A WINSFORD-BASED technology company is celebrating a landmark year after a service it launched a year ago saw more than £15million in sales go to businesses around the UK.

ASM Technologies, based in Winsford, launched The SME Access Service in October, 2013 as a direct response to new government guidelines to companies in the public sector.

Following a review of its procurement practices, government guidelines stipulate that public sector organisations must award a minimum of 25% of new business contracts in all services to SMEs by 2015, with IT companies closer to 50%.

The SME Access Service manages the procurement process on their behalf while passing their products to the large consultancies that routinely pitch for government business.

Iain Tomkinson, sales director at ASM Technologies, said: “2014 has been a tremendous year for the SME Access Service. We discovered last year that many resellers were finding it difficult to meet the government’s new requirements without seeing significant drops in their profitability.

“The sheer cost of on-boarding so many SMEs onto their supply chain just to remain compliant was proving too much to bear, so they were looking for a solution.

“By taking advantage of our existing supplier relationships and agile channel infrastructure, the SME Access Service has proven to be the solution the channel needs.

“With over 1,200 SMEs available through just one supplier relationship, many resellers have been able to continue to bid successfully for government contracts, and with over £15million of sales to SMEs, we have been able to help many innovative companies to grow during this time as well.”

Formara is one of the company’s that has benefitted from ASM’s SME Access Service.

The managed printing company was able to gain access to the NHS Shared Business Service, the largest provider of business support services to the NHS in England, by partnering with Steria, a multinational information technology services company for a major NHS cost cutting project.

Phil Wilce, managing director of Formara, said: ‘‘ASM’s ability to take our products to Steria through a simple, one route procurement process has brought real added-value to our business.

“A much easier channel sales route that has also improved our cash flow leveraging on the existing commercials ASM already had in place with Steria – something our business would have found more difficult to do without ASM.”