ADAPT - Adoption of Digital Automated Payment Technology

该计划的随机对照试验(RCT)旨在测试一家世界级金融科技公司的“最佳实践访问”是否比只收到“数码指南”形式的最佳实践信息更能有效地鼓励中小企业采用数码支付技术，并将重点放在鼓励采用数字和自动支付技术上，这些技术已被证明可通过提高中小企业的支付实践效率来提高生产力。这些数码支付技术可以包括：数码银行；电子采购订单系统；电子发票；电子支付和信用卡支付系统。为了测试“最佳实践访问”是否比最佳实践指南更有效地鼓励中小企业采用这些技术，来自柴郡的200家以前从未使用过数字支付技术的中小企业将被招募参加试验。100人将被随机挑选参加巴克莱全球技术园区的“最佳实践访问”，该园区位于柴郡的克努茨福德。另有100人将被随机挑选，以获得与巴克莱银行联合开发的数字支付技术最佳实践指南。RCT由柴郡东区议会领导，与巴克莱银行和独立评估合作伙伴SQW密切合作。利用较大公司的专门知识与当地中小企业交流数字技术最佳做法知识的概念，通过由柴郡东区议会在商业基础方案第一轮下提出的概念验证进行了测试。在许多方面，柴郡东部是测试这种方法的理想地点。行政区的成功经济表现在很大程度上要归功于几家规模非常大、GVA产量很高的企业的存在。然而，这些较大企业的GVA贡献掩盖了一个事实，即我们99.97%的企业是中小型企业，生产率表现要低得多。如果成功，这种方法可以扩大到英国其他地区，作为私营部门和其他地方当局/LEP之间的合作伙伴关系。试验结果将在最后报告中公布，并将在国家和地方一级传播。这将意味着其他银行可以从试验中吸取教训，考虑如何也能与小企业客户群接触，提供解决方案，以鼓励采用数字支付技术。

This Randomised Control Trial (RCT) of the ADAPT project is designed to test whether a 'Best Practice Visit' to a world class financial technology company is more effective at encouraging SMEs to adopt digital payment technologies than if they just received best practice information in the form of a 'digital guide'.It will focus on encouraging the adoption of digital and automated payment technologies, which are proven to boost SME productivity by improving the efficiency of their payment practices. These digital payment technologies can include: digital banking; e-purchase order systems; e-invoicing; e-payments and card payment systems.To test whether 'best practice visits' are more effective than a best practice guide, at encouraging SME adoption of these technologies, 200 SMEs from Cheshire, who have not used digital payment technologies before, will be recruited to participate in the Trial. 100 will be selected at random to attend a 'Best Practice Visit' to the Barclays Global Technology Campus, based at Knutsford, Cheshire. A further 100 will be randomly selected to receive a digital payment technology best practice 'guide' developed in conjunction with Barclays Bank.The RCT is being led by Cheshire East Council, working closely with Barclays Bank and an independent evaluation partner, SQW. The concept of harnessing the expertise of larger corporates to exchange best practice knowledge of digital technology with local SMEs was tested through a Proof of Concept, delivered by Cheshire East Council, under Round 1 of the Business Basics Programme. In many ways, Cheshire East is the ideal location to test this approach. The successful economic performance of the Borough is due, in large part, to the presence of several very large, high GVA producing businesses. The GVA contribution of these larger businesses however masks the fact that 99.97% of our businesses are small to medium sized enterprises, with a much lower productivity performance.If successful, this approach could be scaled up to be delivered in other regions of the UK, as a partnership between the private sector and other local authorities/ LEPs. The results from the Trial will be published in a final report and will be disseminated at a national and local level. This will mean that other banks could learn from the Trial to consider how they could also engage with their small business client base to offer solutions to encourage the take up of digital payment technology.