A vast range of work will been needed for the Olympics

An online contracts service from the West Midlands Collaborative Commerce Marketplace (WMCCM) will give advance warning of tenders for Olympic work.

It will allow companies in the region to prepare better bids for work, its organisers claim.

A total of 350 companies in Birmingham, Coventry and the Black Country have signed up for the service.

Organisers claim it is the first such service to be provided anywhere in the UK.

E-mail alerts

Under the alert system Olympic tenders are e-mailed directly to small businesses signed up for the service.

Firms receive daily tender news from sources like the Olympic Delivery Authority and the Official Journal of the European Union, where work is advertised.

The WMCCM, a business networking website, matches up potential work with the specific expertise of businesses.

The service comes after it was announced last week that the US track and field team would be based in Birmingham to train during the run up to the London Olympics.

It is estimated that �25bn of work will be generated by the Games.

'Compelling bids'

"This will give firms a long range view of tenders coming up for the Olympics, rather than having 2-3 weeks to respond and they can team up with other businesses to submit more compelling bids," said project manager Grant Melrose.

"By coming together, firms will have a far better chance of getting some work whereas they would have almost certainly missed out by bidding on their own."

He said West Midlands firms were most likely to gain contracts for heavy and light engineering work but contracts could involved anything from finishing buildings to artwork.

"We don't know how much work will come to companies in the West Midlands but to get 1% of �25bn would be great, to get 10% would be fantastic," he said.