e-Supplier Accreditation Scheme

My comments on 3 February 2004 (see February archive) about the Scottish Enterprise supported/Scotland IS administered accreditation scheme have attracted some support (one online comment and a few phone calls). I continue to hold the view that the scheme is fundamentally flawed because if does not address the basic issue of helping non-technical management to become informed buyers of IT and, more specifically, Internet-related services.

At £500 a year this programme will become a barrier to new start businesses gaining clients, particularly if contracts are awarded only to those with this somewhat meaningless accreditation.

I was disapointed to see on the Scottish Enterprise e-commerce website that the introduction to the supplier directory informs readers about the accreditation scheme and states that "many smaller companies have already achieved certification". My analysis shows a different picture:

Edinburgh 290 companies listed but only 2 accredited
Glasgow 259 only 7 accredited
Dundee 23 with 0 accredited
Aberdeen 58 with only one (Forth Valley based) company accredited.

Overall only about 1.5% of the listed suppliers are accredited.

This is NOT because suppliers don't want to win work - it because they don't see the value in the scheme and there are plenty of areas where the money can be better spent.