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Posted: Sat, July 13, 2002
The ITW Interview: Rosemary O'Connor, Wales Information Society
Whatever the size or sophistication of your company, the Wales Information Society (WIS) can help you advance your use of ICT. Initially co-funded by the Welsh Development Agency and the European Commission, WIS developed a Strategy & Action Plan for making the transition to the Information Age, and now offers a range of support and advice services to businesses of all sizes. A major E-Community programme will be launched at the end of the year. "Our goal is to help Wales become a knowledge-based society as quickly and effectively as possible,"
Rosemary O'Connor, Director of WIS, explains. "WIS was a part of the RISI network - a European initiative for 28 less favoured regions across Europe. With the risk of having multiple initiatives doing their own thing but with little real impact on a Wales-wide scale, the WIS approach in its current phase is to look at the bigger picture. "It's critically important to have a strategy in place," says Rosemary O'Connor. "Unless we have co-ordinated and large-scale initiatives we won't reach the targets that have been set in A Winning Wales. Unless there's co-ordination and a sound strategy we cannot make the best use of our resources." One of WIS's main tasks has been to demonstrate that ICT really can make a difference to businesses in Wales. "It's important to have
plenty of case studies of good practice, and important that you have case studies of Welsh companies. More than 90% of companies in Wales
are small. "WIS highlights positive case studies - that's essential, especially with local case studies. It's important that we make much of our successes." WIS ProgrammesIn its initial phases WIS supported initiatives across all areas of E-Business, Education & Training, the Public Sector etc., but since the WIS Strategy & Action Plan was published Wales has moved on. "The Welsh Assembly Government is now taking the lead on a Strategic Framework through Cymru Ar-Lein," Rosemary O'Connor told us. "From a WIS perspective the concentration is on a key number of core WDA areas of focus: E-Business, E-Communities and Telecommunications Infrastructure." "It's important that we have a range of help and different support mechanisms on offer, catering for companies at all levels on the e-adoption ladder," observes Rosemary O'Connor. "No one programme suits all companies. We must use our resources in the best possible way by targeting them properly." "At the bottom end of the ladder you have those companies that are just beginning to use ICT are not trading electronically. We have a network of ICT Support Centres across Wales that reach large numbers of companies at a local level and help them to get on the ladder." "Then you have the Opportunity Wales initiative that is directed at companies halfway up the ladder, already using IT and about to become engaged in e-commerce." "In the second phase of our Wales smE-Business programme we'll be focusing on helping those companies at the top end of the ladder, enabling them to achieve full integration of ICT." The Wales smE-Business Programme will bring independent ICT support to companies across all parts of Wales. The programme utilises a team of independent private sector consultants to advise companies across Wales on a one-to-one basis. Targeting people at an equally local level, the WIS Trailer Project delivers an ICT roadshow across Wales to demonstrate the benefits of ICT to companies in the remotest parts of Wales. More initiatives are being derived from WIS's strategy and action plans, and visitors to the WIS website can view a full range of current and planned programmes.
CommunityOne other area that WIS will be focusing on in its next phase is community. This can be seen in its work on lessening the `digital divide' - the gap emerging between those who do and those who do not have access to ICT technology. "There's still very much a digital divide, but more and more effort is going into bridging it," Rosemary O'Connor tells us. "We're going through the process of proposing a programme that will focus on deprived communities, where we'll be providing local community support centres and working with communities to develop their own portals." The good news is that, with the Cymru Ar-Lein strategy catering for key sectors of Welsh life, ICT is now getting higher on the political agenda. "It's been very good indeed in Wales," Rosemary O'Connor comments. "Andrew Davies has been the e-Minister for some time, and now he is also the Economic Development Minister. He is a real champion for the Information Society. Also, the Assembly in its own use of ICT is very much at the cutting edge." So with the Assembly pioneering in the use of ICT and the many initiatives bringing ICT to business, the question remains: how close is Wales to actually being an Information Society? "I think we're slowing getting there," Rosemary O'Connor tells us. "Benchmarking studies show that Wales is getting closer to being an Information Society, with more and more companies using ICT."
"The further up the e-adoption ladder companies are, the better. We're getting more and more companies on the bottom rung of the ladder, but the real challenge is to get them to exploit IT." For more information on The Wales Information society and its many activities, visit: http://www.wis.org.uk |
Our initial Strategy & Action
Plan was published back in 1999 and has led to the implementation of a wide range of initiatives."
We need to use
local companies for case studies to demonstrate that exploiting ICT is of relevance to them."
"But reports often
measure whether a company is connected to the Internet or uses e-mail. What we really need to be looking at is what companies are using
ICT for and where they are positioned on the E-Adoption Ladder."
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