A NEW social enterprise is helping local small businesses and charities to cut their running costs.

The ITU Trust has been set up by Alex Mordey of Bingley-based IT consultancy Advancery, and Jen Miles, a business consultant working in the charity sector.

It provides IT and change management advice to help organisations through a range of services tailored to their needs and budget.

Services include IT consultancy and support, HR guidance, administration systems and organisational support.

The Trust’s early success includes helping Bradford Environmental Action Trust make significant financial savings.

Alex Mordey said: “Our aim is chiefly to save small businesses and charities money on their operational costs. Many don’t know about discounted IT software for the voluntary sector or about how to apply for grants on office rates, for example.

“This is our way of helping them make the most efficient use of their time and money, by providing practical impartial advice at a price they can afford that will make a real difference to their running costs.”

Bradford Environmental Action Trust has made big savings on its IT software thanks to the ITUTrust. Alex and his team helped the charity migrate to Not For Profit Office 365, which is available to qualifying non-profit organisations for free or at a significant discount.

Alex added: “We offered free impartial advice on what BEAT should do, provided free on-going telephone support using the Advancery team and then installed the solution at a discounted consultancy rate via ITUTrust. They simply didn’t know the other version existed.”

Charity BEAT works with individuals, schools, businesses and other organisations, on innovative and practical environmental projects such as a food waste collection scheme for composting, a business waste exchange website and various energy projects.

Rosie McTiernan, BEATmanager, said: “As a small charity, our limited funding is prioritised for community projects leaving very little in the budget for operational expenses.

“Working with the ITUTrust has taken a huge weight off my shoulders and they have been a massive help making it easier for all our team to work remotely as well as providing much-needed support when setting up IT systems for new starters.

“None of us are IT experts, so having access to free IT support has been a real help and they’ve saved us money on software licences and equipment costs too.”