TASK: Design, implement and manage a regional business support service (Business Link)
CUSTOMER: East of England Development Agency (EEDA)
East of England IDB Ltd, an Ixion Holdings company, was chosen as the preferred bidder to begin contract negotiations with the East of England Development Agency (EEDA) as part of the Governments regionalisation of the Business Link Service.
The contract to provide the service through the region was worth in excess of £45 million over three years.
Following a thorough and rigorous tendering process, EEIDB Ltd was selected as the preferred bidder to run the service from 1 April 2007.
The award was on the basis that their proposals offered to deliver the greatest innovation and improvements to the quality, consistency and accessibility of Business Link services for small businesses in the region.
Steve Cox, EEDA director general of development, said: "It's great news that we have been able to select a preferred bidder at this stage of the process.
The proposed service model will greatly improve services to small businesses by increasing the number of locally-based business advisers and offering regionally-consistent high quality support under the Business Link brand."
EEIDB Ltd (trading as Business Link East) is a new organisation set up specifically to deliver business support in the region by providing information services, diagnosis of the support needs of individual businesses and brokerage to private and public sector organisations under the Business Link brand.
The new joint venture company was been formed by Ixion and Hertfordshire-based Exemplas Holdings. The two groups already work together to provide other region-wide business support services through the Business Link brand, and between them offer support to around 50 per cent of the small businesses in the region.
During the tendering process, EEIDB Ltd stood out for its strong vision for the future of the Business Link service. This was backed up by detailed regional knowledge, a strategy for maximising the number of locally-based advisers and an experienced private-sector-led team.
Pat Smith, Chief Executive of Business Link East, said: "We are very excited by the prospect of becoming EEDA's key strategic partner for business support services throughout the East of England.
We also relish the opportunity of working with a wide range of partners and stakeholders to turn our vision of supporting the economic growth of the region into a reality."
Business Link East became fully operational on 1st April 2007 and is now offering the full Business Link service across Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Essex.
Benefits to EEDA:
- Greater value for money by an 80% reduction in regional back office costs
- Regional consistency in service but delivered locally
- Innovation throughout the business money
- A strong partner with a can-do approach
- Improved performance with high quality delivery
- Continuous Improvement processes
- 95,000 business customers serviced in 2007/8
- Customers highly satisfied with service 93% (measured independently)
- Over 5,000 customers having in-depth relationships resulting in significant improvements in gross value-added
- Helping over 17,000 budding entrepreneurs with their plans to start a business
» View the Business Link East annual review
» Visit the Business Link East website