Benefits

Using collaborative online tools brings many benefits to all partners; for example swift responses to collaborative possibilities and enquiries, enhancement of learning and teaching, and a greater understanding of cultures and business needs.

New business opportunities

By using collaborative online tools a spirit of co-operation and collaboration, together with the sharing of resources, can be fostered. This can lead to the development of new groups as was found in the Birmingham Metropolitan College trial project where the closer partnership between the FECs and HEIs led to consortium being formed to apply for Lifelong Learning funding.

By Universities in the North East of England sharing information, when a particular university receives an enquiry which they are unable to handle, rather than simply tell the client 'no', they can use KHIS to rapidly refer the opportunity to other universities who might be able to take the work on. This also saves time for the business making the enquiry.

The Leeds Innovation Network, developed by the University of Leeds trial project, combined with the coordination of a cohort of external entrepreneur consultants has contributed to staggering uplift in performance in respect of the attraction of external grant funding for proof of concept (POC). For example: a 60% uplift in licensing revenue and moving from 0 to 100% success rate in Yorkshire Concept proof of concept funding. Yorkshire Concept is a new project fund designed to stimulate the commercialisation of research and knowledge-based activities in the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) across the Yorkshire and the Humber region. It is funded jointly, on the principle of matched funding, by the Regional Development Agency, Yorkshire Forward, and the Higher Education Institutions themselves.

Sharing information & knowledge

Sharing information and knowledge can help the academic institutions be more responsive to the needs and requirements of business partners. Birmingham Metropolitan College found benefits in being able to have documents in one place as they are often difficult to find if spread over several sites. Also they were able to share internal documents that were not available to the public for several months, yet the content, workforce plans, was of great importance to academic organisations.

Savings in time & money

Collaboration using online tools can lead to an understanding of the various partners that would not occur due to face-to-face meetings being prohibitively expensive in money and time. Birmingham Metropolitan College found that they were able to address a lack of knowledge in the education sector about workforce planning in the NHS.

'A cost analysis of the savings achieved by the partners using online tools was undertaken. On average each participant saved their organisation £27 per session. This cost analysis took into account salary costs whilst travelling, mileage allowance and parking charges.'

Birmingham Metropolitan College