BUSINESSES in Halesowen and Sandwell are being urged to tap into a £500,000 programme to maximise their use of IT and superfast broadband.

There is no charge to eligible businesses and it aims to link up with more than 1,000 firms through a mix of interactive seminars, best practice sharing workshops and one-to-one diagnostics and support.

The Optimising Business Technology programme has been designed to educate companies to the advantages of adopting IT systems that are suited to their business, as well as identifying the huge operational benefits of switching to superfast broadband.

It is anticipated that the resulting change in working practices will create up to 100 jobs and increase productivity by £3 million.

The programme - delivered by Winning Moves and the National Business to Business Centre as part of the Black Country Growth Hub offer - will officially launch on November 10.

It is funded by the European Regional Development Fund and the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership’s Growing Places fund.

To register or find out more on the programme, visit www.bcgrowthhub.com/support/obt or follow @obtblackcountry on Twitter.