A bit of background is worth noting. UKITA has come about as a direct result of the government’s “clustering” initiatives that started in 2002. At that time, the regional development agencies (RDA) were given funds to get SMEs to collaborate with academia, government and each other to build their businesses. The original vision was to try and engineer something akin to Silicon Valley in California which has a potent mix of capital, ideas and enterprise in several technology sectors.

This funding levels varied depending on the economic circumstances of the region and it was used in different ways by each RDA. In the South East the money was spread thinly and tactically; in the West Midlands it was used more strategically with the West Midlands IT Association being set up and given 3 years funding to cover the whole region. This was successfully built to over 300 paying members.

In the South East, OxIT Cluster, with Jeremy as a part-time facilitator, was one of the few organisations to be successful in developing collaboration, however the funding levels were much lower and for only 18 months. It also became clear that to solve many of the issues faced by IT SMEs a national voice was needed. While there was, and is, a national voice for IT in Intellect, it is dominated by the multinationals, most of which are not British. From the solid base that was WMITA, UKITA has been launched with one of its aims to provide that national voice for the ICT SME community.

OxIT decided to join at the AGM at the end of September and will become one of the first full branches outside the Midlands.

Please see also the white paper Developing the UK ICT Industry