The Department for Business and Trade has today [Tuesday 30 April] held the first meeting of the SME Digital Adoption Taskforce. This Taskforce will explore how SMEs can be supported to better adopt digital technology to improve their productivity. It will provide a forum for Government to work with the private sector to develop focused actions to address the digital adoption and broader transformation challenge.
The Taskforce will focus on addressing the challenge of how best to support SMEs to widely adopt and successfully implement productivity-enhancing technologies, such as customer relationship management, accountancy, and resource planning software. The group's primary focuses will be on technology adoption in relation to improving SME productivity and growth, and where transformation can help or have impact.
Small Business Minister Kevin Hollinrake said:
Businesses that utilise technologies such as CRM or accountancy packages are generally much more productive than those that don't, so I was delighted to attend the first meeting of the SME Digital Adoption Taskforce.
This group will utilise its collective experience and knowledge to create a boost in SME digital adoption and is well placed to help tackle the transformation challenge.
Chair of the Taskforce, Phil Smith said:
I was delighted to chair the first of the SME Digital Adoption Taskforce meetings. I believe that addressing these issues is of vital importance and this presents a key opportunity to bring industry together to support SMEs in their digital adoption journey.
The taskforce membership is listed below:
Membership
- Phil Smith, CBE (Chair)
- Alex von Schirmeister, Xero
- Melissa Di Donato, Kyriba
- Ian O'Donnell, Federation of Small Businesses
- Simon Kenyon, Lloyds
- Anthony Impey, Be the Business
- Tera Allas, McKinsey
- Emma Jones, Enterprise Nation
- Jon Cowan, Sage
- Shevaun Haviland, British Chambers of Commerce
- Incoming Country Manager (to be confirmed), Intuit
