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Southern Area EIC 
Northguild 
Civic Centre 
Southampton 
SO14 7LW 
England 

The Southern Area European Information Centre, which provides help and advice to Small & Medium Sized Enterprises so they can make the most of opportunities in Europe, is going from strength to strength under the leadership of manager Richard Hall.

Richard, who previously worked as the Regional Manager of a well-known bank for 25 years, joined the EIC in June 2001 and has really made his mark. Since he took over, the number of enquiries on tenders has more than doubled and there is already tremendous interest in the three International business "partenariats" (matchmaking business events) planned each year. With a background in the private sector, Richard recognises that the needs of small and medium enterprises are very different from those of big business, particularly in terms of time and resource constraints. The service that the EIC provides is tailored to meet their needs. In addition to providing information and advice on how to win tenders and obtain grants, Richard and his small team will be expanding the service to give assistance to SMEs in developing business partnerships, and are organising a series of workshops to begin to assist in this process.

There are also plans afoot to develop the service and increase its funding so that the staff can be trained to help SMEs write tenders and bid for grants in a more hands-on way, thus ensuring a greater success rate for local businesses in winning contracts and obtaining funding to develop their operations.

The Southern Area EIC, working in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce and City Council, is becoming increasingly well known nationally and at European level for this forward thinking, dynamic approach.

Its hugely successful Euro Helpline, a free service for local SMEs to provide advice on how the euro can affect them and their business practices, has sparked so much interest that the Treasury has indicated an interest in contracting with the EIC to provide this much-needed service on a nation-wide basis.