IBM helps small businesses

[From Philanthropy News Digest] The IBM International Foundation has announced a grant of more than $10 million to establish a free, public Web site designed to help small businesses sell goods and services to global companies.

The funding is part of a commitment by IBM, AT&T, Bank of America, Citigroup, Pfizer, and UPS to standardize and simplify the application process required of small and midsize U.S. suppliers to compete for the nearly $150 billion in contracts collectively awarded by the companies each year. To be created and maintained by IBM, the Supplier Connection Web site will provide users with a single, streamlined electronic application form. Small vendors need only complete the application form once to become potential suppliers to the participating companies, enabling vendors to more easily connect with opportunities to sell their goods and services in the almost two hundred countries where the participating corporations operate. The site is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2011 and eventually draw a number of additional participating businesses.

According to a recent study by the Center for an Urban Future, small businesses often experience a dramatic increase in revenues and significantly increase their workforce after becoming a supplier to a large corporation. But the application process for small businesses hoping to supply large companies can require significant investments of time, money, and expertise.

"Everyone says that small business is the engine for economic growth. We believe opening up new markets for goods and services — in the billions of dollars spent by large companies — can be the fuel that will allow those small businesses to grow," said Stanley S. Litow, vice president of corporate citizenship and corporate affairs at IBM and president of the IBM International Foundation. "I liken the mechanism we're unveiling to a universal college application, which simplified the way in which students could spend less time filling out redundant forms and focus more on academic excellence. That's what we're trying to do here — let small businesses do what they do best, grow their businesses, and not get bogged down in red tape."

“Six Large Corporations Aim to Boost Economy With New Supplier Program.” IBM Press Release 9/14/10.