A FORMER chambers of commerce leader has helped launch a software start-up which promises to help the UK meet its targets for getting SMEs to crack vital export markets.

Edinburgh-based Morgan Goodwin has invested £1.5million in a Cloud-based business processing tool that it says will dramatically simplify the export challenge for SMEs who are yet to move beyond domestic markets.

Geoff Runcie, who formerly headed the chambers in both Glasgow and Aberdeen, said: "We are also interested in the 211,000 exporters across the UK, we believe we have a tool which will enable them to export more efficiently."

A Lloyds Bank UK-wide survey last month found almost three out of five firms turning over between £25m and £750m were not currently exporting, with only 7 per cent looking to start within the next five years. That followed a Scottish Chambers survey which found too few businesses expanding through international trade, but of those making the move, more than half had reported increased profits within 12 months.

Aberdeenshire-based Mr Runcie, has helped create Morgan Goodwin with Livingston-based Abdul Mann who runs successful IT outsourcing company Ambosco, and inventor Mark Sheahan, an Ambosco director.

He said: "This idea came out of the chambers of commerce movement, who have been looking over an extended period of time to try to ensure that Scottish SMEs had the best tools available to allow them to be as competitive in the UK as possible, and the whole area round export documentation has always been seen as a black art.

"We are appealing to companies which have a strong domestic presence who want to export but are concerned about the complexities."

The chambers have a licence from government to operate a national certificates of origin facility for SMEs.

Mr Runcie, whose background is in industry and who latterly has been a consultant and non-executive, added: "Scottish Enterprise and SDI have held a view for a long time that they are the only people who know how to do trade development and enterprise development and that is patently not true, the private sector knows how to do a lot of this stuff... it has a role to play in terms of product development and innovation."

He said the company's EDGE product, developed over three years, cut out the need for expert staff and consultants. "It is a Cloud-based software tool that doesn't require any IT investmenton the ground. You can run it from your phone, ipad or desktop, and it is extremely cost-effective, entry level cost is £20 a month less than a decent mobile phone contract."

The businessman said SMEs faced the twin challenges of finding overseas markets and then dealing with the business processes. The company was also working on a solution for the market identification issues.

Mr Runcie said: "There is a national government ambition to increase the number of exporters by 100,000 by 2020 and double the volume of exports. Those are easy words to say, but unless there is real innovation in terms of the support we can provide, it is only ever going to be a pipe-dream."