techmesh blog

IT & Telecoms EXPO 2011 finally hits the region

2011-10-14T03:02:00.000-07:00

After months of talking, planning and tweeting, the region's biggest technology exhibition, EXPO 2011 finally arrived.

With over 450 visitors the day was a great success and we are delighted! Despite Leeds being gridlocked at the start of the day which delayed some seminar attendees, we managed to pull it back. All our guest speakers did a sterling job and their contribution to the day made it extra special. The Yorkshire Post's Greg Wright paid us a visit in the afternoon and was very impressed with the exhibition and what techmesh is doing for the region and for the sector. Particularly with the Chamber. Greg joined us for the techpanel and listened in on the debate over IT talent. Read his article in the Yorkshire Post today, click here.

The Interactive Zone was amazing and the Seminar Room looked very smart indeed. Thanks to all our exhibitors, our SME Surgery and techmesh helpers. Thanks to JNM, Alphasound and the Royal Armouries staff for all their help.

On to 2012 and bigger and better things for techmesh, keep you all posted!

Marian and Helen

BT's Alan Ward seminar in high demand

2011-09-30T02:41:00.000-07:00

The Head of the Corporate ICT Research Practice in Innovate & Design for BT, Alan Ward's seminar is nearly a sell out with only 10 places remaining. His presentation on SMART Communities looks at the deluge of data we receive every day and how technology is contributing to finding actionable information quickly and effectively.

All 6 seminars are proving popular with businesses from all sectors keen to find out more about emerging technologies and working smarter. Microsoft's James Akrigg's seminar is already sold out. The Head of Technology for Partners will highlight The Future of Productivity. A look at how we can be more effective and productive through our use of technology. Included is the chance to see the very latest in technology advances from Microsoft and how this can help us today.

Further details of Alan and James' seminars can be found on the EXPO 2011 seminar page . For exhibition entry, seminar and techpanel all visitors must be registered through http://techmeshexpo2011.eventbrite.com/.

A one off opportunity to hear industry leaders talk about key issues and the future of business. Don't be left behind!

Techmesh moves to the Chamber

2011-09-28T02:45:00.000-07:00

Techmesh is now part of Leeds, York & North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce.

Techmesh was originally set up and launched by Connect Yorkshire in 2010, deriving from Yorkshire Forward's initiative to set up an IT & Telecoms B2B member network for the Yorkshire and Humber region.

Helen and Marian moved in to the Chamber offices earlier this month and are settling in nicely, although like any new home, boxes are still un-packed!

We will keep you all posted on new developments over the coming months. In the meantime, see you all at EXPO 2011.

Find us at our new address: White Rose House, 28a York Place, Leeds, LS1 2EZ Tel: 0113 220 6375

techmesh and Brand Yorkshire

2011-09-15T05:54:00.000-07:00

Find us on page 89 in September's edition of Brand Yorkshire!

For this year's EXPO we have taken 11 pages of this business publication as an Event Guide as well as additional information about techmesh. We are delighted with how it looks and the 10,000 readership the magazine attracts.

In circulation until December, this edition guarantees to show case EXPO 2011 to a much bigger business audience. Included in the techmesh feature is the exhibitor list, floor plan, seminar & techpanel programme, interactive zone, sponsor profiles and much more.

Grab a copy, pass it round and let us know what you think!

techmesh helps growing technology businesses

2011-09-15T05:15:00.001-07:00

A big thank you to Huthwaite International's Ian Newall for last night's 'Growing Your Technology Business - Winning Profitable Business'.

The introduction to Huthwaite's successful SPIN Selling was just a flavour of what to expect from the experts in sales training.

The workshop, 14th September at Pontefract Racecourse, was attended by techmesh members and associates as well as some new comers to techmesh - we hope you enjoyed it!

EXPO 2011 is the next one, 13th October - the biggie! Followed by 'Green IT - the impact in business', 17th November. Details to follow.

Industry experts to speak at EXPO 2011

2011-09-13T01:54:00.000-07:00

A great line up for this year's IT & Telecoms exhibition. Starting with David Parkin, Editor and founder of the business news website TheBusinessDesk.com. David will not only open EXPO 2011 but will facilitate the seminar programme and the tech panel in the afternoon.

Seminar programme includes:

Ajaz Ahmed - Founder of Freeserve, once the UK's largest internet service provider
'Are we getting left behind' - The internet and technology is getting bigger and changing direction at an alarming rate but is Britain getting left behind, what can we do to get a seat at the top table?

James Akrigg - Head of Technology for Partners at Microsoft
'The Future of Productivity' - We each face in our day-to-day lives the need to be more productive in what we do. As an IT Professional this is how we can better deliver IT services to business and how we can become more effective in our use of technology to become more productive. See the very latest in technology advances from Microsoft and how this can help you today.

Andy Peterson - Head of Marketing, Product and Propositions, KC Business
'Next Generation Broadband - A Different Perspective' - On July 22nd 2011 KC (part of the KCom group) announced it's plans to roll out access to "Next Generation" fibre broadband services to 15,000 homes and businesses in East Yorkshire. Find out how a 107 year old company is tackling some 21st century challenges to make this happen.

Stuart Barker - Director at Agenci Ltd
'Cloud Control & Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)' - Stuart will be discussing the challenge that faces both providers and consumers of cloud computing services and some simple measures businesses can take to protect themselves and their customers. Along with what is PCI DSS and how this is applicable to business.

Alan Ward - Head of the Corporate ICT Research Practice in BT Innovate and Design
'SMART Communities' - We all face a continual deluge of data. Read a newspaper for a week and you will have absorbed roughly the equivalent of a lifetime of facts for your typical counterpart in the Middle Ages. How is technology contributing to that data tsunami? How can that same technology help us to see the wood for the trees and find actionable information quickly and effectively?

Bryan Kinsella - Board Level Chief Information Officer/Non Executive Director
'Driving a pragmatic IS/IT Strategy whilst the plates are spinning' - Following a failed attempt to deploy a global ERP solution, how a major servces company tackled the challenge of implementing and managing the IS/IT for competative advantage.

tech panel

Join James, Stuart, Bryan, Andy and Alan in afternoon for the EXPO 2011 tech panel. Our guest speakers will be joined by Andrew Choi, Executive Director at Mid Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce and Industry Ltd and Allan Pettman - UK Managing Director, Global Knowledge.

A live debate chaired by David Parkin, an opportunity to quiz industry experts and debate the issues that matter to you.

Visit our website for further details of our guest speakers as well as programme timings for the day http://techmesh.org/expo-2011/seminarprogramme2011/

Register today at http://techmeshexpo2011.eventbrite.com/

SME Surgery at EXPO 2011

2011-09-09T02:29:00.000-07:00

SME's from the region are invited to join our team of professionals during the lunch time session at this year's IT & Telecoms exhibition, 13th October at the Royal Armouries.

From 12:00 to 13:00 SME's will be able to talk to our experts on IT & Telecoms, professional services and business development. In a one to one, drop in session, businesses will be able to put their questions to the team on subjects like the cloud, security, apps, tax, insurance and much more.

The SME Surgery is part of this year's EXPO, with over 40 exhibitors, an interactive zone, a full seminar programme and tech panel. A packed day for both technology professionals and business leaders to find out what's in store for your business, customers and much more.

Please click on the link to find out more about the SME Surgery and don't forget to register for EXPO 2011 at http://techmeshexpo2011.eventbrite.com/

Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber's EXPO 2011 techie breakie

2011-09-02T04:08:00.000-07:00

To kick start EXPO 2011, the Chamber are bringing their successful 'Pure Networking' to the Royal Armouries, 13th October 2011. Starting at 7:30am exhibitors, IT & Telecoms professionals and Chamber members from the wider business community will join the techmesh team as a pre-cursor to the exhibition.

We are working closely with the Chamber to showcase the region as the hub of expertise for IT & Telecoms and this is a great example of their continued support.

The techie breakie will finish at 9:00 followed by the official opening of EXPO 2011 by David Parkin, Editor and founder of The Business Desk.

For more details of the Chamber's techie breakie, the pure networking format and how to book please click here.

EXPO 2011 exhibition stands sold out!

2011-08-30T07:31:00.000-07:00

techmesh are delighted to announce this year's IT & Telecoms exhibition is a sell out with over 40 businesses exhibiting.

Rocom confirmed their attendance as one of our Interactive Zone exhibitors, making it a full house for what promises to be a great event.

We really are looking forward to this year's EXPO and would like to thank all our sponsors, exhibitors and partners for their continued support and look forward to seeing you all in October.

To register FREE please visit http://techmeshexpo2011.eventbrite.com/

Winning profitable business seminar to help grow your technology business

2011-08-30T06:22:00.000-07:00

The next techmesh event, to be held at Pontefract Racecourse, 14 September will be delivered by Huthwaite International highly regarded as the experts in sales training. Known for their successful 'spin selling', this event is for those wanting more sales and whilst maintaining profitable margins. Discover life long techniques to understand your customers and become more successful in sales. The event will cover:

Introduction – understanding the Buying Cycle. Do you really understand what is going on in your customer’s mind when making a decision?

Changes over time – Do you appreciate the events that bring about change for your customer and how to use them to anticipate customer needs?

Recognition of Needs – How to assist the customer to understand there is a clear and present need for change in their current practice and help them understand the real value of the change. And … how to avoid talking brochure!

Account entry and navigation A new opportunity arises … do you charge straight in at the first available target? Presenting the strategy used by many successful sellers.

For more information or to book please click here

techmesh York IT Security event a success!

2011-08-25T23:11:00.000-07:00

This week’s ‘How secure is your technology – prevention is better than cure’ event, University of York was another great event for techmesh. Thanks to Stuart Barker, Agenci Ltd, Tracy Hannan, KC Business and Mark Wityszyn, Ventura part of Capita Group, who did a fantastic job with their presentations. The evening highlighted every day challenges we face and the systems we need to protect our data, customers and business processes.

Lots of great feedback from techmesh members, we really do appreciate your comments. We are working on our events programme for 2012, so please keep us posted on your ideas. Don’t forget to register for EXPO 2011, seminar places are limited – don’t miss out!

Register FREE at http://techmeshexpo2011.eventbrite.com

Next techmesh event: ‘Growing your technology business (part 2) Winning Profitable Business’ from our sales experts, Huthwaite International, 9:30am to 12:30pm, 14th September, Pontefract Racecourse.

Places are limited so please book early – email info@techmesh.org / http://techmesh.org/events

IT & Telecoms Expo 2011 to showcase the region’s assets

2011-08-23T02:35:00.000-07:00

We invite companies across Yorkshire eager to find out more about the latest trends and developments in IT & Telecoms to attend EXPO 2011. The exhibition, which is being held at the Royal Armouries on the 13th October, is organised by techmesh, the region’s only dedicated IT & Telecoms member network.

EXPO 2011 provides a valuable insight into how the world of technology is changing in today’s fast paced environment. Over 40+ exhibitors; a techpanel – a seasoned panel of experts debating hot topics; the interactive zone a lively, buzzing focal point of the exhibition where visitors can watch, listen and play with the very latest in technology; a SME surgery for one to one advice from our industry experts.

techmesh is working closely with the Chambers across our region along with a number of other significant networks to promote the event, which is not only great news for the IT & Telecoms sector, but for the region as a whole.

Collaboration with other networks is proving to be a powerful medium to drive the sector forward. EXPO 2011 is the perfect example of how collaboration can strengthen relationships as well as educate and stimulate those with a focus on technology. The event promises to be one of the most successful events in the sector’s calendar.

Date: Thursday 13th October 2011
Time: 9am – 4.30pm
Venue: Royal Armouries, Armouries Drive, Leeds, LS10 1LT

Cost: To register FREE please visit http://techmesh.org/expo-2011/

BT's Trevor Higgins presents at techmesh Leeds

2011-07-07T07:29:00.000-07:00

Regional Partnership Director, Trevor Higgins confirmed this week he will present at 'Digital Britain - Emerging Technologies' 19th July at the Rose Bowl, Leeds Met from 8am. BT are investing £2.5b in provding superfast broadband to 70% of the UK by 2012. Trevor will give an update on progress and discuss benefits for business.

A great line up with Andrew Bettany from the University of York, discussing the launch of Microsoft Office 365, Peter Hopton Very PC (with KC) promoting green IT and Digial Media Projects on retail sales boosting digital signage.

Breakfast included, contact the techmesh team on 0113 3845641 for more details.

techmesh York 15.06.2011

2011-06-16T07:54:00.000-07:00

Last night saw the latest monthly event by techmesh, the hub of IT & Telecoms expertise in Yorkshire and the Humber. Great attendance by both IT professionals and business leaders. Speakers were excellent, encouraging a lively debate on the why's and how's of procurement in both the public and private sector.

Thank you to all attendees. We look forward to seeing you all at the next techmesh event in Leeds 12th July, 'Digital Britain - emerging technologies'. Visit www.techmesh.org/events

Grow Your Business through Practical Cloud Computing

2011-03-22T04:10:00.000-07:00

Our event on last Thursday (17^th March) ‘Grow Your Business through Practical Cloud Computing’ was a phenomenal success. A big thank you to everyone involved particularly DLA Piper, Leeds for use of their venue and kind hospitality, it was perfect.

Over 70 techmesh members, business managers and suppliers of IT & Telecoms services from around the region attended. As well as networking with their peers, guests listened to industry experts, watched live demonstrations and heard from businesses that have implemented and adopted cloud solutions.

From ‘the good, the bad and the ugly’ experts guided guests through the processes and provided practical advice on the success and challenges of introducing the cloud.

The event was in collaboration with Chartered Management Institute http://www.managers.org.uk/

Our next event is Growing Your Technology Business (part one) on Thursday 7^th April in Sheffield – we hope to see old and new members there.

For further information, please click on the link.

More Information about techmesh events please contact our team on 0113 384 5641, email info@techmesh.org or visit our website http://techmesh.org/

Success for inaugural IT & Telecoms focussed exhibition

2010-10-19T06:56:00.000-07:00

The techmesh IT & Telecoms EXPO on the 30 September was an opportunity for delegates who wanted to gain further awareness of the Yorkshire and Humber IT & Telecoms sector. On the day there were 31 IT & Telecom companies from around the region showcasing their latest trends, innovations and services.

Skyrack Technology, based in Selby , showcased their Voice Connect range of products. They did a live demonstration of the High Definition features available over WIFI connectivity. Hosted voice and IP PBX services were high on the agenda of many potential customers and resellers alike.

Gavin Sweet from Skyrack Technology said: “techmesh provided an interesting regional conference and IT tradeshow forum for Skyrack to take the opportunity to do some early autumn marketing. The show was well attended, with particularly good crowds in the morning”.

Catherine Carlyle from Caltech CRM exhibited on the day, she said: “We met lots of potential clients and partners and a partner/client post event meeting has already taken place.

The quality of the delegates was great. We have done other IT focused events at the Armouries this year, but they didn’t bring us potential leads at all and delegate turn-out was very low.

techmesh expo had a vibrant feel to the day and there was lots of delegates there. The speakers were of a high calibre and we found the show invaluable. “

Mark Williams from Refractiv exhibited on the day, he said: “With guests from Google on our stand and the chance to win a 12 month subscription to Google Apps Premier Edition we were confident that the day would be a success.

In fact the event more than met our expectations. Visitors to our stand were keen to see Google Apps for themselves - with the collaboration potential of Documents a particular favourite. We also showcased a few of our most recent website and software development projects.

All in all, the techmesh EXPO was a roaring success. Thanks to everyone at techmesh and Connect Yorkshire for a great show, thanks to Alfred Biehler, Enterprise Channel Manager at Google for coming up from London to see us, and thanks to all who visited our stand. We look forward to next year!”

Running alongside the exhibition was a conference with opportunities to listen to keynote speakers from the largest IT & Telecom companies in the World. The conference attracted many delegates from as far afield as the United States of America! Pictures and Videos from the exhibition and conference can be found here: http://techmesh.org/expo/expopictures

techmesh will now focus on it’s monthly IT & Telecoms networking events held around the region. Each techmesh event allows members to network with other IT & Telecoms buyers, sellers and listen to industry keynote speakers.

The next techmesh event will be held in Sheffield on 20^th October at the Jurys Inn, with James Walker from Cisco as keynote speaker. For further information visit: http://techmesh.org/events/view/133

techmesh launches first Yorkshire and Humber IT & Telecoms Exhibition and Conference at Royal Armouries, Leeds September 30

2010-09-06T08:55:00.000-07:00

techmesh, the IT & Telecom business network for Yorkshire and Humber, has announced that its inaugural exhibition and conference will take place on Thursday, September 30, 2010 at the Royal Armouries in Leeds.

techmesh IT & Telecoms EXPO 2010 is a free event and will enable attendees to discover the latest trends in the industry and learn about future technologies. Sponsored by inTechnology, the UK’s largest pure-play managed IT service provider, Simply-Does-IT, a specialist newly-formed business with the objective of reducing IT costs and Leeds-based cloud computing hosting services provider virtualDCS, the one day exhibition will feature Yorkshire and Humber IT & Telecom businesses being showcased to potential clients, partners and peers.

Gary Rowbotham, techmesh programme manager, said: “The techmesh EXPO will be an opportunity for Yorkshire and Humber’s IT & Telecom sector to demonstrate their products, services and new developments.

“Collaboration and working together is one of the best ways to drive the sector forward. techmesh allows IT & Telecom companies in the region to meet, exchange and share information. By encouraging best practice and partnership working, this fuels the ambition of making Yorkshire and Humber a highly regarded destination for IT & Telecom businesses to locate and trade.

“We have consistently seen companies in the region engaging with businesses elsewhere who were unaware of the availability and quality of companies available to them. techmesh aims to make this EXPO one of the most successful the region has seen.”

Throughout the day there will be a conference with a number of break-out sessions providing opportunity to listen for free to keynote speakers from some of the largest IT & Telecom businesses in the world. These include: Google, Microsoft, Virgin Media, Xerox, Mitel, VMware, Crypto Card and conference sponsors; InTechnology, virtualDCS and Panintelligence.

Richard Quine, Divisional Product Director, Voice & Unified Comms, at InTechnology and one of the keynote speakers at the techmesh conference said: “techmesh offers InTechnology a superb showcase for its complete end-to-end managed service proposition, ranging from managed networks, data centre hosting and managed data services through to leading-edge hosted IP telephony and Unified Communications solutions.

More importantly, it will enable InTechnology to highlight the significant business, financial and operational advantage that accrues from the positive adoption of Cloud-based managed services: reduced cost; more affordable access to enterprise quality IT; better utilisation of resources; improved responsiveness and agility; increased productivity; greater flexibility and control; and leaner and greener working.”

Peter Sturgeon, director of Simply-Does-IT, comments about the EXPO, “As a new business based in Yorkshire we are delighted to be involved with EXPO. It gives us a real opportunity to showcase NetSuite and to explain why we think that SaaS and some of the other technologies on view can make a real impact, financially and with customer service, on businesses in the region.”

Commenting on the EXPO Richard May, director of main conference sponsor virtualDCS, said: “We are very pleased to be sponsoring the EXPO as it provides an excellent opportunity for the region’s leading authorities in IT and telecoms to meet and exchange ideas.

“techmesh is Yorkshire’s preeminent IT and telecoms business network so its events are of significant interest and value to everyone who attends. We are looking forward to telling delegates about virtualDCS, what we have to offer and how it can deliver substantial, quantifiable business benefits.”

By accessing data, software and services online through the internet instead of onsite is called ‘Cloud Computing’ and is currently one of the fastest growing trends in the industry.

James Akrigg, Head of Technology for Partners at Microsoft and one of the keynote speakers at the techmesh conference said:

“During this decade we are going to see some of the biggest and most substantial changes in our industry. This year is ‘IT’s Time to Change’ as we embrace the future of cloud computing and drive efficiency and effectiveness across all businesses. The vision to deliver continuous connected cloud services to every person and every business has already begun.”

Jim Farmery, Assistant Director of Business at Yorkshire Forward, which is supporting the event, said:

“The digital industry in the Yorkshire and Humber region is a thriving one, and we’ve done all we can to promote this growth.

“One of the key things we’ve done is set up Digital Region, a partnership of local authorities and public sector organisations that have joined forces to provide high-speed internet access for more than 40,000 businesses and over a million homes in South Yorkshire.

“Through schemes such as this we hope to enable the continued growth of the sector in our region, which will benefit the local and national economy in the long-term.”

Anyone interested in attending the free event should register at www.techmesh.org/expo.

Alternatively contact the techmesh team on 0113 384 5641 or email expo@techmesh.org to find out more information.

Talking technical with techmesh

2010-06-07T07:23:00.000-07:00

Recently, techmesh held their second TechTalk event at the Aspire in Leeds. The evening began with networking and canapés as guests marvelled at the elegance of the prestigious Aspire building, which used to be the site of Yorkshire Bank.

The evening commenced with an introduction from Jim Pendrill, Editor of Yorkshire Business Insider and award-winning business journalist. Jim introduced the presenters and question time panel for the evening and announced the topic; ‘Cloud Computing and using Software-as-a-Service’.

James Akrigg, Head of Technology for Partners at Microsoft then took to the stage and began to unveil how Microsoft is innovating and developing their software to be more Cloud focussed. This included an exclusive demo of Microsoft Office 2010. Microsoft intends to completely reshape their software delivery approach, rather that just offering its software on premise, they are allowing over 400 million Windows Live users to access slimmed down, online versions, of its popular Office software.

Matt Holmes, Managing Director of Liquid Accounts, who are a new techmesh sponsor, discussed how Liquid’s accounting software was developed to be used in the Cloud. Matt decided to mix up the proceedings by using an alternative software provider for his presentation, Google docs. Matt’s presentation mapped out how Liquid Accounts began, raising investment to the sum of £770k and how they intend to capitalise on future trends.

The evening was then thrown open to a panel ‘question time’ format, taking questions from the audience. The main issue of concern was security in the cloud; will encryption be sufficient enough and what if data is lost? As with all web based services, there is no guaranteed security level for Cloud based applications, this was a heated topic on the evening. But in addition, there is no guaranteed security when a data server is destroyed at the office following a flash flood. One explanation that was suggested is that Hotmail have been operating their email service in the cloud for many years, this demonstrates that Cloud computing is not just a new development and is being tailored for more business and cost savings.

The event was a great success with nearly 80 delegates. We need your feedback on future events like this. Did you attend and was it useful? Did you not attend for any reason and what events would inspire you in the future? Send us an email info@techmesh.org

The next techmesh event is in Sheffield on 30th June at The Circle, S1 4FW. The keynote speaker for the evening will be from IBM. George Taylor from Digital Region will be discussing the services available for businesses in South Yorkshire. For further info visit: http://techmesh.org/events/view/60.

Join techmesh today to attend techmesh: Sheffield for free!

techmesh: Hull report

2010-05-07T08:53:00.000-07:00

This was the first time techmesh had held an event in Hull and what an exceptional turnout it was!

techmesh: Hull was organised with support from Jon Moss at Hull Digital and Hull University Business School.

The evening proceeded with refreshments, food and plenty of networking as the other delegates arrived. Guests where then encouraged to take a seat in the presentation room where I (Gary Rowbotham, techmesh Programme Manger) introduced techmesh and the many benefits of becoming a member. The agenda then moved to Nick Riley, Director of the Logistics Technology Group, who gave a synopsis surrounding Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) implementation in logistics and freight handling. An interesting insight from the presentation was that a RFID transmitter can be equivalent in size to a grain of rice!

Mike Harlington, a techmesh sponsor, introduced telecoms company MediaSat3, who are striving to provide an alternative telecoms provider in the Hull area. Mike discussed how MediaSat3 are negotiating the use of new telecom satellites which would allow remote speeds of 100mb download and 10mb upload. Once MediaSat3 services are fully implemented they will be capable of moving an impressive 1 million terabytes of data every second.

The presentations were rounded off with an introduction from Jon Moss at Hull Digital, who discussed how he hopes to expand the digital community in Hull. Jon encouraged the audience to attend the highly anticipated event ‘Hull Digital Question Time’ on the 26th May at the Donald Roy Theatre in Hull. The event is an opportunity for delegates to join the conversation and hear about current topics that matter in digital, technology and the web.

After the presentation session, guests were invited to look at the Hull University Business School technology showcase. The showcase was exceptional and in some cases breathtaking; the enormous 3D TV that greeted visitors as they entered the room was amazing!

The techmesh team would like to thank everyone that helped to make techmesh: Hull a success, including: Jon Moss at Hull Digital, Hull University Business School for the venue and Nick Riley for introducing the audience to future technologies in RFID.

Join us at the next techmesh event on 25th May - focussed towards Cloud Computing and using Software-as-a-Service. The event will feature keynote speakers from Microsoft and Liquid Accounts. For further information visit http://techmesh.org/events/view/55

New Telecoms Technology: WiMAX

2010-04-14T08:13:00.000-07:00

Daniel Moore from http://iq.insight.com has kindly contributed the following blog post:

WiMAX?
Sounds like a cross between games console and a discount clothes store… Actually it’s no such thing. WiMAX is a new telecoms technology designed to provide wireless data over long distances in a variety of ways – from point-to-point links to full mobile cellular access.

In other words, it enables the delivery of last-mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to cable and DSL.

Why WiMAX?
Simple really. Short for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, WiMAX is actually a term coined to describe standard, interoperable implementations of IEEE 802.16 wireless networks; similar to the way the term Wi-Fi is used for interoperable implementations of the IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN standard. However, WiMAX is very different from Wi-Fi in the way it works.

So what is different?
The biggest difference between WiMAX and its aging cousin Wi-Fi isn’t speed, but distance. WiMAX outdistances Wi-Fi by, literally, miles. Where Wi-Fi’s range is measured in metres (usually about 30); WiMAX can blanket a radius of 50 kilometres with wireless access. The increase in range is due to the frequencies used and the power of the transmitter. Of course, at such distances, factors like terrain, weather, and large buildings will act to reduce the maximum range in some circumstances, but the potential is there to cover huge tracts of land. WiMAX is also highly scalable from small remote stations to multi-sector ‘maxi’ scale bases that handle complex tasks.

But WiMAX and Wi-Fi sound so similar…
Thanks largely to the fact that they begin with the same two letters, that they are both based upon IEEE standards beginning with “802”, and that both have a connection to wireless connectivity and the Internet, comparisons and confusion between WiMAX and Wi-Fi are frequent. But the two standards are actually aimed at completely different applications. WiMAX is a long-range system to deliver a point-to-point connection to the Internet from an ISP to an end user.

Different 802.16 standards provide different types of access – from mobile devices such as laptops, PDAs, and mobile phones, to fixed points – as an alternative to wired access, where the end user’s wireless termination point is fixed in location.

WiMAX and Wi-Fi also have quite different Quality of Service (QoS) mechanisms, with WiMAX using a mechanism based on setting up connections between the Base Station and the user device. Each connection is based on specific scheduling algorithms, which means that QoS parameters can be guaranteed for each flow.
How does it work?

WiMAX systems generally consist of two parts:
• A WiMAX tower – similar in concept to a mobile phone mast, a single WiMAX tower can provide coverage up to 8,000 square kilometres.
A WiMAX receiver – where the receiver and antenna could be

• a small box or PCMCIA card, or could be built into a laptop the way Wi-Fi access is today.

A WiMAX tower station can connect directly to the Internet using a high-bandwidth, wired connection. It can also connect to another WiMAX tower using what’s called a line-of-sight, microwave link. This connection to a second tower (sometimes referred to as a backhaul), along with the ability of a single tower to cover up to 8,000 square kilometres, is what allows WiMAX to provide coverage to remote rural areas.

There are two types of WiMAX service…
• The non-line-of-sight, Wi-Fi type service, where a small antenna on the computer connects to the tower. In this mode, WiMAX uses a lower frequency range of 2GHz to 11GHz which is similar to Wi-Fi. Lower-wavelength transmissions are not as easily disrupted by physical obstructions and they are better able to bend around obstacles.

•The line-of-sight service, where a fixed dish antenna points straight at the WiMAX tower from a rooftop or pole. The line-of-sight connection is stronger and more stable, so it’s able to send a lot of data with fewer errors. Line-of-sight transmissions use higher frequencies, with ranges reaching a possible 66GHz. At higher frequencies, there is less interference and lots more bandwidth.

Why do we need it?
In practical terms, WiMAX operates in a similar way to Wi-Fi but at higher speeds, over greater distances and for a greater number of users. As such it could potentially erase remaining suburban and rural blackout areas. The bandwidth and reach of WiMAX also make it suitable for connecting Wi-Fi hotspots and other points, and as an alternative source of connectivity from a business continuity point of view. i.e Separate fixed and wireless Internet connections, especially from unrelated providers, are unlikely to be affected by the same user vice outage.

Why else is it important?
The benefits largely speak for themselves from a commercial perspective, but WiMAX will also be useful in providing robust communications in emergency or terrorist situations, where it could be used as a back-up (or even primary) communications system, as it would be difficult to destroy with a single, pinpoint attack.

Here, a cluster of WiMAX transmitters is set up in range of a key command centre, but as far from one another as possible; each positioned in a bunker, or similar, hardened against bombs and / or other forms of attack. In this way, no single attack could destroy all the transmitters, so the command centre remains in communication at all times.

When are we getting it?
Intel is already WiMAX enabling its Centrino laptop processor range, which should go a long way toward making WiMAX a success.

Indeed, it is predicted that all new laptops will incorporate WiMAX by end of this year, which should see demand ramp further as the risk of deployment disappears and more and more companies therefore roll-out WiMAX-based connectivity across their organisations.

iQ.insight.com is Insight UK’s technology blog that opens up a world of fresh hot off the press updates from Insight and its Partners.

Stemming off from its quarterly magazine, iQ, it is dedicated to providing you with independent, educational and motivational content, enabling you to make informed IT decisions.

http://iq.insight.com

techmesh: York

2010-03-29T08:51:00.000-07:00

David Riggall, a potential member of techmesh, has kindly sent us his account of techmesh: York on the 25th March.

The event was the third regional IT & Telecom collaboration event, focussing on experienced keynote speakers along with an opportunity to network with other sector professionals.

Techmesh: York – 25/03/2010
By David Riggall - Partner at Rose & Bridge Associates – dedicated to making a difference – T: 01904 720334

Following the success of previous launch events in Leeds and Sheffield, the meeting last night at York University Science Park Innovation Centre was a definite win for delegates, speakers and techmesh, alike. The York event was held in association with IT and Digital York.

techmesh - supported by Yorkshire Forward, aims to become the largest and most focused IT and Telecoms business network organisation in Yorkshire and Humberside.

Gary Rowbotham, techmesh programme manager, introduced the agenda and explained the potential benefits of being a Techmesh member and / or associate. Current associates of techmesh include: Green Communications, Inter-vention, Lee & Priestley, Knowles Warwick and MFL Science & Technology.

The first speaker of the evening was Dan Croxen-John, from Applied Web Analytics, his presentation explained how extracting value from a web presence was an evolutionary process, best achieved from regular analysis and on-going assessment.

Ian Newall from Huthwaite International, the sales improvement training company, shared an insight into the benefits of Spin Selling and business application. Ian is offering all techmesh members a 15% discount on Huthwaites Spin Selling courses.

Finally, Marcus Robinson, the founder of MR-ICT, a York and Leeds based company offering outsourced ICT support, discussed how he intends to utilise his techmesh membership to benefit his business and shared his thoughts on the advantages of joining techmesh.

Overall the event was a great success with sufficient opportunities to network after listening to the speakers, all this including great food and wine! The focus is now on the next techmesh event in Hull on 29th April at Hull University Business School.

Come and meet up at techmesh:York

2010-03-10T08:09:00.000-08:00

If you work in the IT and telecommunications sectors in Yorkshire and the Humber then we would love you to attend techmesh:York – a free networking event organised by techmesh.

Backed by Yorkshire Forward, techmesh is a new business network for the region’s fast-growing IT and telecommunications sector – the largest outside of London

Companies and professionals operating in the sector are being invited to attend the first techmesh: York event at the York Science Park on March 25th at 6:00pm.

For the York event, techmesh are teaming up with Science City York’s local sector network IT & Digital York. York Science Park has kindly sponsored the venue.

There will be a key note speech from Allan Dunn, Director of ioko, who will talk about ioko’s successes and the pitfalls of the industry.

ioko designs, builds and runs technology platforms for media and entertainment companies worldwide, delivered across broadcast, broadband and mobile networks to televisions, computers, mobile phones and other digital devices. ioko began business as a small venture, run by two University of York students, it grew rapidly to where they are now.

Gary Rowbotham, techmesh Programme Manager, said: "Collaboration and working together is the best way of driving the sector forward and techmesh: York allows those people working in North Yorkshire and beyond a chance to network, swop ideas and make business connections.
"We are also offering three, five-minute presentation slots and inviting attendees to discuss how they would like to partner and collaborate with others as well as give a short talk about their business and what services they can offer. All this and free drinks too.”

Heather Niven, IT & Digital Sector Specialist at Science City York, said: "The value of sector specific networks in promoting collaborative working has long been recognised. We’re particularly pleased to partner with techmesh for the York event to extend the reach and impact of local network activities across the region.”

There are a limited number of tickets available for techmesh:York and tickets are available by registering here or contact Events Coordinator Dawn Kelly on 0113 384 5641 or dawn@techmesh.org

techmesh launch event in Leeds

2010-03-02T03:07:00.001-08:00

techmesh: Sheffield – another great event

2010-02-26T02:21:00.000-08:00

We had another great techmesh event in Sheffield this week at the Workstation were more than 50 people attended to hear about BT’s plans for investment in fiber-based superfast broadband, reaching more than one million homes in the UK in 2010 and linking up more than 40 per cent of the population between 2011 and 2012.
Speaking at techmesh: Sheffield delegates from Yorkshire’s IT and telecommunications sector heard how BT plans to transform broadband access in the region and beyond.
Trevor Higgins, BT Partnership Director, and the telecom group’s ambassador for the region, said: "Superfast broadband access is already being trialed and proven in areas like Pudsey, Calder Valley and Halifax and we are seeking to role that out further over the next couple of years."
He told the audience: "The challenge to you as specialists in IT and telecommunications is to develop the applications and software that will benefit from superfast broadband. It will have a major impact on the region’s economy if you do."
He added that other areas already announced to receive optical fibre investment included Armley, Shipley, Low Moor, Castleford, Pontefract, Guiseley, Lofthouse Gate, Beauchief and Ranmoor
Further announcements of the next areas to receive fibre investment across Yorkshire and Humber would follow shortly.
Guests at the techmesh event also heard from techmesh member Peter Hopton, Managing Director of VeryPC, who used the techmesh members time slot at the event to inform the attendees about his UK’s leading environmentally-friendly desk top company.
Established in 2004 in Sheffield by several electronic engineer graduates from the University of Sheffield, VeryPC has pioneered “green” computing in the UK and is now a supplier to a wide range of public and private organisations globally having been endorsed by the Energy Saving Trust.
techmesh Project Manager, Gary Rowbotham, said: "The Sheffield event was the first of several we shall be holding around the region bringing together IT and telecommunications professionals where they can meet and build business connections and collaborate on projects."

Join us for techmesh:Sheffield

2010-02-09T07:56:00.000-08:00

If you work in the IT and telecommunications sectors in Yorkshire and the Humber then we would love you to attend techmesh: Sheffield – a free networking event organised by techmesh.
Backed by Yorkshire Forward, techmesh is a new business network for the region’s fast-growing IT and telecommunications sector – the largest outside of London.
The first event will be held in Sheffield on Tuesday, February 23 at 6.00 pm at the Showroom and Workstation, Paternoster Row.
There will be a key note speech from Trevor Higgins, BT Partnership Director, discussing superfast broadband in South Yorkshire.
Gary Rowbotham, techmesh Programmme Manager, said: "techmesh: Sheffield allows those working in the Yorkshire IT and telecommunications sectors to mingle, swop ideas and make business connections. This event is about encouraging collaboration and making new contacts.
"We are also offering five x three minute presentation slots and inviting attendees to give a short talk about their business, what services they can offer and discuss how they would like to partner and collaborate with others. All this and free drinks too."
With IT and telecommunications set to make a major contribution to the Yorkshire and Humber economy the new business network, techmesh, will provide a business network for companies, organisations and individuals working in these sectors to meet, exchange information and share best practice.
techmesh will run a series of events across the region over the next 12 months bringing members together at informal networking events as well as larger events bringing some major speakers from the leading IT and telecommunications companies.
There a limited number of tickets available for techmesh: Sheffield and tickets are available through the techmesh website at techmesh.org or contact Events Coordinator Dawn Kelly on 0113 384 5641 or dawn@techmesh.org

Interesting reading on Digital region

2010-02-01T02:16:00.000-08:00

The Digital Communications KTN, in cooperation with Digital 20/20, have produced a report following an event held in Sheffield at Electric Works on December 1, 2009 writes Emma Frost on the Digital Yorkshire blog.
Two keynote presentations were delivered, one around new developments in telecommunications and online technologies and one describing the Digital Region (South Yorkshire’s new state-of-the-art fibre-optic network).
These presentations were then followed by workshops to allow attendees to discuss particular themes, generate new ideas and identify how the capacity of Digital Region and other superfast broadband networks might be used. The attendees could choose from four workshops on the topics 'IT & Network Services'; 'Digital Content'; 'Learning & Education'; and 'Healthcare & the Smart Home'.
Emma has uploaded the full report as a PDF for you to view. Over 60 people attended the event on the day and I think the report makes an interesting read.

First techmesh event a great success

2010-01-28T04:14:00.000-08:00

We held our first techmesh event last night in The Loft in Leeds and were delighted with number that attended – more and 100 of you.
Food, fizz and jazz were excellent. As were the speakers - Marco Potesta, director of The NetStart a former director of IT reseller Insight and a founding director of Yorkshire’s most successful internet service provider, PlusNet and Conrad Poulson, Head of Start-up Business Development at mobile telecoms group Orange.
You can find the full story here. Videos of the speakers will be available shortly.
However, we would love to know what you would want from a future techmesh event. We are planning to run them around the region. In which towns or cities would you like an event? What sort of speakers would you like to hear? Any special topics? Would you prefer an OpenCoffee/GeekUp/BarCamp event or something more formal?
Leave a comment and let us know. Meanwhile here are some pictures from last night.

First techmesh: Sheffield

2010-01-12T10:07:00.000-08:00

Could you benefit from collaborating with other businesses and getting to know what others are doing?
Would you like to have the opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences with others?
techmesh brings you techmesh:Sheffield a collaboration networking event.
Attend techmesh:Sheffield and expand your business connections. This event is about encouraging collaboration and making new contacts. techmesh:Sheffield will put you in touch with other IT and Telecom organisations that will be able to provide you with the skills that you are missing. Remember; it might not just come from the people you get to meet, but from who they know!
This networking event will offer you the possibility of greater relationships, further collaboration, more partnerships and mutually beneficial business relationships.

Date: Tuesday 23 February 2010
Time: 18.00-20.00hrs
Venue: Showroom and Workstation, Paternoster Row, Sheffield. S1 2BX Map
Includes: Food, drink and chat
Who should attend: IT & Telecoms professionals and entrepreneurs.

For further information, please contact Dawn on 0113 384 5641 or dawn@techmesh.org or register here.

Open invite to first techmesh event

2009-12-22T03:30:00.000-08:00

We are holding our first event in the new year on Wednesday 27, January - if you work in the Yorkshire and Humber digital, IT and telecommunications sector you're more than welcome to attend.
Backed by Yorkshire Forward, techmesh is a new business network for the region’s fast-growing digital sector - the largest outside of London
The first techmesh event will take place on Wednesday 27, January 2010 at The Loft, Cross York Street, Leeds at 6.00pm and is free to attend for those operating in the regions IT and telecommunications sectors.
Guest speaker on the evening will include Lee Strafford, Executive Chairman of theNetStartup and founder and former Chief Executive Officer of Sheffield-based internet service provider which was sold to British Telecom in 2007 Mr Strafford is also Chairman of Sheffield Wednesday Football Club.
He is joined by Conrad Poulson, Head of Startup Business Development of Orange, which has several divisions in Yorkshire developing mobile software.
This will be techmesh’s first formal event and provides an ideal opportunity to introduce the regions digital professionals to a new and vibrant business network.
It is also a great opportunity for guests to network with other delegates and swop business ideas. Both our speakers are very accomplished and have witnessed how start ups can quickly grow to become major companies and employers.
If you're planning to come along remember to register here.

Meet the techmesh team

2009-12-22T03:21:00.000-08:00

Meet the techmesh team. From left to right there is Edward Lamb, Sales Executive; Dawn Kelly - Events Coordinator; Nick Butler, Chief Executive Officer; Gary Rowbotham - TechMesh Programme Manager and Danielle Ward, Marketing Executive

techmesh gets backing from Yorkshire Forward

2009-12-21T07:48:00.000-08:00

This is our first official post on the techmesh teams' blog and will, hopefully, be the first of many now that Yorkshire Forward, the regional development agency, has awarded the contract to Connect Yorkshire to create and run a new business network for the region’s IT and Telecommunications sector.
Yorkshire & Humber has the fastest-growing digital sector in the UK outside of London, and is recognised as a leading centre of excellence in the digital and new media industries. With IT and Telecommunications set to make a major contribution to the Yorkshire and Humber economy techmesh will provide a business network for companies, organisations and individuals working in these sectors to meet, exchange information and share best practice.
As a business collaboration network techmesh will act as an umbrella organisation, bringing together existing networks in the region and will signpost businesses to other sources of funding information, market intelligence, emerging technologies and research and development opportunities.
Watch this space for announcments on forthcoming events, get togethers, seminars or a few drinks out of an evening. techmesh will very much be owned and directed by the membership so do get in touch and let us know what you think or leave a comment here.

Pitch Perfect

2009-10-29T03:19:00.000-07:00

Our Winter Investment Forum is fast approaching and we are now seeking applicants to present and exhibit. A fundamental part of the process leading up to the event, is that we provide 'pitch' mentoring to help companies hone their idea into something non-specialists in their field can understand.

We often find that young ambitious companies have the ability to talk about their proposition and the technical aspects, but often lack the ability to discuss this in layman's terms as this is what these companies do day in day out. However when it comes to raising investment it's crucial.

This is also an invaluable opportunity for presenters to get feedback, share good practice and see the other side of presenting an understandable pitch. Often it is not until you have tried to explain what is so sparkling about a proposition that you realise it isn't polished enough!These Company Assessment Groups (CAGs) are made up of the mentors that are assigned to each company that are drawn from our sponsors. The companies get high-quality feedback from people who have heard it all before. So when they present at the Forum, they have the best possible chance of winning over investors and raising the finance they need to take their business to the next level.

This mentoring and support is a key part of the Connect model.

We are also offering exhibition space at the event to companies who do not wish to make a presentation on this occasion but who wish to raise finance in the next 6-12 months.

If you are interested in getting your business plan more polished or pitch perfect, do get in touch...

Aspire to Inspire in Leeds and Sheffield

2009-09-29T07:32:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth Jackson, Chief Executive of Directorbank, the UK’s leading private equity recruitment specialist will be inspiring young leaders and business people from Leeds and beyond at the Aspire to Inspire event on 30th September.

Guests who attend this event will also hear from other inspiring speakers including representatives from The Aspire Fund, Forward Ladies and SYIF.

We are working in partnership with The Aspire Fund Manager, Capital for Enterprise Ltd, and Forward Ladies to promote the fund amongst female entrepreneurs in the region.

The Aspire Fund was established with the objective of increasing the number of successful women- led businesses in the UK. The Fund is able to make equity investments of between £100k and £1m, on a co-investment basis, in order to strengthen business and underpin growth.

A key element of the fund is to seek to improve the linkage between those providing funding and those providing investment readiness support; which is where we fit in.

We are honoured to be working with so many proactive and successful businesswomen. We hope that many women-led businesses will join us at the event and hear about how Elizabeth built a successful business, leading to a secondary buy-out of Directorbank.

This event is kindly being hosted by DLA Piper. We do hope that you will be able to join us and if not then we are also running a similar event in Sheffield on the 5th October. To reserve your place visit: www.forwardladies.com/networking-events

South Yorkshire adds chicken tikka to its pudding

2009-08-28T03:05:00.000-07:00

The Asian Business Director's Network (ABDN), with the help of Connect Yorkshire launched its South Yorkshire operation in Sheffield. It was a well supported event and it was really good to meet and talk with many businesses from the Sheffield community.

The event, held at Aroma restaurant aimed to give Asian-led companies access to the mainstream business community. Lynn Harrison, Business Link partnership manager, discussed the Train to Gain proposition; and Insider’s editor Richard Stirling informed that he wants to receive more business news from within the Sheffield community and I, all spoke at the event.

Arshad the chairman of ABDN, made a fantastic speech that was inspiring, he described ABDN as being, “a bit like chicken tikka masala, served with Yorkshire pud.”

He also added; “The ethos of the ABDN is to break through the barriers. We want BME (Black and Minority Ethnic) businesses to break out of dealing with their own communities because that is where the business is, that is where the need is.”

We are looking forward to working with members of ABDN who are looking to raise investment to help grow their business.

We do hope that Connect is not perceived to be Leeds centric; and to reiterate - we are not! This years plan is to hold a total of seven events in Sheffield this Autumn; starting from the 5th October. Don’t miss your opportunity to join us; further details will be displayed on our events page shortly.

Race to the Pole

2009-07-23T05:16:00.000-07:00

A documentary on the BBC2; ‘On Thin Ice’ got me thinking……

After almost two weeks of intensive Polar Training in Antarctica; James Cracknell, Ben Fogle and Ed Coates set off to race from the edge of the Antarctica continent, to race over 370 nautical miles across the largest ice cap in the world to the Geographic South Pole.

The racers will face constant challenges throughout their journey: surving in temperatures as low as -50C, navigating and skiing while pulling a 70Kg. pulk, climbing up to 9300 ft. to the South Pole and through everything working together as a team.

The bottom line is that, as in sport, there are no guarantees of success but equally there is no substitute for preparation. That's why coming up with a well thought out business plan is key.
In September we will be holding the InvestorQuest Investment Challenge and we are now seeking applicants to present at the event. It will be interesting to see how many of the business propositions can articulate exactly what they do and why they might be one of the winners...

Each presenting company has the chance of winning up to £1000 of top level Intellectual Property, Accountancy, Legal and Marketing advice from four of our Sponsors (£4000 in total).

Investors look for attributes that they have seen in ventures that have generally made it in the past: clear vision and value proposition, strong management that can navigate through the blizzards to success, understanding of the competitive landscape, a feasible route to market, etc.

The aim of the Investment Challenge is to encourage people seeking early-stage funding and business support to put their ideas forward. The funds involved so far are the Viking Fund, YFM Group and Aquarius Equity Partners. If you’re interested, then check out the InvestorQuest page of our web site for more information.

Open Collaboration: Friend or Foe?

2009-06-29T02:47:00.000-07:00

Open innovation is a hot theme at the moment. The idea is that you only know so much within your organisation and outside there is so much more knowledge if only it could be harnessed for (your?) benefit.

The more council you take the more certain you can be that your decision or approach is (the wisdom of crowds sampled by taking point measurements?) However, the more you share your ideas the more open they are to be copied or stolen. Also, your IP position can be a concern or even a sticking point for establishing a win-win situation with a third-party that is bringing something to the table. But the bottom line is that people work together when they can achieve more together than they can alone (which is why mergers take place!)

So like most good ideas there are pros and cons and like capitalism 'it may not be perfect but its better than the alternatives'. Initiative like Connect have a role to play in helping break down barriers, enable cross-silo thinking and generally help catalyse action - if the market participants want to. The region’s ability to commercialise science and technology depends on the strength of its “social business infrastructure” and an entrepreneur’s ease of access to critical resources. We want to make it easier, not harder to start a business or gain market traction.

Experienced people will be willing to give time pro-bono if they get a “return on involvement”: either altruistic satisfaction or the promise that everyone will profit from a rising tide. The development of a “culture of collaboration” that goes beyond mere networking towards a process of co-creation and information exchange that creates trust-based relationships, and so instills a sense of shared ‘ownership’ in both the risks and rewards.

Living in splendid isolation (and having absolute focus on your own bottom line) has its place, but equally there is always space for serendipity, participation and collaboration where everbody wins.

Clouded Thinking?

2009-06-01T02:00:00.000-07:00

TeckTalk 2008 on June 17th will debate the issues surrounding 'cloud' computing. How important is it for enterprises to be able to 'hug' their data? Is day when all server machines no longer belt out heat from your own rack but sit somewhere out in cyber space, maintained and upgraded by men in white coats.

The technology promises to bring the cost of application hosting, data storage and connectivity down via 'pay as you go' services and open source tools. But have may of us have already found that's not the whole story and the vendor perspective can be "when we have them by their databases, their hearts, minds and wallets will follow".

Cloud computing brings together high performance supercomputing capabilities to the masses. Is your application taking off? The promise is that you can scale processing power as your application grows. Backups? All taken care of for you. But what about security? That probably still is the Achilles heel of the cloud - are you going to entrust your precious corporate data to some outside your firewall?

And what about the green agenda? One of the companies backed by the South Yorkshire Seedcorn Fund has a novel approach to server cooling (no not locate them at the North Pole!). Full tilt computing generates a serious amount of hot air where ever the processor is located and that needs to go somewhere.

So on the 17th, let's hope the debate produces some clear thinking and we get demistify what cloud computing has to offer for the future and lets hope it not all vapourware! We have a great keynote speaker lined up from Oracle and a supporting panel to debate the issue: Cloud Computing - Is it all hot air or is there a silver lining? See you there.

Power, Job Titles & Oxymorons

2009-05-26T02:30:00.000-07:00

The current controversy surrounding the power residing with the Prime Minister versus parliament and the legislature has similar parallels in business. Tensions mount when shareholders and executives having misaligned interests. Surely a lot of the problems the banks have faced are linked to this disconnect. And any system of remuneration that lacks audit or control is always asking for trouble as the politicians have found. In isolation, one can justify any reward or find good reason for a payment that wouldn't stand up to external scrutiny or a wider perspective, which is why this is so important in keeping reality real.

On the subject of power bases, I am always wary of companies that have job titles that start with the 'Deputy' or 'Assistant' which implies that the person they report to believes themselves to warrant such a supporting cast. Similarly, I am not a fan of joint roles and responsibilities, which just serves to be divisive and confusing to other staff. If you have functional heads accountable for the performance of the company in that area then that focus is beneficial and good. Everyone needs to be part of the team, but in the end someone needs to do something to move things forwards in specific areas. Even more against the grain is the 'Executive Chairman' role which is surely an oxymoron, which was a subject of a previous post 'Are Two Heads Better Than One?'.

Clucking About Geography

2009-05-18T03:13:00.000-07:00

A recent Northern Way magazine article by Mark l'Anson highlighted that 70% of the fund management 'capacity' is clustered around London. Is it the quality of the company that drives the deal or does geography really matter? Business angels mare certainly more likely to stay closer to home, but professional fund managers really should be where the action is.

Is this a chicken and the egg problem or has the bird well and truly flown? The relative absence of VC money may actually damped demand is an argument the article puts forward. Is it the role of the RDA's to redress this imbalance and provide regional funding to need local business needs? The Northern Way have recently published its first recommendations report ' Realising the £25bn Potential: Stimulating the long term private venture capital markets in the regions'.

The report to my mind misses a key point - supply and demand - it's no use having regional fund managers in place twiddling their thumbs without activities to support and stimulate the innovation ecosystem. At the end of the day it is a fund managers responsibility to make money - not to redistribute wealth.

Activities like Connect are more orientated to helping to stimulate innovation and enterprise at the grass roots level. Putting too much focus on fund management as a means of economic regeneration without regard for the health of the ecosystem is not optimal. Fund managers are tasked with plucking good opportunities out of the ecosystem and then fattening them up. If there are not enough good opportunities, they will look elsewhere. Hence the focus of regeneration should be on creating an environment where good investment opportunities develop. I can't help believing that if the opportunities are there, the fund managers will come to harvest them.

For What It's Worth...

2009-05-11T01:37:00.000-07:00

I will be leading a Investment Readiness Programme seminar on How To Do A Deal: Money, Valuations and Deal Structures on the 20th May. How do you value an asset? In simple terms, it is the discounted value of all future cash flows it can generate plus any comfort or benefit you might derive while owning it! But also if you think an asset will go up 20% from what someone else thinks it's worth today, then you might be seduced into buying it. Equally if you think it will be worth less tomorrow than it is today you would be hard pushed to buy it. Which is why macroeconomics and recessions cause all sorts of problems (at least in the short term). Particularly if the only cash an asset is going to generate is when you sell it (as with our fixation with houses as an 'investment' rather than as somewhere nice to live!).

There are all manner of ways of valuing a company and it it is instructive to see what each method comes up with, but in the end the value of an asset is what someone else is prepared to pay for it. Which begs the question is a company sold or bought? My experience is definitely the latter. I know investors want you to have an exit strategy, but it should be just that. Spending too much time too soon trying to sell something you haven't yet formulated can be counter productive. The key focus has to be creating value and reducing risks, both of which mean a higher valuation at whatever point this is crystalised.

And don't forget price is negotiable, so make sure you hone up these skills to maximise the price you get for you get for all your hard work. And remember if you are only selling part of the company, you have to work with whoever purchases equity from you so implicitly it can't be an overwealmingly good deal. Each side has to be reasonably happy with the outcome. If either side isn't just a little unhappy at the outcome it probably is a bad deal! Balancing risk and reward is what it is all about and remember the lower the risk and greater the future value is realised quicker the more you can expect to get if you sell something today. Do the sums can quickly shed some light on whether your business plan proposals have any chance of becoming a done deal.

To register for the workshop on the 20th May, click here!

Laying Polished Pitches Perfectly

2009-05-05T01:55:00.000-07:00

In the run up to our June Investment Forum we provide 'pitch' mentoring to presenting companies to help them hone idea into something non-specialists in their field can understand. The ability to talk about a technical subject in layman's terms is rarely what these companies have to do day in day out, but when it comes to raising investment it's crucial. This is also an invaluable opportunity for presenters to get feedback, share good practice and see the other side of presenting an understandable pitch. Often it is not until you have tried to explain what is so sparkling about a proposition that you realise it isn't polished enough!

These Company Assessment Groups (CAGs) are made up of the mentors that are assigned to each company that are drawn from our sponsors. The companies get high-quality feedback from people who have heard it all before. So when they present at the Forum, they have the best possible chance of winning over investors and raising the finance they need to make their dreams a reality. This mentoring and support is a key part of the Connect model. We also provide support to companies that may not looking to raise funding, but still want to benefit from this external input through our Springboard programme.

If you are interested in getting your business plan more polished or pitch perfect, do get in touch...

Mixing Ingredients For Success

2009-04-27T02:15:00.000-07:00

I think it’s important to appreciate the relationship between three key ingredients in any business: enterprise, innovation and finance. An entrepreneur is a person who operates and assumes the risk for a business venture. Innovation which is the process of making improvements by introducing something new. Every successful company needs combination of these two ingredients, plus a healthy dollop of money. And they need to be mixed!

Getting these three ingredients to work together is the key to success. Each needs better understand each other’s language, motivations and values. This is doubly important in the UK where VCs and equity funders traditionally have an accountancy background compared to their more tech savvy USA counterparts.

Initiatives like the Enterprise Fellowship Scheme funded by Yorkshire Forward is a sterling example of how researchers can get some entrepreneurial DNA spiced into them without compromising their academic integrity. Having a potential commercial outcome in mind from the outset can inform the research as much as that all important journal publication. At Connect, we are increasingly involving academics on our company assessment panels to help assess technical innovations coming from the private sector.

Great companies are built by teams that bringing together money, management and ideas. You need a critical mass of these components and the infrastructure to connect them. People are the ultimate technology transfer agent and commercialisation is a ‘Contact’ sport. And organisations like Connect can provide an important mechanism for catalyzing and promoting this reaction, linking entrepreneurs and innovators with the resources they need to succeed.

Our upcoming Connect Investment Forum provides a key platform for promoting this interaction. We also provide online introductions through MyDealMaker and publish a periodic Investor Bulletin to bring companies on our radar screen to the attention of potential investors.

It's a Jungle Out There

2009-04-21T01:39:00.000-07:00

I spoke at a recent Insider Spark event on the subject of 'What Education Can Do For Business'
In my experiences partnerships only work when both sides get something out of the relationship and ideally this happens when the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, creating a virtuous circle of success.

Mary Walshaw, the founder of Connect San Diego, talks about Shared Risk and Reward, and a collective sense of ‘ownership’. Community over individual institution or company. She also talks about creating an innovation ecosystem that is more rainforest than plantation. New ideas form at the intersection between disciplines, where cross fertilization occur, serendipity plays it part and diversity thrives in some chaos.

Now I am not saying orderly process and a commercialisation pipeline do not have a part to play, but innovation is non-linear and trying to select the winners and losers at too early a stage is not necessarily useful or doable. A vibrant innovation ecosystem gives new commercial concepts and ideas a fighting chance. Yes, if they do have the right DNA to thrive then the plantation analogy takes hold and that is where real VC funding comes into play. Once something emerges from the 'forest' that looks promising, then the emphasis needs to shift towards control, replication and development with a 'plantation' mentality to leverage value. These stages of a companies development are very different and the people that revelled in the early-stage anarchy may not be best suited to raising things in straight lines to regimented schedules.

But at the Proof Of Concept and Seedcorn stage you have to accept failure is necessarily omnipresent with success. There is a tendency to want to wait until something is proven before wanting to invest in it. We all want to make managed stepwise progress that avoids the risk of failure. The fact of life is that no matter how carefully you plan, you can't avoid making mistakes as part of the journey. Being too focused on the certain winners can be counter productive to the health of the overall ecosystem.

The key question is whether this early stage funding and support is seen as being focused on maintaining the diversity and health of the innovation jungle or is it to grow good ideas in plantations?

A Debt to Equity

2009-04-14T01:24:00.000-07:00

A new website http://www.firstfunding.org/ focused on raising debt financing from Business Angels has recently launched which is extolling the virtues of companies of this form of finance, rather than equity funding. As they note, most funding rounds for early stage businesses may incorporate a mixture of debt and equity, normally with the equity funders leveraging off the debt funding that is available from government back schemes, such as the Enterprise Capital Fund. Therefore, I am a bit bemused that the website leads on debt financing.

Making money by lending to companies the banks won't back is a tough ask without the equity element. The reality for most Business Angel deals is that the ones that fly need to pay for the ones that don't and no matter what interest rate you apply to a loan, the reality is that participation in the equity upside is required to make the numbers add up from a portfolio perspective. Our own FastInvest loan scheme seeks to do this by us agreeing with the company an appropriate equity option. Obviously not all companies we back will go on to greatness, but if some do we have a chance of getting back more than the accrued interest and capital.

There is a danger for many young businesses that they take on too much debt too early and not enough equity. Connect Yorkshire exists to help companies make the right funding choices and we offer impartial advice. Just as with the banks, making loans to companies requires that they generate sufficient cash flows to repay on the agreed schedule. The great virtue of equity is that there is usually no obligation to repay it unless there is an exit for all shareholders. Between pure debt and equity are a range of instruments to balance risk and reward. Attending our Investor Readiness Programme that gets underway on the 22nd April is a great way to get to grips with this subject. Why not register to come along and learn more about debt and equity funding!

Is Planning 20/20 Vision?

2009-04-06T01:10:00.000-07:00

Someone once said making predictions is hard, especially about the future. So while the G20 where planning our collective futures, the 20:20 Vision event last week featured Mark Faulkner, a former colonel in the Royal Dragoon Guards, who talked about "Fighting the tactical battle whilst winning the war against the economy". So what can waging war teach us about business? Well, quite a lot actually!

'Effect Orientation' was a major theme. Your soldiers (employees) need to understand the intent and context i.e. what your goals are and what stands in your way. The 'How' is devolved down, allowing initiative within constraints. The ultimate goal is to achieve a common purpose, not necessarily just to follow due process that gets you nowhere. This allows proactive action and initiative, rather than just being reactive to the enemy (competitors).

Colonel Faulkner put forward a framework (not a process) for thinking about planning a campaign:

Identify the What and the Why.
Define what you know and don't know
What resources you have
The actions to take (which lead to effects)
Timeline (when to do things in a synergistic or harmonious way).
Monitoring
Control

Mike Briercliffe commented in his summation"No plan survives contact with the enemy", so the ability to be adaptive and resilient is just as important as a well thought out cunning plan! However good it is, it's going to change as you engage reality.

For those of you involved in software development this has parallels in object orientated development where the focus in on identifying decoupled activities and focus on the external impact of objects, rather than the internal workings. This also emphasises hierarchical decomposition and solving independent subproblems in parallel.

One attendee commented that this theme might be incorporated into our Investment Readiness Programme. I couldn't agree more! Everyone in business is waging a war on uncertainty and making decisions with limited information. In any campaign, effect orientation (what difference an activity or action makes) is the key.

Another key point was in resource limited situations, you don't simply respond by spreading your jam uniformly thin, but focus resources where they can make most impact. Companies that are responding to the recession by simply freezing wages or cutting marketing budgets may end up surviving the battle but lost the war.

Are Two Heads Better Than One?

2009-03-30T01:38:00.000-07:00

The controversy surrounding Sir Stuart Green's stewardship of Marks & Spenser by combining the Chief Executive and Chairman role has resurfaced once again with shareholders up in arms that so much power resides with one man. They are right to be agrieved that anyone, however good, believes they alone can be relied upon to deliver superior returns for shareholders.

Any good CEO needs a good chairman - the two roles are different and necessary. Even small SMEs can benefit from the perspective an external chairman or mentor can bring to the company. It is widely recognised that a CEO can perform even better with a sounding board for his or her ideas. I would be with Sir Stuart in resisting having an executive chairman on board. Anyone full time in the role is simply going to get in the way operationally and loses that all important external perspective.

Similarly, I am not a fan of joint roles and responsibilities, which just serves to be divisive and confusing to other staff. If you have functional heads accountable for the performance of the company in that area then that focus is beneficial and good. Everyone needs to be part of the team, but in the end someone needs to do something to move things forwards in specific areas. I do hope that Sir Stuart is a good delegator because doing the work of two people (as soon as you can afford not to) ain't a smart move in business, however good you are.

Taking The Plunge In A Recession

2009-03-23T02:00:00.000-07:00

Some top tips if you are thinking of starting your own business:

Do not be put off by the downturn. Many companies will be reconsidering their cost base and you may be able to offer a more cost-effective solution. Adversity stimulates change.
Don't leave your job too soon. Develop your new project at weekends, in the evening or in your lunch break for as long as you can. You need to keep the cash coming in and when you make the leap, make sure you are not going to run out of it.

Do not take on overheads. Fancy offices and expense accounts can wait. Be ruthless about keeping fixed costs low.

Do not spend money on shotgun advertising. PR and targeted advertising is a much better bet for a young company.

Do not engage expensive professional advisers too soon. Learn the basics yourself and tap into free advice available from the likes of Business Link and Connect Yorkshire!

Do not rely on bank debt exclusively (chance would be a fine thing). You need a range of sources of finance. Equity, leasing, invoice discounting, customer discounts to pay upfront (or even before you can ship anything to them if you can).

Do not be too ambitious, too soon. By all means dream, but set achievable goals and realistic targets. You need to get to base camp before trying to reach the summit of your ambitions.

Know your customer. Every product needs tweeking once the first customers get their grubby hands on it - don't expect to get it right first time nomatter how hard you try.

Know your market sell into it well. No matter how good you think you are, you need to beat a path to the customers door and not the other way around.

Keep going. You have to be in the game to win it.

To find out more about getting fit for finance and developing your business idea, come to our upcoming Investment Readiness seminars.

Reflections On The Enterprise Show

2009-03-16T03:14:00.000-07:00

Having spent a day at the Enterprise Show it reminds me of the need to have an alignment from encouraging entrepreneurs to providing the right start up advice, access to finance, and networks to inspire enterprise and growth ambition. The right business support made available at the right time, especially so at the early stage, is essential for innovation to flourish. Most importantly, innovation requires strong and effective business networks. The evidence is that building a successful business is a contact sport and partnerships, teamwork and community are essential.

Physical closeness is undoubtedly important. Silicon Valley and the Cambridge cluster, the rise of the high-tech community around Boston and San Diego all have things in common, not least the active involvement a dominant research-led university. Yorkshire is blessed with not one but at least five world class academic institutions which not surprisingly tend to vie with each other for superiority which with this catalysing focus in mind is not necessarily entirely a good thing. Good networks and geographic focus can help to foster commercialisation and growth.

The Enterprise show is a good example of a key element that fills one of the gaping holes in provision - which is help for the general public to get their business idea off the ground. This is also the space where Connect primarily operates. It will be interesting to see whether the new innovation voucher scheme leads to more engagement between the general public and the universities in pursuing enterprise and innovation. They have thirteen in the region to choose from...

Is Research Opinionated?

2009-03-02T02:28:00.000-08:00

Coming from a scientific background, my idea of research is to have a question, then collect evidence to inform it. The opinion formed or conclusions is the real crux of any research project and the ability to analyse and organise information to further the understanding of a subject - by whatever small amount - is what really matters.

Is a bunch of statistics and facts however well laid out a sufficient body of work to be classed as research? A recent piece of market research for one of our companies consisted of over 100 pages of information primarily extracted from Mintel reports. Similarly, I recently read a commissioned report that purported to be a piece of research, but again was just a collection of pertinent facts relating to a particular market and geography.

While no doubt this information is highly relevant and informative to certain readers, I question whether this should be called research. Or am I just being too protective of the phrase?

Two Banks of a Technology Pond

2009-01-19T06:36:00.000-08:00

The British persona tends to be self-deprecating and reserved when it comes to trumpeting our successes and rather backwards at coming forwards when it comes to converting innovation and research into commercial reality, particularly when compared to our US counterparts.

There is a tendency in the UK to wait until something is proven before investing in it, whereas the USA has more of an appetite for risk. Americans will try something new, if it works they embrace it and believe more, if it doesn't they purse another opportunity. This non-deterministic approach contracts sharply with our tendency in the UK to want to make managed stepwise progress that avoids the risk of failure. The fact of life is that no matter how carefully you plan, you can't avoid some false starts and the need to backtrack and admit making mistakes are all part of the journey.

Having lived and worked on both sides of the pond, my experience is that its the balance between three essential elements of tech success: IP, management and money. And the stigma attached to failure. In the USA there are more tech entrepreneurs prepared to back early stage ideas that VCs or bankers (right so!) wouldn't take even a first look at. This business angel involvement at proof of concept enables new ideas to get one foot out of the lab and onto the radar screen of serious funders with some management DNA already spliced in. Similarly American VCs employ (or are started up) by more tech-savvy people, rather than being top heavy with lawyers and accountants (not that these skills aren't important!). American VC tend then to step in an put serious money into fewer companies that are in better shape to progress than those in the UK enabling a more of a seamless transition from idea to commercialisation

So maybe we need a little more joined-up thinking that combines money, enterprise, innovation and management...

New Year Predictions

2009-01-03T01:00:00.000-08:00

OK here goes:

Connect Yorkshire helps even more companies get investment ready and pitch for investment through its flagship investment forums, investment challenges and business plan competitions.

The rest of the UK increasingly embrace the Connect model and new initiatives are rolled out in London and the North East.

A UK wide online platform that brings together entrepreneurs with the resources to they need to succeed is launched that complements and extends our regionally focused 'on the ground' activities.

Yorkshire Forward announces a region-wide investment fund as a follow on for Partnership Investment Finance and the South Yorkshire Investment Fund that incorporates a much needed seedcorn element.

The Business Support Simplification agenda leads to more joined-up thinking with regard to investment readiness support and access to finance across the piste.

Connect promotes its flagship 'Springboard' initiative to help early-stage propositions get their business plans into shape - even if they are not necessarily wishing to raise external finance.

Cloud computing and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) gains increasing traction in the market and we all start buying PCs with smaller hard disk drives.

One can but dream...Happy New Year!

It's Good To Be A Little Bad or Mad

2008-12-15T09:23:00.000-08:00

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."

- Mark Twain

A lot of entrepreneurs worry about people stealing their bright ideas. In my experience, ideas are easy - its execution that's hard. And even if your idea is brilliant, the best ones aren't necessarily so. Any really good new idea will seem either bad or mad to most people; otherwise someone in China will already be doing it. Your idea needs to be almost good and it helps if the world around you helps turn your fad into a fashion. Look at all the money going into green energy - its even got its own name 'CleanTech'. Most funders are driven by consensus, not just within their firms, but within their community. Surely that's exactly how the credit bubble happened - everyone was doing it, so it must be a good idea. Not.

And being too clever ain't necessarily a good idea either. My claim to fame is that my Ph.D was part of a research project that won E.J. Corey his Nobel Prize. That research itself never generated anything that was directly commercial. However, the spin-offs that were successful were infinitely less ambitious in their goals, but solved real-world problems in an explainable way. It’s a great case study of how a small change of perspective and focus on an addressable market opened up a commercial opportunity – and why trying to be too smart is not always a good idea in the real world!

So when the next small-minded person tells you what you are trying to do is bad or mad, breath a sigh of relief that maybe you on the path to greatness! Someone right now is probably telling the next Google why what they are doing isn't such a bright idea. And he probably works for a bank!

Bonfires, Dry Stone Walls, Clouds, Inches & Death Computing

2008-12-08T01:49:00.000-08:00

Colin Beveridge spoke at the 20/20 Vision event organised by Sandford Technology/Virtronix on Fighting the Trillion Dollar Bonfire (effective information systems for the 21st Century). His conclusion seemed to be that system integration is the way forwards. I have to agree. Most IS systems seems like good old Yorkshire stone walls - they require immense intricacy to put them together and great skill to build, then they fall down after a while because there's nothing but air and friction holding them together. What we need is some 'cement' to hold the functional bricks together and facilitate process, workflow, data sharing and increased productivity. Yorkshire Forward seem to have woken up to the fact that each 'brick in the wall' they fund is replicating data and not sharing it effectively with each other. They are introducing a CRM that all agencies can tap into, leverage and generally use. Great idea! I have been saying this for three year's and every other agency seemed to wave the data protection act at me as to why we can't share information more!!!

The death of the corporate datacentre seemed to also be on the vendor agenda with all our data being entrusted to third parties (like this blog and my emails). Ian Weatherhog and Mike Briercliffe waxed lyrically about how the PC was the root of all evil when it came to data security (he also spoke at our recent TechTalk event). I can remember far enough back when I accessed the old cloud i.e. our corporate IT server from a remote PC and the data could be viewed, but not manipulated. We used to say all this valuable data was "an inch from the desktop" and spent ten years going that final inch and start turning data into information, albeit with security and integrity compromised. Now we seem to be poised to unify the competing factions with the eventual promise of network computing and Larry Ellison's vision of thin clients that all they do is the final rendering.

I suppose it's only a matter of time before we all have enough certainty that "till death us do part" our data is safe and backed up in the cloud and not deleted when our credit card expires. Now that's what I call security.

Snow Report

2008-12-01T02:28:00.000-08:00

‘Solutions for Business – funded by government’ is a package of business support to help companies start, grow and succeed. The launch event was fittingly held last Friday in a casino! Simon Hill from Yorkshire Forward explained how they have streamlined thousands of public-funded support products into a package of thirty. My take on it was that they have identified a set of product categories under which individual solutions would fit, which is not exactly the same thing! Like the fact that multiple inheritance in object-oriented systems is technically feasible, but not a good idea in practise, going forwards hybrid products that fit under two categories would disappear, which is perfectly sensible.

But let's remember this is just a conceptualisation of reality that dices and slices things to offer a palatable solution that hides complexity, maximised cohesion and minimises coupling (see my Keep it Simple Stupid post). For example, lets take business mentoring - it is valuable before and after investment but has been and probably will continue to be separated into investor readiness support and 'money with management'. And there's nothing wrong with that, but in another conceptualisation it could be brought together, but that would require closer coordination between organisations like Connect and the investment funds.

We all want things to appear as simple as possible, but as with systems biology, life introduces complexity as the thing evolves. That's not to say we shouldn't group together things - that's what an organ is. Eskimo's have twenty words for 'snow', because it's an important concept to them. Try telling them they don't need the other nineteen.

Something For Nothing

2008-11-28T01:33:00.000-08:00

Grave concerns about personal liberties and freedoms are thrown up by the proposed national identity card scheme, but judging by the discussion at TechTalk 2008, advertisers are already tracking our every move. Andrew Burke, CEO of Amino Technologies and former CEO of BT Entertainment said that media companies would need to look at supermarkets who run loyalty card schemes so they know exactly what customers are buying and when. Already Google analyse email traffic to target advertising based on content and Phorn are seeking to strike deals with ISPs to monitor all Internet traffic to profile user interests.

One of the investment forum presenters, Prescient, have developed a electronic nose and a recent applicant to the Yorkshire Concept fund has developed a vision system to profile people by age, ethnic origin, etc. Maybe not perfect, but better than nothing. What then stands in the way of not only profiling people by their data traffic but also their personal traits as we stand in front of an advertising display or shopfront? Maybe I am getting paranoid, but the thought of being offered a voucher for body products or a discount on a zimmer frame based on my appearance or body odour sounds just a step too far in personal profiling.

Keep it simple stupid

2008-09-23T02:57:00.000-07:00

Complexity and chaos surrounds us as we try to steer our organisations through these uncertain economic times. The Utopian solution seems to be simplicity and calm which has a compelling magnetism for those exhausted by the rough seas of change or the choppy waters of the stock market. So can we engineer simplicity in and complexity out of our lives?

As a former system designer I applied three simple principles to tame complexity:

1) Do as much as you have to and no more. Minimalism is good; don't add bells and whistles until someone says they will pay for them. Technical people always want to over engineer things.
2) Seek functional cohesion by solidifying related activities into one place or unit so complexity is hidden inside rather than exposed to the poor consumer of the service. It's better that every body does just one thing well rather than lots of people doing the same thing a number of different ways twice. I'm not saying redundancy is bad, rather replication is good!
3) Decouple things so there are not intimate links between components. If you then want to swap one thing for another the whole can be oblivious to the change as everything carries on working as it should.

The key is to hide necessary complexity from the end user/consumer, but remember doing clever things is difficult and complex otherwise everyone would be doing them. Removing complexity can have its costs and can be far from a simple matter. As Einstein famously said "Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler". I'll take capably complex over stupidly simple any time.

Seeing Beyond The Obvious

2008-09-08T01:28:00.000-07:00

Having got a PhD in business strategy, I must know what I'm doing, right? More accurately I spent three years trying to teach a computer to think strategically. Bad idea! The problem was seeing the bigger picture and having a holistic view ain't something that bits and bytes find easy to do. Neither is it that simple as an organisation gets bigger and more than one person has responsibiliy for driving things forwards. If this rings true for you, then tune into our webinar series that will kick of with a session on Business Planning for Growth on the 16th September.

Running a business is all about having a bigger vision that the various 'factions', however you have diced and sliced the pie operationally, can understand, buy into and get behind without necessarily being 100% happy. In my experience, a decision that one department loves and another hates in invariably the wrong one for the organisation as a whole. This is what you get when silo mentality and operation detail dominates. But if decision makers don't know what the overall strategy is or what constitutes success in the longer term, i.e. the organisation is rudderless and going nowhere fast because there is no bigger picture, then all they can do is make the decision that's best for them, right here right now.

Unfortunately, the correct strategic decision can be often less than optimal tactically or indeed downright wrong from a short-term perspective, so devolved decision making has its risks. Seeing beyond the obvious and doing the right strategic thing is what differentiates the long-term winners, but equally empowering employees to make decisions is also crucial to success. So not surprisingly this is a tricky balance to strike - and if you are running a business it's your job to do this!

After once canning a development project because it was the right strategic thing to do, my technical manager said to me at the time: "We are the thoroughbreds in this space and this decision sucks. Apparently, horses can't vomit, so pardon me for the cliche but I am as sick as a very refined parrot".

Remember, if you are a business leader, feeling bad that you have had to make the right but difficult strategic decision is better than feeling good about making the obvious and easy tactical one. But if you ain't got a clear long-term business strategy, do the latter then sign up to our webinar on the 16th!

Academic Commercialisation: The Third Way?

2008-08-14T03:55:00.000-07:00

In an earlier post, Fail Fast Fail Early, focused on healthcare companies optimising their pipeline development, I asked whether there was a better way of commercialising medicines. Well GSK and Cambridge University have come with an interesting alternative development model using “academic incubators” to optimise the early clinical development of new medicines.

Cambridge will dedicate a team of academic experts to develop drugs with therapeutic potential, as well as bearing some financial risk for which they'd be compensated if the programme is a success. GSK will provide operational support, access to its in-house clinical research and imaging facilities, and background preclinical data on the drug. The agreement is fully aligned with one of the key recommendations of the Cooksey Review of UK Health Research Funding that consideration should be given to alternative drug development models, such as Public Private Partnerships, to optimise effective collaboration between industry and academic sectors in the development of effective new medicines.

Whether this is "ground-breaking approach" or just a sensible way of outsourcing development of low priority orphan drugs is open to debate. It does however establish a joined up pipeline from academic research towards commercialisation that may university inspired projects lack - despite their efforts to bolt on commercialisation activities. Also the fact that the projects are GSK sponsored gives a commercial focus to the activity from the outset that will undoubtedly benefit the eventual business outcomes. As we have seen with the Enterprise Fellowship projects backed by Yorkshire Forward, having some commercialisation DNA and focus at an early stage is invaluable.

Making Your Own Luck

2008-08-04T07:58:00.000-07:00

Gary Player once remarked "It's funny, the more I practise, the luckier I get". So should a failed entrepreneur be given a second chance? The argument goes that you learn valuable learn valuable lessons from failure, so you should be more likely to succeed second time around. But others argue that experience gained from one failed business is unlikely to apply to a second, due to the unpredictability of chance. "You can't learn to win the lottery" No, but if you are lucky you can influence the amount you win (my tip, don't select the numbers 1,2,3,4,5,6 as 10,000 others have then!).

Getting into a position to profit from being a little bit lucky is probably was differentiates successful entrepreneurs, but no one is lucky all of the time. So whether you eventually profit from a bit of good business fortune is very much down to the experience of the management team. All you can do is deal yourself a good hand, but whether you win a particular pot or hole a specific putt is partially down to fate. Embracing this risk is what equity investing is all about. So if anyone says they have only been associated with success they have either are a one-trick pony or very, very lucky! In business, lessons are best learned from those who have been mainly successful...

TechTalk Speakers

2008-06-09T02:51:00.000-07:00

We've got a great line up for TechTalk which will be held on the afternoon of our Investment Forum on the 18th June in Leeds. Deidre Bounds Founder of i-to-i; Kevin Walsh group Executive Director of Kingston Communications; Jonathan Straight Founder of Straight plc; and Neil Gaydon of Pace plc.

The TechTalk afternoon allows you to hear these high-tech businesses leaders give their provocative thoughts on the challenges facing the sector today. TechTalk 2008 offers the opportunity for you to debate topical issues and share valuable knowledge and experience. Find out how they succeeded and what they feel makes for a formidable business opportunity.

Who Should Attend? Anyone with an interest in the technology scene! Whether you are a leader of an established or SME technology business or an aspiring entrepreneur, TechTalk is the perfect opportunity to develop strategies for success. Equally if you are an investor or service provider with a passion for developing and investing in innovative ideas, TechTalk will help you hone your strategies for success.

Registration for TechTalk, including lunch and the champagne reception, is £75 plus vat. To register online, please Click Here. Alternatively, contact Connect Yorkshire with your full contact details on email: events@connectyorkshire.org or Tel: 0113 384 5640.

Does Cream Rise To The Top?

2008-05-16T03:00:00.000-07:00

The Richard Report has a major theme that brokering 'something' is best achieved by the market deciding who or what is best using the 'wisdom of crowds' rather than the seal of approval of the broker. But is it that simple?. At Connect, a key selling point of our service is that we help put forward the best propositions to investors so they don't waste their time filtering out the 'bad uns'. Can Web technology ensure the cream of the crop rise to the top without the broker being the ultimate discriminator of what is best?

How do you find 'good uns'? If you follow the natural selection approach, you need an innovation ecosystem that encourages mutations and experimentation and let the marketplace decide those that are best i.e. most likely to survive and hence reproduce. As Nobel laureate Linus Pauling said: “have lots of ideas and throw away the bad ones…. You aren't going to have good ideas unless you have lots of ideas and some sort of principle of selection.”

With MyDealMaker we are trying to develop this approach to complement and extend our physical pitching events. Within reason anyone with what they think is a bright idea can put up their profile. We can try to give some quality assessment based on our engagement with the entrepreneur. Have they gone through our Investor Readiness Programme? Have they taken the trouble to fill out a detailed profile etc. But where it gets interesting is if, as Richard's suggests, the portal offers the functionality necessary for the market or software itself to promote the best and demphasise the rest.

But lets not get too carried away with all this. Online screening is just that: its a filtering process that can reduce the many to a few based on something more than a one dimensional view of quality or who you stood next to in the queue for the food at a networking event. But just like you don't buy an house based on its profile on RightMove, entering into a meaningful relationship with a business advisor or investing in what appears to be a bright idea on paper requires a little more interaction than can be done online. Physical engagement is still needed to seal any deal!

So I'm with Doug Richard on this - the brokerage need to provide the marketplace first and foremost and this provision and any signposting ideally should not consume a signicant percentage of the transaction it facilitates. Online brokering portals that match those with a need with those best able to provide it have the potential to change the balance of responsibility between brokers, providers and consumers and more importantly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the marketplace.

Small but Perfectly Formed

2008-05-13T08:48:00.000-07:00

When I was in merger talks with a larger company (OK read takeover!) I commented to their CEO that they had muscles in placed we didn't even have places! When things get big, do they really need to become more complex or does it go with the territory?

When businesses grow to more than eight people, holding company meetings in the rest room is no longer as feasible as it once was. Structure need to be put in place and when a job becomes bigger than one person, departments evolve.

The trick is to align related functions together and put in process orientated 'glue' to make sure the external world doesn't get exposed to (necessary) internal complexity. 'Join up thinking' and 'non-silo mentality' seems to be the in vogue phrases. Trying to have one department doing everything, so no glue is required, is about as bad as having individuals pulling in different directions and having loads of gaffer tape holding them together (which to be fair is what is invariably the end result of any growth phase for a business).

So I am not quite sure how to react to the government target of reducing 3,000 support projects down to 100 by 2010. Don't get me wrong, I am sure this can be done but why stop at 100? I thought 42 was the answer to life the universe and everything. But as Einstein said: Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler.

First Footing In The North East

2008-04-29T03:35:00.000-07:00

The momentum behind the Connect network was given a lift in the North East with an inaugural Investment Conference held in Newcastle. Glenn Collinson, a co-founder of Cambridge Silicon Radio gave a keynote speech. CSR was a spin out from Cambridge Consultants in 1998 and was lucky to raise their seed funding before the technology bubble burst.

He emphasised that they started out with global ambitions and always believed as a team they could win against the likes of Intel by being more fleet of foot and innovative. They benefitted from Bluetooth being a royalty-free open standard and, as such, a great market to go for (and never having less than $30M in the bank having raised a total of $85M in VC funding!).

Glenn commented that being first is not necessarily good. Those that follow learn from your mistakes and the education/development of the market. Market pioneers take most of the arrows!

Creative Finance & Risk

2008-04-23T06:35:00.000-07:00

The Creative Industries sector lies at the intersection between business, the arts, and technology. The innovative marriage of technological advances and intellectual capital provides the main source of sustainable wealth creation in this sector. Learning from experimentation and failure are key to achieving success and sustained growth. Many Creative Industries participants are subject to shifting fashion and new technologies pose a constant threat to existing activities introducing a high degree of business uncertainty. At the same time, this inherent dynamism and change is constantly opening new opportunities and threats. As a result, the Creative Industries tend to be viewed by investors as inherently high-risk while potentially offering high rewards.

We are currently undertaking a project to identify the specific risks relating to investing in the Creative Industries and how they can be mitigated. If any creative types (either brave investors or bright entrepreneurs) out there might be interested in participating in this research, please get in touch...

Anarchy vs. Organisation

2008-03-28T06:47:00.000-07:00

Mary Walshock, the founder of Connect San Diego, argues that an innovation ecosystem should be more like a rainforest than a plantation. We want to encourage cross fertilisation, experimentation and, yes, endure some failure if we are to find a new species of business that can thrive by doing things and solving problems in new, improved ways.

Can you project manage this activity or plot a linear path towards success? Once something emerges from the 'forest' that works, then the emphasis needs to shift towards control, replication and nurturing with a 'plantation' mentality to leverage value. These stages of a companies development are very different and the people that revelled in the early-stage anarchy may not be best suited to raising things in straight lines to regimented schedule.

Maybe like organising your Outlook folders, falling between these two extremes may be the worst of all worlds. Let me explain: have you every tried searching for an email in Outlook? If you organise your folders you have to search each one in turn. Its much simpler just to put everything in one folder and rely on a global text search a la Google. Being either totally anarchic or amazingly organised is the perfect state in Outlook, but anything either way is less perfect.

My Outlook analogy says putting a plantation grower in charge of cultivating a forest isn't the most productive approach, but isn't this exactly what happens most of the time? Is partial cultivation as much an oxymoron as organised chaos?

Gender-Based Finance

2008-03-13T07:07:00.000-07:00

Budget 2008 introduces a package of measures to support small businesses access the finance and resources they need to start up and grow. What caught my eye was the announcement of a new £12.5M capital fund to invest in businesses started by women.

I have trawled the HMRC website to try to find out more about how is that going to work but to no avail. Most businesses are built around a team, not one individual. Can men be part of the management team and have any equity share? What if other outside investors gets involved that have more testosterone (chemical structure shown) than they should?

Plenty of companies relocate to access geographically-constrained finance. Are we now going to see the first sex change to gain funding? Surely there are better ways to encourage female entrepreneurs than this. Creating an ecosystem that nurtures and support people seeking to build a business would be a better use of this money than distorting the market in this way. Investors should be backing bright ideas and good people, not worrying about genetic makeup.

New Beginnings

2008-03-06T06:13:00.000-08:00

Seven of Yorkshire's most innovative companies were recognised for their enterprise at the Innovator/08 awards. Former politician Michael Portillo hosted the evening and presented the winners with their awards. Medipex took the Innovation Champion Award sponsored by Connect Yorkshire.

As one of the few people that has successfully made the transition from politics into the media, in his preamble to the prize giving, Mr. Portillio eluded to his 1997 election defeat and subsequent humiliation on a number of occasions, noting that failure offered new beginnings and that people that had only tasted success lack a certain roundness of perspective in their DNA. He also discussed the benefits of teamwork and camaraderie that those at the top might lack exposure to. Some pivotal moments in politics were the result of an isolation leader making fundamental errors of judgement, partly due to this isolation.

This has similar implications in business where the CEO can benefit from a sounding board for ideas and a sanity check on the direction he or she is taking the ship in. Our new Springboard initiative is worth a look with regard to this.

Not So Free Lunch

2008-02-26T08:16:00.000-08:00

We were delighted so many of our sponsors and partners joined us at our annual sponsors lunch.
Over lunch we asked attendees to discuss the topic "Where should Connect Yorkshire increase its momentum and focus?" An Albert Einstein quote:"Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler" always comes to mind when thinking about how to make the most impact with limited resource. My table didn't get much beyond debating the meaning of the word 'Where', but as someone new to Connect commented "Given that entrepreneurs can benefit from the activities of Connect pretty much for free, it should be a no brainer to become a member." If anyone in the blogosphere wants to have their two penny worth as to how the Connect network can be bigger and better, please feel free to add a comment to this post.

Nothing Ventured...

2008-02-08T07:22:00.000-08:00

Deirdre Bounds gave a passionate talk at the Venturefest Yorkshire 2008 dinner. As a former stand up comic I expected a few more laughs, but she mainly focused on her journey from 'bedsit to boardroom'.

What was her take home message? Well mainly that if you have got an idea just do it, even if no one around you gets it: if you believe in yourself you can succeed in realising your vision. This was rather at odds with Ajaz Ahmed's talk earlier in the day where he was lamblasting government support agencies for backing 'lame duck' ideas that were destined to fail and that people shouldn't be given 'false hope' that they can become 'supermodels'

I must admit to being more with Deirdre on this one. Sure, we need to screen out the ideas and people that are just plain daft and applaud the ones that are sure fire winners (because they, like Deirdre, will fly without any outside help or an outside investor getting a slice of the action). But in the beauty contest that is innovation and enterprise, the winners and losers will sort themselves out in the marketplace (think dancefloor, not stage). Out there it's execution and the audience vote that counts: the wisdom of crowds, not the opinion of experts. In my experience, most good ideas start off looking pretty ugly or just plain daft to conventional eyes. As Deirdre says 'We need to encourage weird'.

Building An Innovation Ecosystem: Rainforests vs Plantations

2008-01-30T02:23:00.000-08:00

Prof. Mary Walshok the founder of Connect in San Diego gave an inspiring talk at the Knowledge Capital Annual Lecture in Manchester focusing on the elements that led to their region to develop beyond tourism, real estate and agriculture into a powerhouse of technical innovation. She emphasised the need for regions to recognise and develop the assets they have but also to address the gaps then connect things together. As she note: "Like in Particle Physics when things collide you get reactions". The Connect program was that catalyst that brought people together. She emphasised the importance of community over company, shared purpose and a "sense of place".

Another interesting observation was that an innovation ecosystem should be more like a rainforest than a plantation. In this environment there is more uncertainty, density and diversity where the hybrid ideas arise from cross fertilisation and serendipity more than any organised linear process. Once a new idea has formed and proved itself to have something new and beneficial to offer to the market that's where cultivation and organisation become important.

Something for Nothing...

2008-01-25T23:30:00.000-08:00

Surely the best deal is the one that generates the greatest return on investment. But those apparently in the know keep telling me Proof-of-Concept funds can't make money. But aren't business angels tying to make money and they are managing their own mini -POC fund. If you can make money on a small scale why, I ask, doesn't this scale up?

If you watch Dragon's Den they are always looking for the largest percentage of equity they can get. But 100% of nothing is still nothing, so you could say that it doesn’t matter whether you get 20% or 40% (this has been the argument of a few VCs who seem to cut much more generous offers than the dragons do) given most will fail.

Surely the point is that for the 1 in 10 early stage deals that really do fly, what percentage you have of that one is very much the differentiator when you come to analysing the overall portfolio returns. Is the problem then that larger funds just aren't prepared to get down and dirty with regards to valuations whereas individual business angels are very much focused on getting more for less? The fact that an early stage business will often get the cheapest money it's going to get i.e. grant funding followed immediately by the most expensive in terms of equity investment does little to help the situation!

Web 2.0 Startup - Plain Sailing

2008-01-18T01:38:00.000-08:00

I attended the North West Startups event organised by Manoj Ranaweera in sunny Manchester - OK it was raining. Four interesting speakers. Stuart Scott-Goldstone talked about the legal aspects of a venture capital investment - necessary detail. Doug Stellmann of YFM Group gave some candid thoughts on investment from a VC perspective emphasising the importance of a stong management team that can react to change, admiting that very few investments follow closely to their business plan however perfectly crafted. The ability to sail through the trials and tribulations of a startup differentiates the winers from the losers. Paul Barraclough of Tecmentor talk on a subject close to my heart - crossing the chasm from early adopters to the mainstream and that very few companies find this plain sailing which reemphasised the need for agile management. Finally, Pam Holland ex-TeleCity reflected on her experience of staffing up a fast growth technology business - nice problem to have, but they didn't seem to have cracked the basic challenge of how to make more money the more you do. Spending money is a lot easier than making it!

On the Web 2.0 front (which was the main interest of entrepreneurs there) the prevailing view from the VCs was any application that you can code up in 3 months could be easily replicated in Bangalore or China, so from a professional investor perspective they would be unlikely to back it given so little barrier to entry. So think about creating something with a little more substance or have paying users before approaching a VC!

The Best Of Both Worlds

2008-01-16T04:14:00.000-08:00

So Facebook has an open API that allows you to add-in your application and tap into the millions of users on the platform. What's so innovative about that? Microsoft opened up their Office applications in the mid-nineties to allow add-in components to be seamlessly integrated into the GUI to complement and extend their platform in niche areas. This was good for the vertical market developers who didn't have to try to duplicate this base functionality and good for Microsoft who could get even better entrenched into these markets.

Similar business models have come to the deep and murky world of relational databases with the ability to create new object types in Oracle via 'data cartridges' that appeared on the scene in the early noughties. So my crystal ball didn't have much difficulty in predicting this development as the Web matures - but as they say hindsight is 20:20 vision. The good thing about this iteration is unlike those that went before the loosely coupled nature of the Web means that these component-based solutions are unlikely to interact in negative ways, but equally you may be able to see the joins, but the Web has taught us its benefits outway these disadvantages.

I look forward to seeing more innovative mashups and better support for component-based Web development rather than everyone reinventing the wheel and having to develop the basic backbones of a Web application. However, the hoards of web development companies that are out there may not quite see it that way! The benefit is that horizontal platforms providing generic capabilities can be extended to do more vertical market things, so the consumer gets the best of both worlds.

Selling Equity: The First Resort

2008-01-10T04:00:00.000-08:00

Selling equity in your business is hard, expensive and like oil, it's not a renewable resource. If you have any other easier or cheap alternative source of financing your business you should take it, but equally if you don't, do you really want to miss out on realising your dreams by preciously holding on to it - which is what far too many people do.

In business, a smaller slice of a bigger pie is invariably bigger than 100% of nothing. But therein lies the rub: An equity investor is looking to invest in a business that is scalable i.e. it can grow beyond being a 'lifestyle' business. So if you are serious about changing the world, gaining an equity investment should be your first and highest priority, as this is your only realistic means taking your business to the next level.

Our experience is that you can't be too prepared and our investment readiness process is invaluable in putting the foundations in place on which you can confidently pitch for the investment you need. How much is usually the next question. The reality is you need to find a balance between seeking too little and too much. This is where a business plan with realistic cash flow projections comes in. You need to have enough equity funding to meet you maximum cash requirement to get your product or service to market. Once you start selling something and you (just) need working capital, your funding options are cheaper & more varied: Factoring, overdraft, loans, etc.

Beating A Path To Your Door

2008-01-07T04:51:00.000-08:00

Interesting post on TechCrunch on the top ten tips for startups. Not so sure about tip 9: "Don’t plan a big marketing effort. It’s much more important and powerful that your community loves the product."

The biggest mistake a startup can make is to believe if you create a better mousetrap, customers will beat a path to your door. Yes, if it’s a totally great or revolutionary idea maybe word of mouth will out, but the reality is that for us mere morals, we need to find a balance between developing an even better product and selling what we have.

Remember: out of 10 people, one will buy your product just for the hell of it (or they thought it was something it wasn’t); one will never buy it no matter how good it is; and the other eight could generally take it or leave it. How many of those eight you convert into customers, and at what cost, will dictate how successful you ultimately are.

Our FastInvest loan scheme is designed to give young technologies that push needed to get out there marketing and selling their product. Yes, make it better, but it's never too soon to start validating market demand and selling!

New Year Predictions

2008-01-03T07:00:00.000-08:00

OK here goes:

Connect Yorkshire helps even more companies get investment ready and pitch for investment through its flagship investment forums, investment challenges and business plan competitions.

The rest of the Northern Way embrace the Connect model and it is rolled out in the North East and North West.

An online community of best practise, participation and support develops that brings together entrepreneurs with the resources to they need to help them succeed that extends beyond our traditional geographic boundary and the Web 2.0 community.

Yorkshire Forward announces a region-wide investment fund as a follow on for Partnership Investment Finance and the South Yorkshire Investment Fund that incorporates a much needed seedcorn element.

Component-based, service-oriented applications finally take centre stage with Web Mashups and loosely-coupled applications 'Web 2.0' increasingly replacing the monoliths of the past.

Connect launches its 'Springboard' initiative to help early stage propositions get their business plans into shape.

I finally access and use a Web site in a meaningful way through my mobile phone.

One can but dream...Happy New Year!