10 news New business barometer launched
Accountancy and business advisory firm BDO LLP, is pleased to announce in partnership with the Twenties Club, the launch of the new Thames Valley Business Barometer; a quarterly online survey combined with in-depth company interviews designed to provide a snapshot of economic confidence in the area.
The survey is aimed at a cross section of companies located in the Thames Valley area including a mix of business type, size, public sector, private sector, independent, publicly quoted or divisions of a bigger entity. A selection of companies will also have the opportunity to be profiled alongside the full survey results. An extended focus group – the BDO/Twenties Club Roundtable Debate – will also take place quarterly after completion of the quantitative research, and further analysed to gain deeper insight on the results.
Julian Frost, partner and head of BDO in the Thames Valley, comments: “In today’s uncertain economic climate, confidence and business sentiment plays an important part in defining long term, sustainable growth. Businesses hear and read too many conflicting messages and would benefit from a simple radar system providing the opportunity to benchmark themselves in relation to other businesses in the Thames Valley. The BDO
Thames Valley Barometer will provide individuals and organisations across the region with a street- level view of business sentiment, helping to inform decisions about growth, investment and employment, and which will all be based on real information rather than just gut feel.”
Paula Elliott, managing director, C8 Consulting comments: “This type of survey will be welcomed by businesses both large and small. These days, we often hear a lot of bad news, and it would be good to hear more positive stories. With this in mind we are also inviting participants on a quarterly basis, to nominate businesses in the Thames Valley region that they think are inspirational, outlining what that business has done that makes it special.
“These inspirational businesses will be named alongside the barometer results. We will include some open ended questions in the survey to encourage respondents to expand on their thoughts or provide extra feedback that may be outside the scope of the questionnaire.”
BDO’s Julian Frost concludes: “We would encourage all organisations in the Thames Valley region to participate in this new online business survey. If there are businesses that would like the opportunity to take part in the survey, please get in touch.”
Julian Frost
The survey can be accessed via C8 Consulting’s website, the founders and inspiration behind The Twenties Club, (
www.c8consulting.co.uk/ Twentiesclub) from April 2 for one month.
measuring results
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Business Software Alliance tackles software piracy in Reading
Businesses in Reading are being urged to check that their software licensing is up to scratch. As part of a crackdown, the Business Software Alliance (BSA), an organisation representing the commercial software industry, will be launching a campaign in the next few weeks to ask businesses in Reading to ensure that they hold the correct licenses for all of the software installed on their computers. It will also be doubling its existing maximum reward for reporting software piracy to up to £20,000.
Julian Swan, director, compliance marketing EMEA, BSA, said: “Software is one of the most valuable assets for any organisation, so it’s vital that businesses realise that they are running serious risks if they are not correctly licensed.
"The abuse of intellectual property rights is a serious offence, and enforcement action will be taken against any company found using unlicensed software and can result in a damaged reputation and significant costs.
"Other risks include impact to cashflow when having to make unplanned software purchases and potentially operational downtime as unlicensed software is often less resistant to viruses and other malware.”
www.businessmag.co.uk
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – APRIL 2012
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