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SME's Seize Back Control of their Websites

Originally Published 15 March 2004

SME’s Seize Back Control of their Websites Thanks to New Free DTI Backed Service

Small and Medium sized business are increasingly frustrated that their websites are often at the mercy of third parties. They often have to pay web designers for every change and wait for indefinite periods while updates wait in a queue. Accuracy has also been a problem, with costly mistakes taking just as long to rectify. Now a new free DTI backed consulting service will help West Midlands SME’s seize back control of their websites.

The new service will be provided by the University of Warwick based National B2B Centre for small and medium sized companies (SMEs) in the West Midlands to enable them to easily manage their own company website. The aim is to help businesses update their website themselves, without needing expensive software or extensive IT skills.

Martin King Turner, Open Source Project Leader at The National B2B Centre says “More and more companies can see ways to make their website work harder for their business, but are frustrated by the costs and timescales of making the necessary changes. One solution is to be able to make the changes yourself, without reliance on a third party. The new free service offered by The National Business to Business Centre, in association with OpenAdvantage, allows you to do exactly this, placing you back in control of your website.”

The Centre’s E-Business Consultants will show companies how to regain control of their website using content management software, providing the necessary software tools and teaching businesses how to use them. The software is open source so there is no licence fee to pay. The end result is to put SMEs back in the driving seat with their company website. Not only does it save them time and money, it ensures accuracy and opens up the world of internet promotions and reliable data collection.

To launch the new service The National B2B Centre is holding a free seminar for small and mid-sized businesses in the West Midlands entitled “Take Control of your Website” on March 11th and 31st at the University of Warwick. To register for the event, delegates should visit www.nb2bc.co.uk/takecontrol.

For further information on either this new service or the event please visit www.nb2bc.co.ukor call Alison Hedges on 024 7657 4384.

For further information please contact:

Martin King-Turner – Open Source Project Leader
The National Business to Business Centre
Warwick Manufacturing Group
University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL
Tel: 024 7657 4576
Email: martin.kt@nb2bc.co.uk

Note for Editors: The National Business to Business Centre was established in the University of Warwick’s Warwick Manufacturing Group to provide impartial technology advice to help companies gain real business value from the Internet. As the government funds the Centre, the services are available free of charge. More details at http://www.nb2bc.co.uk.

OpenAdvantage is a collaboration with The University of Central England and The National Computing Centre. The project helps West Midlands organisations examine their individual business cases for adopting open source software and provides them with the supporting business and technical expertise in the adoption of OSS based products and services. More details at www.openadvantage.org