Its an exciting time for a SME in\n the UK. A new era appears to be upon us, levelling the playing field \nwith the prime contractors and major multi nationals, particularly in \nthe field of Portfolio, Programme and Project management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Author: Martin Paver Director at i3Works<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n Experienced professionals are joining forces to provide a blend of \ncapability tailored to the assignment, competing head on with larger \norganisations who often deploy their bench strength. Historically, it\u2019s \nbeen a challenge for SMEs to access the larger opportunities, but the \nmarket is opening up with the help of Government policies that are \nactively promoting the involvement of SMEs and enabling them to access \nwork that was previously unavailable to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organisations are also recognising the importance of suppliers being \ninvested in the successful outcome of a contract. Many SMEs are \npersonally invested; they have often grown their business from a small \nacorn, have a personal connection with the majority of their staff and \nhave a passion for their business. They have small overheads and work \nhard to ensure that their company remains at the forefront of thinking \nin their chosen discipline. They are often unshackled by the processes \nand constraints that tend to be a product of increasing organisational \ngovernance and control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is without doubt that the larger organisations have a head start, \nbut these advantages often come with a higher price tag. The constraints\n on the public purse combined with a downturn in the oil and gas sector \nare providing the incentive for large clients to re-examine the relative\n value delivered by different parts of the supply chain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is this a short term phenomenon created by the demanding market \nconditions or the shape of things to come? As large clients engage with \nSMEs they will develop their own views and establish systems and \nprocesses to mitigate and manage any risks. But the perceived \ndisadvantages of SMEs are being unmasked, disqualified and eroded. The \nmarket will undoubtedly evolve further, where agility, flexibility and \ninnovation will be a key attribute for longer term success. The SMEs may\n have the edge on this too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is some middle ground where large multi nationals work in \ncollaboration with SMEs but for this to endure it has to be a \npartnership. Dominant suppliers often embed SMEs to make up the numbers,\n hit government SME targets and provide boots on the ground, rather than\n offering a longer term mutually beneficial arrangement. This uneven \nbalance of power will drive behaviours in the market and further rapid \nevolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is, of course informative that some of the more innovative tier 1 \nsuppliers are embracing SME\u2019s, contrary to seeing them as a threat. They\n recognise that by exploiting and harnessing the agility that SME\u2019s \nbring to their supply chains, it presents a very attractive proposition \nto HM Government, notwithstanding the fact it also puts a big \u2018tick\u2019 in \nthe SME box during the Pre Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) process. \nThese tier 1 suppliers deserve praise, support and set the bar for \nothers to follow. Adopting a partnering approach with their SME supply \nchain elevates them further again in the eyes of HMG.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Its an exciting time for a SME in the UK. A new era appears to be upon us, levelling the playing field with the prime contractors and major multi nationals, particularly in the field of Portfolio, Programme and Project management. Author: Martin Paver Director at i3Works<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":166,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":210,"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions\/210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i3works.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}