In the summer of 2005 Commendium won the contract from the NWDA to formulate, develop and deliver the marketing strategy for Project ACCESS. This project was designed to provide affordable broadband coverage to 95% of Cumbria. Our role was to inform companies in Cumbria of the benefits of broadband and persuade them to adopt the relevant technologies.

The approach we took was to visit companies large and small to evaluate and understand their needs and explain the benefits of broadband in terms which were relevant to their respective businesses. As of the end of August 2008 over 2500 businesses were directly assisted in this way. Furthermore many businesses have been influenced as a result of our county wide events and presentations on such subjects as e-commerce, e-procurement and VoIP.

Business broadband adoption in Cumbria is now at over 75% which is 12% higher than the national average. This difference is down to the tenacious and high quality marketing campaign which Commendium provided. The statistics below also demonstrate the quality and expertise that Commendium delivered:

Increased business adoption of broadband in Cumbria from 27% to over 75%, 12% higher than the UK average.

Ensured that more than 99.5% of Cumbrians can now get a broadband connection, only 77 businesses in the whole of Cumbria are unable to get broadband.

Contacted over 23,800 out of the 26,000 estimated businesses in Cumbria

Visited over 4,000 businesses within Cumbria.

Directly assisted over 2,500 business in getting a broadband connection.

Assisted many more businesses by hosting events and presentations on subjects such as e-procurement, e-commerce and VoIP.