Business Links (Hansard, 6 December 1995)

§ Mrs. Roche
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what plans he has to establish a central management information service for the business links programme. [3935]

§ Mr. Page
The Department has a contractual requirement that business links must provide through the training and enterprise councils, quarterly management information on business links activities.
Business links partnerships are also required to establish as soon as reasonably practical, a database common to all the partners recording all business links related contacts with individual companies.

§ Mrs. Roche
To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will list the core services of the business links network. [3938]

§ Mr. Page
A number of core services lie at the heart of business links. These include:

an enquiry and information service;

personal business advisers;

help for start ups and micro business;

diagnostic services;

Business links also provide direct access to II categories of specialist advice and support including: marketing, finance, exports, management, training, technology and design.
A copy of the "Business Links Service Guide" can be found in the Library of the House.

§ Mrs. Roche
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what common database software is used by business links. [3936]
291W

§ Mr. Page
The Business Links IT strategy group defines the overall IT strategy for business links. As the business links are independent commercial companies it is the responsibility of the individual business link to specify what core software and systems they require to support their business. There is therefore no single common database software in use.
Individual business links partnerships are however required to establish a clear commitment to record in a common database all contact information made by any of the partners where that contact relates to business links activity. This will provide the partners with a complete picture when dealing with customers of the business links.

§ Mrs. Roche
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what specifications the IT unit has set out for business links systems. [3937]

§ Mr. Page
The business link IT strategy group—made up of the national partners, business links and DTI—determined the approach to be taken by business links in defining and developing their IT systems. They defined minimum mandatory standards in the areas of common core databases, client management systems core data, electronic mail, data protection and system security. These mandatory requirements and additional advisory material have been circulated to all business links partnerships as a series of documents known as OSSIT papers.
The DTI IT unit does not however provide detailed specifications for business links IT systems. It is the responsibility of individual business links partnerships to define the technical specification of the solutions to their particular business requirements.