Address by Mr. Noel Treacy, T.D., Minister for Science, Technology and Commerce at launch of Envision website in the Harbour Hotel, Galway on 17 December 2001 at 2.30pm

I am delighted to be here to officially launch the Envision website. Envision Management and Marketing Consultancy are one of the premier providers of training and business consultancy services to the private and public sector in Ireland. For the past 12 years Envision have been helping Irish companies to achieve sustained and profitable growth through active and intelligent decision-making.

Envision are now entering a new era of growth by embracing the use of Information Communication Technologies and the many advantages that they bring to your business. The World Wide Web is quite simply a new channel through which to do business. Going on line means that your message is accessible 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to anyone anywhere who has access to the web. Currently this is a potential customer base in the region of 300 million people and growing at an exponential rate. A good website can also add value to the services provided to your customers. By providing detailed information on your website your on line presence can become a customer support tool. Customers can also use the website to solve their problems or indeed answer their many queries.

I applaud the range of interesting added value services that the Envision Website will provide. The "Monday Morning Message" service is a weekly story set to inspire and encourage its readers by detailing 52 leadership development principles.

The "SOURCE" service is the first of its kind in the West of Ireland and will enable SME's to avail of specialist skills on a short-term basis, which can be particularly useful for SMEs requiring specialist skills on a short-term basis.

This Government places a high priority on skills and innovative solutions to skill shortages such as this one are to be congratulated.

In response to the recommendations of the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs, the Government has already provided an additional £81m for the provision of additional third level places and IT post-graduate conversion programmes.

The Expert Group on Future Skills Needs Report on E Business Skills indicates that the Information Technology, Business, film, graphics and design areas will be vital to E Business related industry. A partnership between education, business and the public sector to facilitate programme changes is recommended for e Business skills in third level education.

As a further sign of Envisions commitment to the SME sector in Ireland Envision have recently announced their sponsorship of the National Marketing and Sales Awards 2002, in the SME Category; in conjunction with the Marketing Institute of Ireland. I am happy to see a well-known local business among the finalists (Stira Folding Attic Stairs)

The Government itself has funded a number of innovative programmes that have concentrated on upskilling the business sector itself with a view to taking a proactive approach to meeting the challenges of the digital economy and ensuring Ireland's global competitiveness.

Enterprise Ireland, the County and City Enterprise Boards and the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland have developed eBusiness Initiatives as part of their key role in developing e Business strategies for Irish SME's.

The Enterprise Ireland £10m eBusiness acceleration fund, was launched by us in March of 2000 to fast track significant scale projects with the ultimate aim that Irish businesses adopt advanced information and communication technologies to operate in a fully integrated manner to enhance their competitive advantage.

102 projects were approved throughout a wide-range of industry sectors throughout Ireland, 33 of which are located in our Border Midlands West region. Next year Enterprise Ireland will be disseminating the best practice case studies to SME's nationwide.

The £3m Empower initiative (a fast-track e-commerce project for small businesses) was launched by me in July 2000.

Under the initiative each of the 35 Enterprise Boards are providing E-Business Services and Incentives to Micro-Businesses, including: An awareness Campaign; Technical Assistance Grants; Mentoring Assistance; Training in the Implementation of E-Commerce Solutions; and Local and Sectoral Electronic Networking.

The programme run by the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland is helping to build e-business capacity within the SME sector in Ireland by delivering training and awareness building activity among the Chamber client base. This work complements that of the state agencies and business support organisations which is being promoted at both the local and national level.

This Government's efforts in this area would appear to have achieved results. According to an SME E Business survey published by the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland on 19 September last;

• 90% of SME's have at least 1 computer.
• overall internet access by Irish SMEs is up 12 % on the year 2000 level at an overall 81% level. This varies between firms in manufacturing 95% and those in such sectors as leisure/personal services 60 % and retail 66%.
• 46 % of SME firms now have own websites.

Government itself has also to become e-enabled. By the use of these new technologies electronic Government can take advantage of the increased productivity, reduced costs and respond more effectively to the customer. E Government will also enhance the business community's and the citizen's access to government information and services. The use of ICT's, in both the Public and Private Sectors, can help make the Work Processes more productive, effective and efficient and can consequently, improve the quality of the services which we deliver to the Public.

Our Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is responsible for the BASIS project which we launched on the 29th November last. The BASIS project delivers information and services to business in a focused and user-friendly way. The delivery of information and services is based around the events of a business such as employing staff, accessing funding or registering a company. I invite you all to log on at www.BASIS .ie.

Technological change is happening at an exponential rate. E-business, e-commerce, e-working, e-government are bringing about revolutionary changes in our economy, in both working and business practices leading to reduced costs, increased efficiency, increased productivity and greater customer responsiveness. Information Communications Technologies place a premium on flexibility, skills, costs, and on overall competitiveness. In launching this new web service for its customers Envision have embraced all of these principles and I am certain that this venture will be a great success in the exciting years ahead.