Campaign aims to update SMEs on IT developments

Date: 25/04/1996

A EUROPEAN campaign gets under way next month to convince small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that new information technology (IT) is for them.

The European Information Society Awareness Week, taking place from 6-10 May, will urge SMEs to exploit every opportunity offered to them by the IT revolution.

Organised in collaboration with the European Commission, Euro Info Centres (EICs) and chambers of commerce throughout the EU, the week will include up to 50 events involving representatives from around 6,000 SMEs.

“Everybody is talking about the information society,” says Nic Morris from the EICs, “but many SMEs just see a mass of information and don't know which of these technologies could be useful to their business, if any.”

The meetings, conferences and seminars will cover relevant legislation and the practical implications of the information society for business.

A key event in this respect will be the Business on the Web conference, to be held in Paris from 9-10 May. This two-day gathering aims to bring SMEs up to date with the latest developments in the use of the Internet for business.

At the moment, the Internet is one of the most popular IT tools for small businesses, but the organisers feel that even this is underexploited, as is an instrument as simple as CD-ROM.

Technologies with applications for consumers will also be covered during awareness week. For example, the city of Bremen will hold a seminar on City Information Systems (CIS) - a multimedia tool for use in marketing.

In Germany, these regional information systems - developed by people on the ground who know the conditions for SMEs within the area - are already taking off.