Industrial Outreach Project

Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF4)
Industrial Outreach Research Project

Project Background
This project proposal has arisen from 2 recent (EPSRC Industrial CASE and also a Collaborative Innovation Partnership) projects. These were collaborative projects between the School of Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences (IMI Research Group), the School of the Built Environment and North East Construction Firms.

Both projects are focused on identifying the ICT adoption process in SMEs, developing innovative methods for process mapping and developing rapid prototypes of collaborative business/workflow information systems. Initially, these were focused on the digital business needs of the Construction Sector but are now in the process of development for other sectors with comparable information and business re-engineering requirements.

This research is being extended through further fact finding to assess the ICT maturity levels and needs of local SMEs. A component of this HEIF4 funded project aims to collect more detailed information through the use of an online questionnaire.  If you would like to participate in our research (and you have not done so already) you can access our survey here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HJ9NZDK

More information about our survey can be read below:

Questionnaire:
Accelerating Information and Communication Technology (ICT) adoption and use within Small and Medium Sized (SME) Firms

This questionnaire is exploratory in nature and designed to elicit the current status in respect to the adoption and use of advanced ICT by Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs).  Any data collected will be confidential, anonymised and used only for research purposes and to inform future research ideas and strategies within the Northumbria University Information Management Innovation (IMI) Research Group.

Data collected will be used to assess current levels of ICT adoption and use within SMEs together with assisting to identify suitable ICT architectures for more advanced use of information and knowledge for collaborative working, management reporting, strategy, operations and decision making.

For any further clarification, or if you wish to participate more fully in this or any further projects, please contact Dr David Wainwright using the contact details to the right.

This research will adhere to the framework and policies of the Northumbria University Research Ethics Committees. Any data for research publication purposes will be treated with anonymity unless permission is granted for it to be used otherwise.

Thank you for your help and cooperation!