Phil McCutchion of Accredit UK and Richard Tubb, IT Consultant, talk on why IT Supplier Accreditation is important and the benefits it brings to SME's engaging with Accredited IT suppliers. Originally presented at the Supply North West Conference in Manchester on 23rd September, 2010.

1. Supplier accreditation and the benefits for SMEs This session will provide a first-hand account of how an SME achieves certification and the benefits it provides them with as well as explaining the certifications available for SMEs and how accreditation adds value to the supply chain

2. We Are… Philip McCutchion Operations Director, Accredit UK Ltd www.twitter.com/accredituk www.linked.com/in/philipmccutchion www.accredituk.wordpress.com/ www.accredituk.com

3. We Are… Richard Tubb, Director, Netlink IT www.twitter.com/tubblog www.linked.com/in/richardtubb www.tubblog.co.uk

5. Why IT Suppliers Need Certification

6. What Netlink IT did

7. How We Benefited

8. How Our Clients Benefited

9. Certification or Accreditation

10. Why the Economy Needs Certification

11. Types of Certification

12. Are all Certifications Equal?

15. Reduced Risk

16. Best Fit

17. Standards

18. Trust

20. Business innovation may be responsible for the lion’s share of the UK’s productivity growth from 1997 to 2007

22. Finding sources of funding

23. Risk & cost of innovating (invention?)

24. Management capacity to innovate effectivelyRemoving the Barriers to Innovation, 2010

26. Delivers efficiencies into the procurement process

27. Opens up the supply chain

28. Enables and exploits innovation

30. Vendor – MCITP, CCNA, CNE etc

31. Independent – CompTIA, BSi, IITT, Accredit UK

32. Frameworks – EFQM, SFIA, eCF

33. Awarded To

34. Organisations

36. Accreditation

37. Design (who by & for)

38. Scalable

40. Designed by SMEs for SMEs

41. Public sector involvement

42. PQQ – mapping work currently in progress

43. The Public Sector has to look at alternative models

44. Innovation

45. Smaller, more local suppliers (part of chain?)

47. Pitfalls of the most obvious choices

48. Is Big Best?

50. Why IT isn’t as mature as other industries

52. Why we chose it

53. How they complement each other

55. Strategic Alliances

56. Accountability internally

58. What Accredit UK means to our clients

59. What Accredit UK means to us