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Background

One of the biggest problems IT companies have when it comes to sourcing new business is the cost and the time it takes to search for businesses looking for their services. Many IT companies spend a great deal of money by advertising in magazines and media that may not bring them the return they need or target the correct market. Company Connecting has been set up to provide a business to business service connecting companies. It helps IT companies be found by prospective partners and suppliers so that they can grow their business and it saves other companies time and effort by helping them find the IT skills to meet their business needs and aspirations.

Challenge

Company Connecting were looking to create a new online platform for matching businesses based on requirements. In order to develop a prototype for this platform, expertise in interactive search and interface design was essential.

Solution

Janice Grant Shaw, the owner of Company Connecting, had been working with Business Gateway in Aberdeen on the overall concept. Her Business Gateway advisor referred the company on to Interface. After sending out a search to various universities in Scotland, Interface matched the company with Dr Martin Halvey, Department of Computer and Information Sciences at the University of Strathclyde, who has extensive knowledge of research in both recommender systems and interactive information retrieval. The collaboration enabled a Proof of Concept which was funded by a Scottish Funding Council Innovation Voucher. Company Connecting used the initial prototype as a framework for company data along with the skills/attributes. The intention was to get companies to try out the attribute and search mechanism to prove the overall concept and to develop the search mechanism to enable companies to find other companies who could help/complement their business. Company Connecting then used the feedback to develop the full product and take it to market.

In speaking about the process, Janice said:

“Without Interface it would have taken us considerably longer to launch Company Connecting.  Business Gateway introduced us to Interface to see if we could get help from any of the academic institutions in Scotland. We submitted our proposal to Interface and received offers from four universities. 

It was apparent that the University of Strathclyde understood the premise for Company Connecting and what we were trying to do, and, after receiving the grant from the Scottish Funding Council, we rapidly moved onto the development stage. Dr Martin Halvey of Strathclyde and  I worked together and defined the full specification. Martin helped me to understand the options available for faceted searches and the various methods that could be used.  Searches of data are becoming increasingly complicated. The issue for many people is the sheer volume of data available and the quality of the data returned.

From the outset, Martin understood the importance of the very focused search required and the need to up the quality of the returned items – over anything else currently available. I continued to work on the data side of things, whilst Martin developed the options for searches and educated me on the technical aspects. Company Connecting had no in house resources available to help with this experimentation stage.

Interface helped bring Company Connecting to life”. 

In August 2015, Company Connecting Limited officially launched their new website. The mission of the site is to help IT tech companies talk with one another, as well as to provide a showcase for companies to show their skills, services, and products.

It is anticipated that the company and University will continue to work together.

Benefits

The project resulted in getting the prototype to a ‘Minimum Viable Product’ stage, which could have the impact of:

• Creating new search and matching mechanisms

• Enabling the prototype product to be tested across Scottish companies

• Generating sales

• Creating employment.

The benefits of the project to the University and the Scottish economy are:

• Provides visibility of Scottish technical companies and their skills globally

• Provides a mechanism for Scottish companies to find partners to join up skills and win bigger contracts

• Access for students to all tech companies and what they do, in Scotland initially and then internationally

• Creates jobs in a new business

• Potential to go global, which is good publicity for Scotland and its educational institutions.

Please note that Interface administers the Innovation Voucher Scheme on behalf of the Scottish Funding Council. All funding applications are reviewed on a case by case basis by the Scottish Funding Council, guidelines can be found here.

Background

Headquartered in Glenbervie near Stonehaven, Scotland, Macphie is the UK’s leading, independent, added-value food ingredients manufacturer, and has been producing premium quality food ingredients and solutions for customers across 40 countries for over 85 years.

Challenge

The company approached Interface to seek help in finding relevant academic collaborators to provide solutions to a range of challenges facing their business. These ranged from reducing saturated fat content and creating “cleaner label” products to rethinking their packaging and storage.
 

Solution

Interface has facilitated a series of collaborative projects with numerous Scottish Universities to support the business challenges.

Project areas have included:

To date, Macphie has been involved in more than 15 individual collaborative research projects with multiple universities which have yielded cost savings to the business of many hundreds of thousands of pounds.
 

Business benefits

“Innovation is a cornerstone for Macphie, developing new technologies, products, processes and packaging to add value to our business and better meet our customer needs.

Macphie utilises Interface as a Scottish brokering service that brings businesses and universities together. Interface has facilitated a series of collaborative projects across a range of business requirements with Scottish universities. Using the Interface network, we have managed to completely accelerate our innovation agenda.

At Macphie we now have a rich heritage of academic projects across many aspects of our business. These translate into shaping and driving our innovation agenda. Interface is a crucial partner in enabling us to pair up with the very best academic organisations to achieve success. Our ongoing outlook is to continue to invest resources in long-term, transformational projects to ultimately add even greater value to our customer offering.” Martin Ruck, Macphie’s Head of Research and Development.

Academic benefits

Following a successful masters project with Abertay University on computer and web Enabled Food Product Evaluation System:

“Abertay has a specific interest in pursuing links with industry as part of the University’s Strategic Plan. The work with Macphie is an excellent example of how Abertay can be recognised for developing graduates equipped with the attributes and attitudes to contribute significantly to future economies. 

The work has also been conducive for developing pathways to impact, allowing Abertay to generate an excellent track record with respect to KE activities that generate further income and reputation for the University.”  Dr Nia White, Head of the Graduate School, Abertay University.

Interface also supported Macphie and the University of Edinburgh to develop and test a series of emulsions to use in a commercial setting. This led on to further studies on the role of fat crystallisation in the process of stabilizing emulsions and foams which enabled the company to increase the unsaturated fats in their products.

“It was very interesting for us to apply our expertise in the physics of emulsion technology to support a company developing healthier products.”
Dr Tiffany Wood, Director of the Edinburgh Complex Fluids Partnership, The University of Edinburgh.

Additional notes

Macphie have worked with the following Universities and Research Institutes: University of Edinburgh, Glasgow Caledonian University, University of Strathclyde, Heriot-Watt University, Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health at the University of Aberdeen, Robert Gordon University, Abertay University, Queen Margaret University.

Gillian is the Business Engagement Executive for Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire. Based in the region, Gillian is keen to support local businesses by matching them to the right academic expertise and specialist facilities across Scotland’s universities, colleges and research institutes to help them innovate. Following studies in Design for Industry and E-Business, Gillian has over nine years of business support experience, knowledge of funding streams and support agencies, making her well placed to assist businesses large and small to continue their development and growth aspirations.