Clearview Midlands December 2013 - Issue 145 | Page 74

BUSINESSNEWS

24 HOUR SERVICE
Business Micros’ installation
team upgraded the entire
software system at Essex based
trade fabricator Ultimate 70
recently with just a 30 minute
interruption to their normal
service.
The team worked overnight
to minimise disruption, and
Ultimate 70’s Managing Director,
Martin Killick, congratulated the
Business Micros team on a faultless
operation.
Ultimate 70, which fabricates
between 800 and 1000 frames per

week in the Legend 70 system, has
been a Business Micros customer
since it was set up 10 years ago.
Now running both Evolution
software for its manufacturing
processing and EvoNet software
for its business management,
the company operates a highly
efficient paperless system with vast
amounts of data stored securely on
its server.
Business Micros identified a
risk that the sheer volume of data
on the server could slow it down
and recommended that Ultimate

70 should upgrade to the SQL
database versions of both Evolution
and EvoNet.
In normal circumstances, this
could take several working days
however, Business Micros agreed
that this would not be feasible and
instead put together a timetable
which meant it could be completed
in just over 24 hours with a down
time of just thirty minutes.
Further details on Evolution
and EvoNet are at www.
businessmicros.co.uk

IMPROVING ACCESS TO FINANCE FOR SMEs
Despite a renewed focus by
government on the financing
challenges facing small and
medium-sized enterprises
(SMEs), there is scope for the
range of funding initiatives
currently in place to work as
a more unified programme,
according to the National Audit
Office (NAO).
Preparations for the Business
Bank, which was publicly
launched in October 2013
but will start operating as an
independent entity in 2014,

prompted the Department for
Business, Innovation & Skills
(BIS) to re-examine the nature
of the finance problems facing
SMEs. These include a possible
need by SMEs by 2017 for an
additional £22 billion over and
above the finance available to
them.
The report found that, at
present, although BIS and HM
Treasury both have teams dealing
with ‘enterprise’ policy, there is
no formal research programme
joining the Departments with

other departments, such as
HMRC, with an interest in
SMEs.

‘A significant and
eduring problem’
“Access to finance is a significant
and enduring problem for
many small and medium-sized
businesses. There is a range of
schemes led by the Department
for Business, Innovation & Skills
to address areas of the market

where there are problems. But
there is work to be done in terms
of managing the schemes as a
unified portfolio and articulating
what they are intended to achieve
as a whole. Given the importance
to the Government of promoting
growth, greater benefits and
public value could be achieved
through treating the interventions
as a programme, with a clearer
focus on assessing what results can
realistically be delivered,” Amyas
Morse, head of the National
Audit Office.

FINANCE SCHEMES ‘MUST BE SIMPLIFIED’
Finance schemes designed to
help construction SMEs need to
be simp lified if they are to aid
the economic recovery, warns the
Federation of Master Builders
(FMB) in response to a National
Audit Office (NAO) report that
criticises the Government for
its confused approach towards
business funding.
Brian Berry, Chief Executive of
the FMB, said: “Initiatives such
as Funding for Lending and the
recently launched Business Bank,
designed to make financing more

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DEC 2013

accessible for small businesses, are
failing to help construction SMEs
because the banks remain reluctant
to lend to them. Construction
companies need to able to secure
financing to grow their business
in line with demand, which is
why it is so important to remove
any barriers that prevent this from
happening.
“Many small business owners
are confused about which finance
schemes they can access. Unless
the Government acts now to unify
and simplify the schemes on offer,

‘Confused about
which finance
schemes they
can access’
as well as stamp out discrimination
against building firms applying
for the loans and overdrafts they
need to buy materials, hire plant
or take on extra staff, then the
opportunities presented by the
improving economic conditions
will be lost.”

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