Committee will help firms gain that competitive edge THE new Telematics Committee will become an advisory body for local businesses and therefore help East Lancashire gain a competitive edge, said its chairman. Tony Raynor, of Abbey Telecom. "What do we mean by 'telematics'?" he added. "It's a term that covers telephones and computers in any shape or form... To some it might mean the Internet, to others it could be computer telephony integration or video conferencing... "We go boasting all over the country that we have fantastic motorway links, amongst other things, but the reality is we live in a valley accessed by A-roads, without the best of rail networks, and with no airport down the road. "However, what we do have is quite a strong base of teleworkers - people who have maybe changed the quality of their lives by moving out of big city working and are using the latest telematics to enable them to do it. "Using telematics does make us as equally accessible as the centre of London or middle of Manchester. If you're getting there by video conferencing, for example, it doesn't matter where people are located. "Another issue is that East Lancashire has some major players in telematics - Internexus has just signed a deal with Tandy, for example - yet they had no local unitary body to voice their opinions before the formation of this committee. Now, if we want to do any lobbying, if there are any adjustments to be made to the way the Government looks at things, the Telematics Committee can link in with the Chamber. "At our first meeting we discussed the issue of training and one member who uses telematics extensively in his business - Jeremy Stirrup, a partner of Porter Matthews & Marsden - said he had had to go to the University of Central Lancashire to leam how to use the new technologies. However, now that we have representatives from both Blackburn and Burnley Colleges on our committee we're hoping the colleges will be able to put together relevant training packages. "The committee will also be able to link the industry to the RISI committee - the Regional Information Society Initiative, which is the way the European government will be channelling spending on telematics projects - and perhaps as a result East Lancashire will benefit from RISI investments. At the moment in the UK there are only two RISI regions - it's a pilot scheme - and the North West is one of them."

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