The Budget has demonstrated that the Chancellor has had little scope for giving incentives for business growth.  The extension of the Enterprise Investment Scheme and the doubling of Entrepreneurs Relief to £10 million will certainly help boost entrepreneurship in the UK.  However, even though a 200 per cent rise in SME R&D Tax Credit has been announced, there was no mention of how small businesses’ corporation tax rate of 21 per cent would be affected.

So once again private enterprises are left to take their destiny into their own hands rather than relying on any incentives from the government. To me, it's all the more important that businesses look again at their IT assets and determine ways of optimising their performance to meet business goals and reduce operational costs. Despite two years or more of downturn, there is still considerable scope for UK organisations to automate many of their business or administrative processes and free staff time for major tasks, supporting customers and wider business development.