Member Article

Cabinet Office Minister backs “Do It Digital” campaign

Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General Matthew Hancock has given his support to “Do It Digital”, a new independent, not-for-profit campaign that is encouraging the UK’s 5.4 million small businesses to become more digitally active.

Greater levels of digital engagement would help small business owners improve efficiency, reduce costs and take advantage of effective and far-reaching marketing opportunities only available in the digital arena. Supporting the initiative, Matt Hancock today emphasised how the government’s new digital platforms – such as GOV.UK, GOV.UK Pay and GOV.UK Notify – are all open source, meaning that small business owners will be able to reuse this code free of charge to develop their own businesses.

The Minister said:

“We are backing small businesses across the country to grow and create jobs, by cutting business rates, promoting enterprise, and supporting skills.

“We want to help small businesses harness the power of digital technology to help them innovate and grow, so we’re making the Government’s new source code open and reusable, helping budding young entrepreneurs create new businesses. But we can still do more to boost digital skills across the country, and that’s where initiatives such as Do it Digital can play a crucial role by shining a light on the support available.”

The Do It Digital campaign not only aims to help people take their first steps online but also encourages those already online to engage further and expand their digital horizons. This could include anything from a simple web presence and social media to being able to access a wider market for selling online. The campaign says that digital engagement is crucial for all aspects of business, not just marketing, from recruitment and stock management to banking and accounting, including tax returns online.

“Digital engagement will become increasingly central to the development of competitive, profitable and growing businesses,” explains Campaign Director Michelle Ovens MBE.

“Do It Digital will amplify all the help that is available help for small businesses around the country, pointing small business owners towards practical support and thereby enhancing the success of all digital initiatives from both government and the private sector.”

Following the success of the award winning GOV.UK publishing platform, the government is introducing GOV.UK Pay and GOV.UK Notify which will, for the first time, allow millions of people to pay, apply and interact with government in a similar way to the best online banking and shopping services. GOV.UK Notify is the first digital notification system for government and will enable people to receive text messages, emails or letters about the status of their government transaction. GOV.UK Pay, an innovative new payments system that will make it easier and quicker to pay for government services such as renewing a passport and ends the days when different departments collected money from people in different and sometimes confusing ways,

For more information contact media@doitdigital.co.uk and see online at

www.doitdigital.co.uk, on Twitter @doitdigitaluk , and at www.facebook.com/doitdigitaluk

Ends.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Howard Robinson .