The Swansea Bay IT Support Centre is about to finish another successful year. Over the course of the past 12 months we have managed to complete around 300 eCommerce reviews for our clients in the Swansea area. The amount for Neath, Port Talbot is near the 75 mark. Each Opportunity Wales review is carried out by one of our experienced ecommerce consultants who then prepare a report with a proposed aproach for that business. More often than not clients will also take out one of our cosultancy packages, too. Swansea clients this year have included:

• Food and drink companies
• Hotels and cottages
• Sportswear and clothing companies
• Retail Shops
• Jewellers and fashion businesses
• Light Industry
• Design businesses

If you would like an Opportunity Wales review, and you’re based in Swansea, Neath or Port Talbot, please get in touch with us.

On April 4th 2006, the eCommerce Innovation Centre (eCIC), in conjunction with Opportunity Wales, are running a one day workshop on on-demand CRM solutions. These powerful database driven applications enable a business to use a standard Internet Web browser to access, view, manage and analyse all their customer data – great for when a business has remote workers or multiple offices. The subject of the workshop will be ‘Microsoft Live Office and CRM 3.0‘. A full-day overview of these new technologies and a strategic update will be provided by Microsoft.

The workshop will be held at the McDonald Hotel, Holland House, Cardiff and costs £60 per delegate including lunch and refreshments. For further information or to register for the workshops contact Dr James B. Waddell at eCIC:

• Email: aecat@ecommerce.ac.uk
• Phone: 029 2064 7028

At the Liberty Stadium on March 15th 2006, the Bay in Business will be holding the Swansea Bay Sourcing and Local Supplier Development event. This event offers businesses in Swansea the oportunity to learn more about how Local Supplier Development & Contract Shop can help you.

There will be presentations about:

• Local Supplier Development Swansea Housing Stock
• Doing Business in Neath Port Talbot
• Opportunities in Carmarthenshire
• SA1 Sourcing

It also offers companies the opportunity to:

• Meet and network with likeminded companies
• Meet exhibitors from local authorities procurement units and business support representatives
• Register on contract shop website or update your existing contract shop profile

Dragon’s Den is the BBC 2 programme which gives entrepreneurs the chance to pitch their ideas to a panel of successful business experts, in return for a financial investment. Here’s the pitch from the Dragon’s Den website:

All manner of money-spinning minds will step into the intimidating world of business financing, determined to make their dreams come true. All they need is the cash. To get this, they must face the Dragons, all of whom are formidable business thinkers with the money to make things happen.

But this is no lottery - the contestants will need all their powers of reasoning, presentation and persuasion to convince our five business experts that theirs is a product worth investing in. The Dragons know what makes a successful idea, how much it’s worth and how much cash is needed to get it off the ground.

Going into their next series they are now looking for entrepreneurs to get in touch with them and to appear on the programme. If you believe you have a great product or idea which could do with a financial injection, get in touch with the team either through the Dragon’s Den website or by filling out a Dragon’s Den Application Form.

On May 19th, 2006 at Cardiff Internatinal Arena, the Western Mail Business Awards will be held. In it’s eighth it will “honour an acknowledge the very best in Welsh business“. We would very much hope the “very best” in Swansea, Neath and Port Talbot will apply to enter the awards and hope that some of our local businesses will actually win some of them. Here are the categories:

• Welsh Company of the Year
• Business Achiever of the Year
• Welsh Small Business of the Year
• Welsh People Development Company of the Year
• Young Business Achiever of the Year
• Busnes Dwyieithog – Bilingual Business
• Welsh Innovative Company of the Year
• The Opportunity Wales eCommerce Award
• The Excellence in Marketing Award

Being a deliverer of the Opportunity Wales project we very much hope that a number of clients will fill in the application form. Take a look at the company that won the Opportunity Wales Award last year.