Merseyside ICT - latestnews

Become a careers mentor on the Outlook Programme

At the heart of Outlook is the chance for you to become a mentor to a student. Being a mentor on Outlook can help you:

Develop your own personal and mentoring skills
Target talented students for future recruitment
Raise your organisations profile
Develop closer links with the Merseyside Universities.

As a mentor you can help a student in a number of ways such as giving them advice on CVs and interviews, helping them to develop their skills, offering insights into your organisation and industry, and providing networking opportunities.

Time commitment is limited and involves an Induction Session in October 2008 and 3- 4 meetings with the student over a 5- month period.

For further information and to register visit our web-site www.mdm-outlook.org.uk or please contact:

Monira Ahmed, Outlook Programme Officer
E: Monira.Ahmed@liverpool.ac.uk
T: 0151 794 4620

Capital of Culture welcomes European conference

Following the successful event at Daresbury Science & Innovation Campus, Northwest businesses, along with their European counterparts, will again be pitching their technology in the hope of finding partners and investors to grow their fledgling businesses.

This fast paced day and a half conference will host over 60 presentations from eServices businesses (predominantly web based technologies and services) and is part of a pan-European series of events of which the Northwest is the only UK region represented.

Kevin Engel, technology partner from headline sponsor Grant Thornton, said: “Getting in front of the right people can be one of the most significant barriers for a technology business seeking investment. We fully support this event as it will put companies directly in touch with the organisations crucial to assisting their growth, avoiding what can often be a long and drawn out search for a relevant audience.”

This sentiment is backed up by Professor Dennis Kehoe of AIMES, who are leading the project in the Northwest, “What really counts in commercial success is what and who you know. This event will help small companies to source technology to take their business forward, enable entrepreneurs to find their next business opportunity and research leaders their collaborative partner. It fills the gap”

The presentations will benefit from expert panel feedback from fund managers, business support agencies and leading IT businesses (including Sun Microsystems). One to one meetings will be run concurrently to maximise the time at the conference for all. Networking is really the key to success for those involved and plenty of time has been allowed for this including an informal dinner in the evening at an adjacent venue in the Albert Dock.

The future looks bright for New Mind

The company’s growth strategy is in full swing and the future looks full of potential - particularly for its tourism solutions. Turnover for the first quarter of this financial year was in excess of £1M and based on this performance, turnover for this financial year is predicted to be over £4M.

Leading the way in cutting edge tourism technology, New Mind has recruited five new members of staff to handle its robust order book. The five new posts are within the company’s Support and Finance departments, at its offices in the Queens Dock Business Centre.

Whilst overseas, New Mind’s office in Romania is in the process of moving to larger premises and plans to double its eight-strong team over the next 12 months. Staff in the Romanian office have been busy working with the UK team on the next generation of the market-leading tourism solution.

New Mind’s acclaimed Destination Management System has now established a major share of the UK tourism market, with installations in Merseyside, Cheshire, Lancashire, Manchester, the North East and most of the South East and South West regions. All of New Mind’s UK tourism customers have renewed their contracts for the following year, with some committing to upgrades for more sophisticated functions.

The New Media company has also been busy exploring opportunities for its tourism software in overseas markets. Discussions are currently taking place with a number of exciting prospects in Europe, Latin America and the Far East.

New Mind has already attended two major tourism exhibitions in Berlin and Milan this year, as well as playing an active role at tourism technology conferences in Innsbruck and Athens.

Managing Director of New Mind, Richard Veal, comments “We are feeling really positive about the future of our tourism solutions. Our international marketing strategy is already generating widespread interest and we now have the infrastructure in place to fulfill our global potential.”

www.newmind.co.uk

Catalyst Awards - Community awards for social technology

You can enter yourself or nominate someone you know, either as individuals or as part of a business, charity or community group. We’re looking for examples of people creating new social technologies as well as using existing channels in a different way.

There are nine Catalyst awards - Community Awards for Social Technology - up for grabs. People can enter or be nominated for something they have done individually or as part of their work for a business, charity, community group or other organisation. The entrants could have created their own social technology or used existing channels innovatively.

• The Shock for Good Award: for something that shocked people into doing something good
• The Revolutionary Award: for something that makes people in power more aware of the need for change
• The Self-Help Award: For something that helps the creator to help themselves
• The Chalk & Cheese Award: for something that brings two different groups of people together
• The David and Goliath Award: for something little that made a difference to a something big and powerful
• The Young Achiever Award: for someone under 25
• The Individual Hero Award: for an individual
• The Community Award: for a community association or group
• The Enterprise Award: for an innovative new technology solution developed by a business

There will also be a public vote online to decide the People’s Choice Award.

For more information please visit www.ukcatalystawards.com or www.makeyourmark.org.uk

Optimistic growth predicted by software and IT services sector, despite credit crunch

SMEs in the software and IT services sector are challenging gloomy economic projections according to a survey from Intellect, the UK technology trade body. With 53% of respondents forecasting double-digit growth for 2008 compared to 49% that predicted double-digit growth last year, the mood amongst SMEs remains bullish, despite the global financial squeeze.

The Intellect survey, now in its second year asks software and IT services companies operating in the UK about their current and future performance. The SME software sector, in particular is an important contributor to the UK economy, and the survey aims to understand better the key challenges and opportunities of companies developing and selling software in the UK.

The overwhelming majority of respondents (83%) were SMEs and it was these who were most bullish about the year ahead. Businesses expecting 15% or greater organic growth were largely in the smaller end of a £0-£20m turnover range, and there were no companies larger than this expecting such high growth rates. Some of the sectors most likely to generate this growth, according to the respondents are Services, Telecoms, Public Sector and Banking.

These predictions are, however, tempered by the amount of activity companies are reporting in the Public Sector and the Financial Services sector. Growth estimations have not matched up with the reality of market activity. From 2006-2007 the percentage of respondents servicing the two sectors dropped from 28% to 27%, and 35% to 27% respectively.

It is possible that SME software companies are adding value through becoming more specialised in certain sectors, or that their size enables them to be more agile in operations, providing quality of service and flexibility that larger companies may have trouble matching.

Commenting, Nigel Hartnell, Chairman of Intellect’s Software Group and Executive Director of software as a service company FFastFill Plc said:

“The results from this survey show that in today’s current economic climate, some SME software companies are finding their size an advantage, not a hindrance. Agile SMEs have the ability to respond to market changes and customer needs more quickly than large companies. Through innovation and intensive customer focus, many respondents believe they will generate impressive levels of organic growth.”

The survey, which contains case studies, as well as a variety of questions on performance, activity, pricing and development strategies, also shows that SMEs are embracing globalisation. In last year’s survey, 59% of respondents identified globalisation as having a neutral or negative impact on their business. In 2007 respondents showed a marked turnaround in attitude, with 57% of respondents seeing globalisation as having a positive or very positive impact on their business. SMEs are today working on a global stage, identifying opportunities in the global market rather than focusing on home markets.

Outsourcing and offshoring is also on the rise, but it appears that Asia is becoming less popular as a destination. The percentage of respondents outsourcing to Asia dropped to 44% from 55% in 2007. In contrast, both Western and Eastern Europe have seen an increase in R&D outsourcing. As Chris Barling, Chief Executive Officer of Actinic, a company profiled in the report said, “We are currently saving about 40% in costs by developing overseas – mostly in Eastern Europe. We decided on Hungary because of the cost and quality benefit.”

The Intellect Software and Services survey will be conducted annually to establish whether these findings are trends or blips, helping establish the most comprehensive overview of the SME software sector currently available.

Full survey results are published today along with the report. Click here to download the report.
For further information contact:

Intellect Press Office
T 020 7331 2035
E press.office@intellectuk.org