Portfolio Business
IN BRIEF Budget’s mixed welcome
Scottish business gave a mixed response to the Chancellor’s Budget last week. Proposals to reduce corporation tax and increase research and development tax credits were welcomed. Whichever party triumphs in May’s Holyrood elections was also urged to work with the UK Government to explore Scottish enterprise zones. But George Osborne’s plans to raise the supplementary charge tax on North Sea oil companies from 20 to 32 per cent was viewed as damaging.
Economy strengthens Scotland’s enterprise minister Jim Mather said new figures that show an upswing in the private sector are a further sign the economy is strengthening. The Bank of Scotland PMI report for February signalled the strongest rise in activity across the private sector economy since June 2007. Staff levels are increasing for the first time in four months, according to the survey. Firms appeared to be recovering following the disruption caused by the extreme winter weather.
Banks pledge funds Four high-street banks have pledged to commit a total of £40m to the newly-created Scottish Loan Fund. First Minister Alex Salmond announced the investment, saying it provides opportunity for growth and better access to finance. The fund has already been awarded £55m from the Scottish Government. The Loan Fund is a product of the Scottish Investment Bank, which is a division of Scottish Enterprise. Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland and Santander each committed almost £10m, with half that amount from Clydesdale Bank.
Forth bidder chosen
A preferred bidder has been chosen to build the bridge and connecting road elements of the Forth Replacement Crossing, the biggest Scottish infrastructure project for a generation. The Forth Crossing Bridge Constructors (FCBC) consortium, comprising Dragados, Hochtief, American Bridge International and Morrison Construction, was chosen ahead of Forthspan. The Scottish Government said £790m compared favourably with the initial estimated cost of between £0.9bn and £1.2bn. It is expected to replace the current Forth Road Bridge as the main crossing by 2016.
Life sciences aim The Life Sciences Advisory Board (LiSAB) published its refreshed strategy earlier this month, outlining its mission to double the size of the sector in Scotland by 2020. The document highlighted three strategic areas: anchoring businesses in Scotland that provide vital skills and market access; building more resilient companies and comprehensive supply chains; and attracting new inward investment and talent. LiSAB anticipates that it will be able to double turnover within the sector from £3.1bn to £6.2bn by 2020 while also doubling the sector’s contribution to the Scottish economy from £1.5bn to £3bn.
56 Holyrood 28 March 2011
technology and design into a functional solution. CIVIC’s rare blend of form, function, technology and design enables the agency to make great digital ideas work online. It has been chosen to redesign the Scottish Government’s homepage and its news sections. Te refresh will focus on bringing the
homepage and news sections of Scotland.
gov.uk up to date with current and emerging means of communicating using effective design and technology. Te new design will help the Government to engage their audiences and encourage greater user participation and feedback. In particular, CIVIC will utilise and promote the use of social media and video on the site to improve engagement with hard-to-reach demographics. “Tis is a great opportunity to cement
Scotland.gov.uk’s reputation as a world- class Government website, by creating the best possible user experience with our award-winning design capabilities and the use of modern techniques grounded by our best practice principles,” said Tosh. He adds: “We are delighted to be involved in this design project and believe that we have the right capability, experience and proven track record to deliver such a high-profile project.” Earlier this month, CIVIC announced that it had been appointed to the Central Government Centre of Procurement Expertise Framework for Provision of Applications, Web Development and Associated Services. Celebrating its tenth anniversary this
year, CIVIC’s wide-ranging experience in working with the public sector has meant it has experienced the ups and downs of public purchasing. “We pitched for a Scottish Executive contract in 2002 and were made an approved supplier the following year. We work for a number of different public sector organisations; the Scottish Qualifications Authority, the Government, health boards and local authorities. We’ve learned valuable lessons about working in an environment where people are looking to save money, so we are well versed in that. “With the increasing number of platforms
for consuming information and the wide range of audiences that organisations need to communicate with, you have to have a very user-centric design. You have to ask: what do you want to communicate and who is your audience? Ten you need to break that audience down into a number of different personas that range from someone who is used to communicating in 140 characters to someone who wants to read a 140 page pdf. It’s about good site architecture, usability
“We’ve learned valuable lessons about working in an environment
where people are looking to save money, so we are well versed in that”
and engagement. And no one should feel shut out.” Looking beyond his own company’s
goals, Tosh is a strong advocate of collaboration between small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to provide the scale necessary to win public sector contracts and of collaboration within the public sector that will benefit the country as a whole and offer opportunities to market Scotland Plc on a global scale. “If you look at the new framework we have been appointed to, that was a collaboration between ourselves and three other companies – User Vision, Company Net and Logica. Te collaboration between us and the first two companies gives a scale that provides reassurance for a public sector contractor. And interestingly, we are sub-contracting work to Logica, a company of scale in itself. But for Logica, it allows a more rapid development and deployment of technology than normal. So, it works to the benefit of both Scotland’s private and public sectors and, ultimately, the public.” Tosh believes that the expertise
developed in these collaborations offers opportunities for Scotland to export services internationally. He cites educational services in Asia and land register technologies in emerging African and European nations as examples. And business can flow inward also, he says, championing Scotland’s strengths as a site for data storage centres (see panel): “When we started out, the biggest costs in digital technology were to do with disk space, memory and bandwidth. Today it is power. But look at Scotland; it is an ideal place to site facilities which, by their nature, consume a lot of power and generate a lot of heat. With the huge and increasing growth in the amount of data stored ‘in the cloud’, Scotland can provide cool locations with power generated from our expanding supply of ‘green’ electricity. It’s a great offer to the rest of the world.”
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