Minister for Trade Comes to Midlands to Mark First Ever National Consulting Award to a Public Sector Organisation

Minister of Trade Ian Pearson has announced he is to make a special visit to the International Manufacturing Centre at the University of Warwick to personally present the first ever National Consulting Award to a public sector business advisory service.

The National Business to Business Centre (B2B), based in the University of Warwick's Warwick Manufacturing Group, is the first ever public sector body to be awarded the accolade of 'Premier Practice' by the Institute of Management Consultancy (IMC).

The Centre provides a free consultancy service covering a range of e-business topics and they have worked with over 2000 companies over the last 5 years.

In recognition of their achievement Ian Pearson, Minister for Trade, Investment and Foreign Affairs, will attend an award ceremony at 7pm Thursday 20th April at the International Manufacturing Centre on the University of Warwick's main campus, where the NB2BC is located.

Warwick Manufacturing Group Director, Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya, said: " I am delighted that this talented team are to be honoured in this way - however I am even more pleased that the B2B centre has been able to give crucial e-business guidance to so many small and medium sized businesses"

Denis Pelych, Centre Director comments "Access to quality consultancy support is critical to the survival and growth for many small and medium sized businesses. The endorsement of such a high profile minister highlights the B2B Centre's achievement. In such an unregulated and competitive industry this award is an important step towards professionalising management consultancy and we would like to see many more public and private sector organisations achieve this high standard."

Notes for Editors: The National Business to Business Centre has been established to help small and medium sized businesses across the West Midlands adopt e-business technology and practice. The Centre is a partnership between industry, the DTI and the University of Warwick (Warwick Manufacturing Group). Such partnerships have been the foundation of WMG's substantial achievements for the past twenty years

The Centre's web site can be found at: http://www.nb2bc.co.uk/

For further information please contact:

Nick Matthews, Warwick Manufacturing Group
Tel: 024 76572506

Peter Dunn, Press and Media Relations Manager
University of Warwick 07767 655860
02476 523708 p.j.dunn@warwick.ac.uk

PR23 PJD 27th March 2006