Technology Means Business (TMB) is designed to make the UK's SMEs (less than 250 employees) more competitive by helping them make better use of information and communications technology (ICT). Managed by The Institute of Management, TMB provides a national network of advisers that possess a high standard of knowledge of ICT and business issues, as well as a demonstrable ability to provide the appropriate advice to SMEs. The aim is to give SMEs greater confidence to choose advisers who have achieved a minimum standard of proven competency.

In addition, a new virtual community of small business advisers is being established to enable a free flow of new ideas and the sharing of best practice for all accredited advisers. These advisers will be required to undertake annual re-accreditation so that they keep up-to-date on the latest business and ICT issues and trends.

"The aim of TMB is clear. It will ensure that the client receives clear, effective, business-related advice which will help improve the competitiveness of their business, while saving their valuable time and resources," comments Paul Abbott, a consultant for the TMB initiative. "We have to be seen to be using innovative technology and systems to provide the level of management and advice required of us to administer this project. We have done this through solid working relationships with key technology specialists and a close alliance with business supporters of the project, such as the DTI."

TMB is part of the Information Society Initiative and is supported by the DTI and four industry leaders, Compaq, Intel, BT and Microsoft. The scheme is run by the Institute of Management, which operates the programme through approved independent centres and will have overall responsibility for ensuring that advisers to SMEs are accurately and consistently assessed against the TMB standard.

The project has been running as a pilot since April 1999 and went live on 31st March 2000. The scheme has recruited more than 500 candidates, of which 60 have completed the assessment to date and received official accreditation.

The first step was to set up a number of assessment centres across the UK. These centres support candidates to achieve the required standard and carry out the required assessment. The diversity of skills necessary to effectively advise SMEs on the effective and beneficial business use of ICT has led to the standard consisting of two discrete sections.

First of all, a performance requirement demands that candidates must demonstrate that they can perform to a set of prescribed criteria when advising SMEs.

The second part is a syllabus against which the adviser must learn and be tested. This section of the training requires advisers to sit a multiple choice knowledge test online to ensure that they have the necessary level of knowledge to underpin their advisory service to SMEs. They must demonstrate that they have up to date knowledge of SMEs, ICT and the application of ICT in the SME context. Candidates must pass the online test and meet the performance requirements in order to gain accreditation.

"When we were scoping the whole system we knew there would be a testable component which would add credibility to the entire accreditation process. Finding the right software was the main challenge and we recruited the help of a consultant for this task. He came back with a number of options and we chose to work with Questionmark for several key reasons. One of those is the reporting facilities available within Perception that provides us with additional intelligence on our users. Another critical feature is the web-enablement and the ability to integrate with several browsers and different versions of several browsers. And, the ability to integrate the software into the web site look and feel. We wanted the test component to look like it belonged in our site and not appear as an add-on," said Abbott.

The TMB team began with a mock test that was published on the site for candidates to get a feel for the test. In October/November 1999 the mock test was scrapped and the online testing went live. This makes the testing component the most tried and tested part of the entire TMB system. It sits in a closed user group on the TMB extranet and can be accessed only from accredited assessment centres. This means that all candidates must sit the tests in a centre.

Once the test has been taken the candidate will be given a pass or fail result and details of the test will be delivered to the online record of achievement. This record is accessed by candidates' tutors who are able to give more detail to the candidates on areas where more effort should be made.

There was never any doubt that the system would need to exist in an online environment. Integration with the TMB web site was a priority of the new testing component. Now that that is established the focus has shifted to the web site itself. The user interface is being enhanced and facilities are being added to enable users to plot their progress more efficiently.

Paul Abbott concludes, "We are in the process of improving the system's user friendliness and making more cosmetic changes to the general look and feel of the system. We have been pleased with the progress made to date and we will now concentrate on scaling the system and responding to the future needs of our customers."

Questionmark was founded in the UK in 1988 and was one of the first software companies to provide an authoring framework to create tests and assessments to run on PCs. Today the company offers a full range of software for the testing and assessment marketplace spanning Windows and web environments. Businesses, governments, and universities in over 45 countries now use Questionmark software.