several overseas goverments, Electronic Village Halls & Telecottages, Internet Service Providers, Business Link, Manchester Training & Enterprise Council, Manchester Chamber of Commerce, Manchester City Council Economic Initiatives Group, sectoral trade associations, Higher Education Institutions including Manchester Metropolitan Univeristy, Further Education Colleges (eg City College Manchester), awarding bodies, Office of the Data Protection Registrar, government agencies such as HSE, and trades unions. We are in contact with a number of similar projects undertaking similar initatives elesewhere in the UK, Europe and the United States.

    Members of the project are active participants in a number of on-line commercial forums, using the technology to network widely, maintaining an outgoing approach to generate new contacts and resources.

    We will work closely with the MTTP Information and Public Access to the Community project in terms of sharing contacts and expertise in Web publishing, and use the services of the MTTP Technolgy Support project where appropriate.

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