Scothosts Open Fife Broadband Centre

By Broadband-Help.com

Scottish businesses were urged to get connected to broadband today as Scottish Enterprise launched a network of eBusiness Demonstration Centres with a simultaneous opening of the first centres in Ayrshire and Fife.

The coming months will see the opening of a further seven Centres as part of a £6 million drive to highlight the competitive advantages this technology can offer.

Linked to Glenrothes via a live broadband feed from Irvine, Bill Morton, Senior Director of Operations for Scottish Enterprise toasted the launch of the centres with the Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise Fife, Joe Noble.

“The eBusiness Demonstration Centres will showcase the benefits of broadband applications and are a crucial step towards ensuring Scotland remains a globally competitive nation,” said Bill.

“The benefits of broadband have still to fully penetrate the business community in Scotland but the pace of change means we simply cannot afford to be slow to take advantage of this technology.

“In general, most large companies have seen the benefits it can bring and have put systems in place to maximise these. However, considerable work is still required to encourage small and medium size businesses that broadband is a technology that is worth investing in and is vital for their future prosperity.”

Supporting the launch of the centres was web design company Scothosts Limited which has used broadband to become one of the first companies to make use of a truly virtual office.

The demonstration centres are part of the Scottish Enterprise Broadband for Business Programme which has been established to increase the uptake of broadband technology by Scots businesses. The Programme includes more than a dozen interlinked projects which will:

• Raise awareness of broadband and give companies unbiased, independent advice.
• Trial pioneering and alternative technologies that can deliver broadband services.
• Develop telecommunications infrastructure, services and tariffs to put Scottish businesses on a competitive footing with Europe's leading locations.

Among the business benefits being promoted through the broadband centres will be increased profit margins, lower costs and increased competitiveness. These will all be fully explored by e-business advisers who will work within the nine centres to assist SME’s with queries about broadband, as well as showcasing equipment, applications and best practice.

The first demonstration centres in Irvine (SE Ayrshire) and Glenrothes (SE Fife) will be followed in March by centre openings in Glasgow (SE Glasgow), Selkirk (SE Borders), Perth (SE Tayside), Huntly (SE Grampian) and Livingston (SE Edinburgh & Lothian). Other Centres in SE Lanarkshire and SE Forth Valley are also planned for this year.

Supporting the centres will be an e-Business Mobile Demonstration Centre which is a fully satellite enabled executive coach that will deliver broadband awareness and learning to the wider community, concentrating on the most rural areas.