Kenyan SMEs benefit from project

An international software company plans to assist Kenya's small and micro enterprises establish their presence in the region online, says Business Daily.

Intelligent Business Systems Group International has joined the Ministry of Trade in a pilot project that could be replicated to about 1.3 million enterprises supported by government business development centres.

The project offers Internet tools and support to SMEs and will create a centralised purchasing system to be called a bid management centre.

European associations representing small and medium-sized enterprises have called for more European Commission-backed funding for SME employee IT training, reports ZDNet.

The European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises made the call at Cebit on Wednesday.

The association, which has 12 million member companies, had organised the event to remind European governments of the importance of e-skills training for smaller European businesses to remain competitive.

New Zealand resellers will benefit from security company Fortinet's new deal with wide area data services (WDS) company Riverbed Technology, says ANZ country manager Charlie Cote, according to Reseller News.

"There is an opportunity for partners to take on a new vendor. This gives customers in the SME space even more options for WDS solutions and security. The new partnership allows cross-selling of both product lines," says Cote.

"Riverbed offers different services and together it's a win-win solution for us and partners. The partnership offers a complementary approach to addressing another key network requirement - acceleration of applications and data over the WAN."