Nearly 50 new jobs (including four part-time) and close to £250,000 in additional turnover – these are the headline figures from a new report by Somerset County Council on the ‘extremely positive effect’ on the county’s web designers and associated businesses of the Connecting Somerset project.

Launched in 2005 to encourage and enable the county’s small businesses to take advantage of the Internet and Broadband technology, Connecting Somerset has also proved an exceptionally powerful source of new business for such firms.

According to Project Leader Dave Cornish, “Our main ambition was always to help the county’s small businesses, particularly those in remote locations, use Internet technology to compete better and boost their performance. This has been remarkably successful – in total to date we’ve helped over 600 businesses get online with Broadband, and the vast majority of them report important gains in their performance.

“We’ve always recommended that they use local firms to actually design and build their websites, and we’re particularly delighted to see how the project has helped them too.”

The Council’s report, surveyed over 50 web design and associated businesses in compiling the report, called: ‘Somerset Web Designers and Associated Industries Research – The Connecting Somerset Project’. This covers more than half the 99 web design firms that have used Connecting Somerset’s services.

Of those surveyed, nearly 60% said they had experienced a combined increase in turnover of more than £200,000 since they started using the project, of which they attribute nearly £80,000 (40%) to their involvement with Connecting Somerset. Grossing this figure up to cover all 99 firms shows a total turnover increase of nearly £600,000, with Connecting Somerset delivering nearly a quarter of a million pounds.

Even more remarkably, the surveyed firms attributed some two thirds of their new recruits as least in part to their work with Connecting Somerset. According to Dave Cornish, “The companies we spoke to had made 34 appointments during the period, and attributed 24 of these – including two part-timers – to the project. Grossing up to cover all 99 firms shows that 43 full-time and four part-time staff owe their jobs to the project. Clearly, the additional income the firms have generated has enabled them to justify these new appointments.”

Dave is also very encouraged by changes in attitude to using the Internet that the surveyed firms have noticed among their clients during the period. “Eight out of ten said their clients have increased their interest in e-business since they contacted Connecting Somerset,” he says. “This implies that we have helped make a lasting difference to attitudes in the county – and this can only help Somerset business as a whole continue on the improvement path.

“I’m sure this has contributed greatly to the fact that Somerset’s Broadband penetration figures are the best of any county in the South West and well ahead of the UK as a whole.”

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Note to Editors
Connecting Somerset is funded by Somerset County Council, the South West of England Regional Development Agency (SWRDA), Mendip, Sedgemoor, Taunton Deane and West Somerset Councils, South Somerset Together, the European Social Fund, British Telecom and Business Link Somerset.

For further information, please contact :
David Wilford tel 01373 303004 mob 07790 774284
or Ron Dyson tel 01308 485707