Regional Innovation Awareness Programme

Most companies and organisations do not have a procedural approach to innovation.   They consider innovation to be 'invention'.  The Innovation and Technology Management department within Enterprise plc believe that invention will play only a small part, and that six key topics must be addressed if a company is to innovate successfully.

The Regional Innovation Awareness Programme, through a series of three seminars, provides theoretical and practical assistance to companies engaged in the innovation process.  It addresses six main topics:  Business Planning, Marketing, Licensing and Technology Transfer, Change Management, Product Development and Innovation Auditing.   Two topics are covered in each seminar in which an acknowledged expert discusses best practice followed by two or three short presentations from organisations in the region who can provide practical assistance.

12 seminar series have been successfully completed since 1994 and more than 200 North West companies have been assisted as a direct result of the programme. More recently,   specialist workshops have been delivered at key technology Management centres helping companies with some of the more complicated innovation activities such as Technology Transfer and Product Planning and Development.

Competitiveness Through Telematics in Lancashire

The factor that will influence the development of a sub-regional economy most significantly over the next decade, will be its ability to exploit the opportunity of the emergence throughout the world of a knowledge-based economy and society in which information and communication will be the new currencies.  The integration of new technologies into small and medium sized companies (SMEs) is essential for growth. Many SMEs will benefit from the small scale application of existing information or telematics technologies to operational problem areas within their businesses.

This complementary programme is designed to promote the scope and opportunity for the deployment of telematics in industry. It gives SMEs access to a wide range of technical information sources through a wide range of Telematics systems such as on-line databases, e-mail, hypertext (e.g. Internet WWW) and video conferencing.

An overriding objective is the raising of awareness and the levels of use of existing telematics, information and communications systems for business advantage. It is funded from client contributions, the European Union ERDF programme and Lancashire County Counsel.

The development of the Information Society poses questions for regions regarding the opportunities it offers as well as the risks it implies, especially in terms of labour and employment. What will be the consequences triggered off by the Information Society on the economic and social development of the regions and on regional cohesion? What is the impact of Information and Communications Technologies on work organisation, on flexible time management, in terms of creation or destruction of jobs, on the emergence of new know-how and new skills?

For Lancashire to benefit from the new Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) it should develop new skills, a better educated workforce, the potential to develop new products and services, the facilitation of increased export earnings potential and access to new markets and increased business efficiency. With these, new jobs will be created and wealth creation will, in turn, foster further economic prosperity.

In recognising this, the Lancashire Telematics Application Programme has, for the last two years, been actively encouraging the development of the Information Society across all sectors. It has worked closely with other regional players and is supported by the European Union. An Information Society network has therefore developed during this time and plays its role in the developments of Lancashire sub-regional activities.  It also manages the Lancashire Server, a community World Wide Web Server pilot project supplying information about Lancashire to Lancashire people and the rest of the world.

The Blackburn Multi Media Unit

For a company to innovate successfully, it must develop skills in a range of different specialisms.  Such specialisms can be complicated and dynamic (ie. information can change rapidly posing threats as well as opportunities). The Multimedia Unit is part of the North West Regional Technology Management Web Programme which aims to provide a range of Innovation and Technology Management services to SMEs delivered via a number (currently six) Technology Management Centers (TMCs) spread throughout the North West of England.

Each technology Management Center has a specialism provided as part of the programme. The East Lancashire (TMC) in Accrington has a Multimedia specialism and its activities concentrate on the development of a range of Innovation & Technology CD ROM products and the development of an Innovation Center of Excellence World Wide Web site for SMEs.

The Unit is sited at Blackburn College who are partners in the project along with Enterprise plc and IBM.

AGORA

The AGORA Business Service has been developed within the framework of a contract between a Consortium of 35 partners situated in all member states of the European Union, and the Directorate General XIII of the Commission of the European Communities (Telecommunications, Information Market and Exploitation of Research - Telematics Applications Programme).

The objective of the contract is to set up a service that will support economic regional development by offering teleservices to small enterprises. This service, based on the Internet, gives access to selected data, training facilities, as well as to experts, and fosters international partnerships. It has progressively become self-supporting. 25 European regions and approximately 250 user sites ("One-Stop-Shops") are involved.  In Lancashire the project is delivered via three Business Telematics Centers in Preston, Accrington and Skelmersdale.