Ref. 29395-43IT and business. Everyone assumes the two go together like ham and eggs. But for many companies, the use of information technology, even today, is often hard to stomach. Why? The simple truth is many businesspeople don't understand how vital IT will become to industry in the very near future. And that is just what a seminar is set to say in Swindon on Thursday. JEREMY SMITH reports.

A group of international heavyweights from the IT industry Microsoft, Hewlett Packard and Intel, supported by BT and UK Online for Business are bringing their clout to Swindon to brief Wiltshire business on radical developments in IT.

The changes, based on the combinations of broadband connection, wireless communications and XML-enabled automated systems, are rated to cause as dynamic an impact as e-mail and the internet has already done recently.

And the impact is set to hit over the next two years.

The briefing will take place at an all-day seminar, Technology Means Business, at the De Vere Hotel, Shaw Ridge on Thursday and has been arranged by Swindon Chamber of Commerce in association with the Swindon IT training provider Best LearningZone.

Those attending will be shown how these latest technologies can be integrated with current IT systems to accelerate the effectiveness of existing investments and to maximise the returns for organisations of all scales, from the small one-person retail business upwards.

According to Best LearningZone's Robert Crowther, who has organised the seminar: "So much of present attitudes to IT are universally based on backwards perspectives in fact, most of today's IT training courses cover functions and programs that were first written 10 or 15 years ago, promoting the familiar mind-set that it's only necessary to get by.

"This seminar presents an opportunity and a challenge to look forward to IT developments that will be as necessary just to stay in business, as the introduction of email and the internet have already proved."

Along with revealing the latest technologies, the seminar claims to show how the effectiveness of IT investment can be multiplied by integrating separate applications (like website and accounting systems) and will present case studies of successful approaches adopted by typical small businesses with the appropriate relevant techniques these companies applied.

Mr Crowther said: "The outcome is intended to help visitors evolve an effective action plan and list of contacts and resources to help implement new ideas about their IT systems into their businesses."

Among the speakers will be Mick Heduan from Hewlett Packard who will present the first session to start the seminar, Integrated Business in the Wireless Age.

This will include demonstrations of the latest mobile and wireless technologies and show how these can be exploited with both public and private access points to deliver 'always on' business communications.

The audience will also hear from Sally Finlayson of Microsoft about how the evolution of XML is leading to the integration of all business processes, developing electronic links with customers and supply chain partners.

Her presentation will include live demonstrations of collaborative working, including remote access and mobile devices, using Microsoft's new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.

However, if proof were ever needed that British business is fooling itself into believing that email alone will secure its commercial ranking in the 21st century, the iSociety's (formerly the Industrial Society) exhaustive analysis, Technology in UK Workplaces, which examined the application of IT in British industry and management attitudes towards its implementation made the following conclusion: "Three quarters of British workers now use a PC or other ICT at work.

"Over the past decade, new technology has swept across Britain's workplaces. But workplaces across the UK are suffering from low-tech equilibrium.

"They are getting by, not getting on."

Many of the issues covered in the report will be explored in depth during the seminar, the first of its kind in Swindon.

Registrations are still available through Swindon Chamber of Commerce (01793 642225) and tickets are priced at £15 a head for members or £30 a head for non-members. The seminar opens at 8am on March 11, starting with a buffet breakfast. Buffet lunch and all refreshments are also included within the ticket