AN IT expert helping North-East businesses has gained a qualification for a major Government-backed programme.

Maureen Storey, who helps to run Durham office services and IT consultancy, Virtuoso, is now an accredited advisor for the Technology Means Business (TMB) scheme aimed at small and medium-sized (SME) business.

She is already director of the Solve-IT programme, run by Durham University Business School's Foundation for SME Development under the Biz-Kit project.

"Becoming a TMB advisor is a rigorous process and means that SMEs needing help with introducing or using new technology can be confident of receiving high quality and unbiased advice," said Durham University Business School's Dean Maragh.