Business comes together to make the most of online trade

Feb 4 2010 by Peter McCusker, The Journal

A group has been established to help North East business reap rewards from business online. Peter McCusker reports.

NORTH East business leads much of Europe in its track record of embracing IT but there is still a disconnect between creating an online company presence and converting that into web-based revenues, according to experts.

Now a new group has been established called North East Online (NEO), which is aiming to get more businesses trading successfully online.

NEO is a collaboration of a number of regional professional services firms, including accountants and business advisors, IT companies, marketing agencies and other business who are already trading successfully online.

Some of the founding members have just met to discuss the state of the North East’s online businesses and determine a strategy for encouraging further successful IT engagement.

Pascal Fintoni, chief executive officer of the North East Centre for e-business, is a keen supporter of NEO.

He thinks many business owners believe they have cracked the e-commerce nut once they have created their own website, and then expect the revenues to flow in from there.

However, he says they should view this as just the start of their internet engagement story and further effort has to be invested to create a successful on-line business.

He said: “On one level it may simply be to do with businesses not having the confidence to fully embrace e-commerce.

“Many business owners may think that once the website is up and running then the job has been done.

“But they should really be thinking that this is just the start of the process and look at what they can do no next to drive online business growth.

“They need to develop the confidence to use the internet. These are people who created successful businesses so there is no reason why they should not be able to create a successful online business too.

“Business owners need to keep on investing in e-commerce rather than hanging on to what they initially created thinking they have done what is needed.

“The internet can provide a great insight into where their customers are, what their customers are doing and what they want to spend their money on.

“To be a successful online trader you have to invest in your skills and keep updating those skills.”

Neil Robbins, of Newcastle-based Silverbean, an online marketing agency, said: “The NEO forum provided a real insight into the concerns IT and digital suppliers have with the North East region.

“It was interesting to hear that many of us face the same obstacles when trying to help North East businesses.

“I know many IT and digital suppliers in the region have voiced their concerns to Government support agencies but perhaps we now need a common voice to make ourselves heard.”