Facilitating Small-Business Outsourcing ln the Western Cape A case study on the Business Opportunity Network (Bon)

Abstract

Small enterprises (SMME) have become central to South Africa's efforts to create jobs, alleviate poverty and develop the economy. SMMEs, however, face a wide range of problems, with "market access" one of the key bottlenecks. This centres (i.a.) around the ease of access to outsourcing markets of larger corporations and public-sector procurement opportunities. To address some of these specific challenges in the Western Cape, the Business Opportunity Network (Bon) was established in 1995 as an NOO. It was at that stage a path-breaking institution in the Western Cape, paralleled by only a few in the rest of the country. It is the purpose of this minithesis to assess the role, operation and evolution of the Bon. This study examines the background and particular factors that lead to the establishment of the Bon as a business-linkage organisation. Then critically assess the actual process of how the Bon attempted to facilitate SMME access to corporate and public-sector procurement in the Western Cape's metropolitan and platteland areas from 1994 to 2004. Thereafter moving toward the evaluation of the process, an assessment of the effectiveness of Bon's business-linkage efforts in the light of a continuously changing and evolving procurement environment. It is also the intention to reveal and assess how Bon's procurement support relates to BEE efforts unfolding in the Western Cape