New Enabling Services (NES)

Many potentially high growth SMEs lack experience, specialist knowledge and resources to identify new and emerging market opportunities and satisfy them through the timely introduction of appropriate new products, services, processes and technologies.

Britain's future economic growth depends on our ability to become more innovative and less risk averse. New Enabling Services (NES) is a programme that helps SMEs* to achieve that in a very practical way.

Given the increasing rate of change in both market and technology development, there is usually only a limited window of opportunity in which to develop and exploit appropriate solutions to new market needs. The aims of the NES project are to:

• Identify SMEs with the potential to exploit new technology-enabled opportunities and assess what help is needed to realise their full potential
• Offer participants a mixture of hands-on support and access to new and existing resources, to plug gaps in knowledge, skills and resources

If you are trying to break the mould in your field by doing things differently rather than by continuous incremental improvement, then NES is for you.

On joining the programme, a quick self-assessment audit highlights strengths and weaknesses, allowing the NES team to offer advice and information. You select the most appropriate help from a menu of specially developed new services including education and training, developing innovation strategies, inspiring innovation and facilitated implementation of innovation.

NES is supported by the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) and the European Regional Development Fund and delivered by three partners: The Centre for Research in Innovation Management (CENTRIM) at the University of Brighton, Technology Enterprise Kent and Thames Valley Technology (TVT) Ltd based in Oxford.

If your company has ambitions to grow by exploiting new technology-enabled opportunities and is an SME based within the SEEDA** area, NES offers you free help to speed up the pace of innovation.

A database of Service Partners has been compiled for businesses involved with the programme,
Click here to access the database

For further information and to request an audit, contact Ron Donmall of Technology Enterprise on 01227 470234 or e-mail ron.donmall@technologyenterprise.co.uk

* An SME is a small or medium size enterprise with: a turnover of less than Euro 40 m (£23-25m); a balance sheet value of less than Euro 27 m (£15-17 m.); less than 250 employees; less than 25% of their capital/voting rights owned by enterprises falling outside the SME eligibility criteria, though they may be eligible if held by public investment corporations, venture capital companies or institutional investors providing no control is exercised either individually or jointly. Special approval is required for businesses in the steel, coal, shipbuilding, fisheries, transport, motor industry and synthetic fibre sector.

** The SEEDA area comprises Kent, East and West Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire, The Isle of Wight, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.

For more information, contact info@technologyenterprise.co.uk