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Last Thursday, 31 July, the UK government released their Small Business Plan alongside the industry-led SME Digital Adoption report. This report sets out an ambition for growth and prosperity for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through the adoption of digital technology and a 10-step action plan for government.

techUK are delighted to be a part of the SME Digital Adoption Taskforce and to see the publication the final report. View the final report here.

techUK SME Digital Adoption campaign

On behalf of our members, we have long called for better government support for SMEs digital adoption. In September 2023, techUK released our ‘Small Enterprises, Big Impact’ report, working with our techUK members including Sage, Xero and Intuit, along with our SMEs. This report provided a 12-month roadmap for the Government to incentivise SME digital adoption. Key focus areas included:  

• Co-ordinating a cross-departmental and industry led Forum and appoint a Minister responsible for digitisation across the economy. 
• Delivering a comprehensive digital adoption plan with clearly defined targets by 2030, focusing on the right underpinning infrastructure, regulation and skills needed to succeed.
• Expanding the Made Smarter Adoption programme to all sectors of the economy. 

During this campaign, we were pleased to bring together key stakeholders including Chair of the SME digital adoption taskforce Phil Smith CBE and many of the SME Digital Adoption Taskforce members (catch-up on the Small Enterprises, Big Impact report release here).

Alongside business representatives and trade bodies, we further called for the government to seize the opportunity ahead of the 2024 Autumn Budget and Investment Summit through an Open Letter written to the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, and the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology. This letter reiterated the need to turbocharge its digitisation offer needed to drive investment.

Following this, techUK were pleased to have been asked to join the Department for Business and Trade’s SME Digital Adoption Taskforce.

techUK and the SME Digital Adoption Taskforce

Over the past year, techUK have worked with others on the Taskforce and our SME members to understand exactly what the UK Government, and industry should do - looking across the financial incentives, skills needs and regulatory levers needed to drive adoption. We fed into the government’s Tech Adoption Review and supported the development of the Taskforce’s interim (accessible here) and final report.

In this final report, the Taskforce want to see UK SMEs become the most digitally capable and AI confident in the G7 by 2035 and have set out ten recommendations to help achieve this and maximise the productive potential of SMEs.

Ultimately, this is an economic opportunity. There are 5.5 million small businesses who account for 99.8% of the business population and employ two thirds of working people. Yet the UK ranks 25th worldwide for future digital readiness and 18th for overall performance in digital readiness in the IMD 2024 index. Alongside this, UK SMEs invest less in new technology and management that their G7 peers. But small business owners in the UK could get as much as three and a half weeks of productive working time back if they fully embraced even basic technology.

techUK have been impressed by the collaboration in the SME Digital Adoption Taskforce. Together, we have created a report that sets out clear steps for government and industry to boost technology adoption rates in the UK and give SMEs the support they need. This includes appointing a Minister responsible for digital adoption, developing a scalable online CTO as a service, providing AI-powered guidance and support to SMEs, and launching a cross departmental evidence gathering exercise on firm-level financial support for SME digital and AI adoption.

On behalf of our members, we look forward to seeing how we can put this into action as part of the Small Business Plan.

Click here for the full press release