The Department for Business and Trade is seeking to award to a supplier to provide a service to provide information,
advice, guidance and signposting for any kind of business, including pre-start-ups, in England.
This
new service will replace the existing Business Support Helpline.
The aim of the Business Information Service is to increase and encourage access to relevant high
quality business support, save businesses time and resource, and ultimately help businesses to
start,
grow and thrive - in particular Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).
The Business Information Service will be expected to provide bespoke, unscripted advice (via
telephone, email, webchat, social media, and other messaging services, but not face-to-face) on a
wide range of topics including starting a business, accessing finance, and business planning.
The service will need to maintain a database of information on business support in England for use
by the service's advisers. This database will also need to be accessible to other users, such as
advisers based in Growth Hubs. The service will be demand-led so should be flexible. It must
provide capacity to meet at least 50,000 inbound contacts, with at least 10,000 in-depth
appointments per annum. It must also be capable of rapidly scaling-up (at extra cost) in response
to
economic shocks and other pressures.
The service will be expected to operate within standard hours, but should have a robust process for
out-of-hours contacts.