To help SME business owners get to grips with the digital technology that will help them be more competitive Virgin Media Business is offering free educational taxi rides to entrepreneurs across London, Manchester, Birmingham and Sheffield between 22nd-25th September.
The vehicles used in the SMEcab service are fitted out with technology and tools to help passengers improve their digital skills during the journey, with a message from Sir Richard Branson and best practice case studies.
The service was launched with an amphibious cab that drove across the Thames.
"The UK's digital economy already accounts for 8% of GDP - more than any other G20 nation, but we risk losing this competitive advantage if we fail to enable our SMEs to use technology better," said Mike Smith, Director, SMB at Virgin Media Business.
Research commissioned by Virgin Media Business found that businesses were failing to appreciate the growth potential in modern digital technology. And only one in five SMEs said that digital training was a key area for investment in the next five years.
Smith added: "Small and medium-sized firms should be the fuel of our economy powered by simple, flexible technology, but we feel that industry and the Government need to look at ways it can provide more support and direct assistance to this group which is UK plc's driving force."
Virgin Media Business has launched a new proposition to help SMEs get more from technology.
The packages include Red Value, aimed at 'digitally aware' companies, Red Speed for the 'digitally enabled' and Red Performance for businesses that are 'digitally dependent'.
Red Value and Red Speed will provide 50 MB and 152 MB connections respectively with unlimited usage.
Red Performance will provide a 30-100MB connection via a Managed Internet Access offering the same upstream and downstream dedicated speed and capacity, a six-hour Service Level Agreement (SLA) and starts at free installation.
The packages are accompanied by online support via The Big Digital Skills Hub and The Digital Collection and users can access Virgin Start Up and Pioneers to see examples of how SMEs are overcoming barriers.
Pauline Trotter at Ovum commented, "It goes without saying that small businesses want value for money and reliability from their communications service provider.
"But many need so much more, since they do not typically have ready access to IT and ecommerce skills in-house. It's therefore good to see a focus on practical advice and business-grade support from Virgin in its new offers for SMB."