Technology today moves at light speed. With the onset of 3-D printing and holographic technology, tech companies are pushing the boundaries of innovation and imagination.

Yet local brands and businesses, under 25 employees or at 5million in revenue, are mired in 20th century tools, limiting their growth and competitiveness in a global market.

This begs the question: what keeps them from catching up with the current rate of growth in technology?

From Hardware to Software to Commerce – Challenges surmount

Local business owners lack both technology education and investment capital. As Patricia Lacey-Davis, President of GoLocal Tacoma, a nonprofit supporting Tacoma/Pierce County businesses states, “There are approximately 6,400 locally and independently owned businesses identified in Tacoma alone; more than 55% of these businesses don’t have websites. While most of the bigger businesses are already focusing on mobile-ready technology solutions, more than half of our local businesses haven’t even mastered the web yet.”

With over 530K business statewide identifying as small businesses, the issues emerge on multiple levels:

•       Technology Infrastructure and Business Productivity: Over 650k licenses of XP are still active in Washington. Local businesses find it difficult to adopt business tech solutions that allow them to access targeted markets and new customers.
•       eCommerce: In 2014 alone, holiday e-commerce sales topped 100 billion, yet local businesses are unable to take advantage of this trend. 65% have limited digital advertising/strategy or business analytics, some even lacking a way to accept payments online.
•       Digital Marketing and Advertising: By 2016, over 88% of local ads will be delivered via mobile; yet over 90% of local businesses are not ready for mobile marketing. In addition, most local businesses don’t have the marketing expertise or staff available that large corporations and retailers have to consistently create awareness and demand for their products and services.

All these issues have one thing in common: Readiness. Without an effective digital readiness initiative, businesses will not be able to adopt newer technologies and be ready to compete in the 21st century.

So how does this impact the tech community? And what can be done about it?

If these problems are not solved, it will result in:

•       Slower adoption of new technologies, creating less demand for products
•       Longer sales cycles to convince local businesses to purchase new technology solutions
•       Gap of modernizing from old to new tech infrastructure drives up the cost of implementation, affecting sales cycles

To shed light on these challenges faced by local businesses in a holistic way, Chaitra Vedullapalli and Shirley Eclipse embarked on a three-year initiative called Ignite Washington, providing city-by-city digital readiness through diagnostic and turnkey solutions to local brands and businesses – particularly small to mid-sized companies (<25 employees or 5M or less), which have traditionally been under-served by the tech community at large.

Vedullapalli, CMO of Meylah and a strategist with a track record of executing change initiatives, and Eclipse, director of client services at International Media Partners with a focus in digital marketing, realized that bridging the gap between local businesses and digital technologies would take both private and public partnerships at the city level.

“It will take all of us – local businesses, tech enterprises, media, government, and local citizens,” states Vedullapalli, “that’s why Ignite WA is a consortium of all of these groups to “ignite” Washington businesses in three readiness areas: tech infrastructure, e-commerce, and digital marketing.”

To date, Ignite Washington has garnered partnerships with companies and organizations such as Microsoft, iHeart Radio, KiroTV.com, SouthEast Effective Development (SEED), the Small Business Administration, GT Consult, Revel Creative Group, MNI, Wilson Public Services, and several others committed to empowering local businesses in the digital technology space.

3 cities piloting this initiative: Southeast Seattle, Tacoma/Pierce County, and Sammamish

The consortium is working towards making 100,000 statewide local businesses digitally ready, and creating solutions to infuse 100 Million dollars into the local economy, ultimately creating new jobs.

As Lacey-Davis of GoLocal Tacoma states, “local businesses are working harder and longer for a shrinking market share. The challenge is to get them away from the grindstone long enough to help them get updated. Many of them don’t even realize how far behind they are or what income streams they are missing out on. The Shop253 campaign is leading the charge to help Tacoma businesses get digital and mobile-ready.”

In Seattle, Lance Matteson, executive director at SouthEast Effective Development (SEED), is championing Shop206. “The beauty of this initiative,” he says, “ is it can be customized and personalized at a city level, giving local businesses and leaders the confidence and trust to take a leap into the 21st century. SEED is excited to launch Shop206 to support digital readiness for local businesses in Seattle.  We see this as a powerful economic development tool, which we’re eager to pilot initially in the exceptionally diverse and jobs-hungry SE Seattle community.”

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As WTIA members, you have the power to make a difference for this community. Please download the executive summary of this initiative and reach out to Chaitra Vedullapalli at chai@meylah.com to become part of the consortium.

About the Author: Ignite Washington  is led by a consortium among local businesses, enterprises, media, government and local citizens to empower local brands and businesses to thrive in today’s digital economy with the goal of creating new jobs and infusing 100M money into our local economy.