Opportunities and threats
Jinfo Blog

17th March 2010

By Anne Jordan

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The global economic recession has added to pressures on information managers, who are having to justify budgets and indeed entire services. It is refreshing, therefore, to see the good news stories coming out of one service – the British Library Business & IP Centre – and learn from how they target the needs of their user base, measure, and report successes. Last autumn VIP published its Economic Impact Research (http://digbig.com/5bbgca) which showed an increased emphasis on budgeting, measurement and identifying value. Although these changes are difficult, they also represent opportunities for communicating the value of information professionals and the kinds of insight and services they can provide within the organisation. Recent articles from the British Library show how the Business & IP Centre is effectively targeting users with relevant services and also communicating its successes. Last month the Centre published a report, “Supporting Economic Growth 2007 – 2009”, giving an overview of the service, providing statistics and examples, and looking to the future. A press release and the full report can be found at http://digbig.com/5bbgbx and http://digbig.com/5bbgby. Whilst many VIP readers will not have the same budget or remit, the approach can provide useful lessons in effective communication. I particularly liked the case studies, giving real examples of how the Business and IP Centre had supported entrepreneurs, and the emboldened hard-hitting facts in the press release, stating, for example, that the Centre currently helps London's visiting SMEs generate £22 in additional turnover for every £1 invested by the London Development Agency (which supports the Centre), and that 89% of entrepreneurs who used the Centre’s business resources between 2007 and 2009 feel they would not have achieved such success without the Centre's support. This is all in stark contrast to the news about another business support organisation, Business Link, which faces closure if the Conservative Party wins the election. Lord Davies, the current small business minister has backed Business Link but there have been calls for its closure from other organisations. Indeed, in a poll currently running on BusinessZone.co.uk, a third of respondents believe the entire Business Link network should be scrapped. So whilst one service supporting SMEs is thriving, another faces the threat of closure.

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