Building a Knowledge-Sharing E-Business Cluster within West Lothian

Final Report : executive summary Pdf version

1. Project Summary

The project is a partnership initiative led by West Lothian Council, the local authority with civic and public service remit for West Lothian. It involves Tech Mapp (Edinburgh University) in its implementation. In addition LEEL (the Local Enterprise Company) is now committed to working alongside the core partners in developing and implementing the project.

The project is seeking to demonstrate the practical value of e-business to the SME sector within West Lothian. This will be achieved through the following processes:

• Mapping of current activity and its value to the SME community, and promotion of the concept of e-business amongst business executives to reinforce the development of the e-business based cluster
• Identification of e-business champions and SME project mentors to be used as demonstrators of best practice with protégé SMEs
• Co-ordinating the design and delivery of pilot projects, leading to an integrated model which will form the basis for the Knowledge Resource Centre and reinforce the clustering process emerging in West Lothian
• Providing an evaluation of the processes and products to inform future development, to reinforce the process of clustering
• Generalise the processes and disseminate the best practice model(s) in Scotland, the UK and across the EU including through Epsilon network.

2. Project Objectives

The project aims to pursue the objectives of the European Commission’s Promise Programme, in particular through the promotion of Best use of IT – Networking initiative for business executives’ component. The BuKS project aims to:

• Contribute to improved strength of industry through fostering the development of a knowledge-sharing network of SMEs making effective use of electronic business (e-business) and ICT.
• Implement awareness actions for business managers through providing information, giving assistance, developing appropriate services and offering a networking approach.
• Provide a testing ground and demonstration example of supporting the emergence of clusters of SMEs based around effective use of ICT and e-business techniques

3. Local Strategic Context and Rationale

The project has been developed in response to local need and opportunity. West Lothian is regarded as capital of silicon glen, because of the emergence of new technology based manufacturing capacity. The OEMs and other inward investors locating in West Lothian, particularly in Livingston have fuelled this. There has also been a growth in entrepreneurship, though levels of business formation still lag behind other parts of the UK. Alongside foreign owned manufacturing concerns West Lothian has a range of SMEs operating in manufacturing, business services and distribution. These companies have both growth potential, but are vulnerable to change and recessionary pressures.

The trends described above have seen the number of jobs within the West Lothian economy increase from 50 to 60 thousand over the last decade. Unlike most other industrial areas within the UK and Europe, the disproportionate share of jobs found in manufacturing has remained constant (though the nature of employment has changed). The service sector has nevertheless grown in absolute terms.

Within this context, the public authorities and local chamber of commerce are committed to a joint strategy to build an economy for the knowledge age. There are a number of dimensions and practical features to this strategy:

• Promoting business competitiveness
• Increasing educational and skills levels
• Providing the right physical infrastructure
• Improving quality of life and West Lothian as a competitive location
• Tackling economic exclusion

In respect of the first of these themes there are a number of specific objectives that are germane to the BuKS West Lothian project:

• Doubling the number of indigenous companies that exports
• Doubling the number of West Lothian companies innovating new products
• Increasing the number of e-business transactions in-line with government targets
• Encouraging local knowledge networks

The BuKS West Lothian project in a focused way seeks to assist the development of a knowledge based local economy.

4. European Dimension

The BukS project is conceived as an integral part of the European network of experiences envisaged by the Call for Proposals. As such, the BuKS partnership is committed to:

1. Play a full part into making a success of the Umbrella Structure;
2. Disseminate and share its results to all members of the network;
3. Make available BuKS' methodology and vision of Knowledge Resources Centres to all those members interested in them;
4. Respond positively to other requests from members of the network, within the scope permitted by available resources.

The BuKS project is linked to a number of other local initiatives aimed at providing practical assistance to SMEs in exploiting the opportunities presented by ICT and e-business. These are described below, but it should be noted that EU programme support is and will be critical to the effective implementation of these measures – including through the Objective 2 Programme for Eastern Scotland, Objective 4, the new Objective 3 programme arrangements and Adapt.

5.1 Proposed Services and Project Content

5.1 Analysis and mapping of current level of activity and awareness within SME clusters and potential clusters.

The objective is to undertake a thorough mapping and intelligence gathering exercise focusing on the client group of SMEs and microfirms within West Lothian. This comprehensive approach seeks to ensure that the widest engagement and participation of the SME community is achieved.

This process will include:

• Review of previous and recent studies and research on e-business in West Lothian
• Comprehensive postal questionnaire to all 3,500 businesses based in West Lothian
• Structured interviews with up to 12 SMEs and microfirms, who are known to have developed some level of e-business activity and expertise.

5.2 Case studies of selected best-practice experiences

The objective is to build a knowledge resource on the experiences of both e-business firms and BuKS itself. Best practice case studies will be selected from a wide range of business sectors and size of firm. Up to 10best practice case studies will be identified and three will be selected for in-depth study and reporting

This Task consists of the following stages, recurrently implemented for each of the three case-studies:

• In-depth interviews and archival research
• Processing and analysis of information
• Writing of best-practice case studies
• Seek publication of case studies

5.3 Real-time evaluation of BuKS experience

The objective is to evaluate the BuKS experience as it happens using TechMaPP's Evolving Master Scenario (EMS).This will enable the provision of feedback to the process and will build the analytical and knowledge base for the final report on the impact of the experience.

This Task consists of two analytical reports synthesising developments, with emphasis on the state of the alignment process envisaged by BuKS.

5.4 Research Dissemination and Formation of E-business Champions Group

The objective is to effectively disseminate the results of the survey research to the SME and microfirm communities and to establish a group of e-business champions across the range of size and sectors. This will be achieved by:

• Delivery of two concatenated workshops focussing on:

1. Awareness raising and early entry level information, sign-posting and assistance to firms with little or no experience of e-business. This would be delivered in workshop format using appropriate case-studies identified through the survey

2. Development of e-business champion network selecting the best practice examples from the survey. This seminar will be smaller and targeted to promote synergies among individuals representing best practice across sectors; it will reinforce the position of these firms as local role models.

• Brief reports on the research results and the key action points from the two seminars will be produced as contributions to the knowledge resource base.

5.5 Maximising the awareness of E-business within the local SME base

The objective is to use thee-business champions as effective agents for change involving a select grouping of local SMEs and microfirms. Training seminars comprising company visits, invited mentors, case-study presentations and other related techniques will be used to transfer best practice from the e-business champions to groups of SMEs and microfirms. This will be achieved by:

• Recruitment of five e-business champions
• Recruitment of 20 firms with e-business aspiration and potential (protege firms)
• Organisation of a sequence of four network training events involving 2 champions and 5 proteges per event. The small group is defined for maximum interaction and learning from the 'champions' experience. Task includes preparation of common format for the training session.

5.6 Specification and Design of E-business pilot

The objective is to specify and design the e-business pilot initiative(s), with a view to testing the implementation process of embedding e-business into the SME and microfirm sectors. Three potential candidates for the pilot initiative are:

• Knowledge based SMEs –Provision of integrated training and consultancy support for translating concepts and techniques identified through the training programme (Task 4.1) into practical action for a selection of SMEs and microfirms.
• The Virtual Business Centre– This consists of the development of existing hard copy based and on-line facilities and systems for providing business information, and the pro-active dissemination of that information through e-business technologies.
• Jobs and Training On-line –The concept of the project is to put into place a means of providing more up to date information about opportunities in the labour market. The potential users of the information will be vast and include companies, particularly SMEs The type of information will include training and educational opportunities, information about support services and assistance/advice.

5.7 Co-ordination and Implementation of E-business pilot

The objective is to start one e-business pilot initiative. This will test the effectiveness of the selected action seeking to embed e-business processes into the SME and microfirm sectors. The pilot experience will be the subject real-time monitoring and evaluation under the framework.

In practice, this task will continue beyond the confines of the 12-month project since it will be part of the strategic e-business development promoted by the WLC.

5.8 Dissemination

The objective is to effectively disseminate at a regional, national, and international levels the outcomes and findings of the project.

At the Scottish level, this will include:

• Establishment of early contacts and networking with key actors in the Scottish scene: Scottish Enterprise, LEEL and other Local Enterprises (LECs), Development Officers of other Local Authorities in Scotland. Public reports will be circulated to them as a way of disseminating and promoting the BuKS experience
• Participate in two seminars or conferences, one for SME networks and local development/support services, the other Scottish based support services and economic development professionals.

At the European level, this will include participation in all the networking and knowledge and experience sharing activities promoted by the Umbrella Structure of the Call, including the maintenance of the link to web site of Structure. Reports will be circulated for feedback and exchanges and relevant networking and interaction will be encouraged.

5.9 Presentation at workshop

Oral presentation of project idea and objectives, results and achievements so far, as well as lessons learned. The presentation must be given at a workshop organised by the umbrella structure for all the projects selected under the PROMISE 1998 call. This task included the preparation and well as the active participation by the partners of the project to the workshop.

5.10 Final report: Impact of the Project.

The objective is to produce a final report on the full development, implementation, evaluation and dissemination processes. This will make use of the real-time evaluation implemented in Task 2.3 to capture the state of the process in the context of the strategic development in West Lothian. The final report will recommend a framework for future action in the direction of an e-business knowledge resource centre in West Lothian.

6. Linkages to other Projects and Programmes

The BuKS West Lothian project is central to the wider process of promoting and developing e-business and practical ICT led development within the business base. (Described in Figure 1). In addition to the potential pilot actions outlined within the above section, there are a number of other programmes and projects directly linked to BuKS. These include:

• Engineering Excellence, which aims to promote the capacity of engineering companies within West Lothian through use of ICT in a marketing context
• ICT Support Centre, which is planned as a practical demonstration suit with consultancy assistance to enable SMEs to implement ICT and e-business solutions

In a wider context, West Lothian Council is committed to leading the development of transactional technologies and services (i.e., smart card, call centres, on-line connections and kiosks) within West Lothian.

7. Anticipated Impact

The project will have an impact at two levels:

• At a practical action level it will:
  • Enable a better informed and more focused approach to promoting increased up-take of e-business technologies within SMEs
  • Provide additional services relevant to SMEs in their quest to obtain competitive advantage through application of ICT and e-business techniques
  • Promote increased business performance for a number of companies through effective ICT and e-business implementation
  • Develop network(s) of business characterised by their effective use of e-business
• At a research and intelligence level the project will deepen and widen our understanding of the processes that lead to effective development of e-business clusters.

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