Firms vie for regional award
Date published: 25th June 2002
The Research and Development category in the Anglian Business Awards 2002 is sponsored by financial and business advisers Grant Thornton, which provides assurance, tax and specialist advice to entrepreneurial businesses and their people.
Graham Shorter, managing partner for Grant Thornton in Suffolk said: "In today's competitive market, every company has to constantly look at new ways to develop their business. However, new initiatives need to be carefully researched before they are launched if a business is going to reap the rewards of enterprising ideas".
A Recipe for Success
In developing its innovative new software toolkit called e-KIS (e-commerce Keep It Simple), the team at A Recipe for Success was acutely aware of the role that research and development would play in getting their product to a wider market.
e-KIS is a multi-channel content management system, which helps companies manage their communications, both internally with staff and externally with customers, via television, mobile phones, personal organisers and PCs.
However, research has shown that potential customers did not necessarily want identical information delivered to different electronic devices. For example, a long news story might be readable on a web page, but would not be suitable for delivery over a mobile phone.
The first version of e-KIS was delivered after a nine-month feasibility study, partially-funded by a £45,000 DTI SMART grant, and is already being used by professionals in large and small organisations, such as BT, the East of England Development Agency, the DTI's Trade Partners initiative and Business Link Suffolk.
But technology is changing rapidly and, recognising this, A Recipe for Success has taken steps to combine its strengths with those of a partner. Essex University's world renowned computer department has the in-depth knowledge of future technology to advise Ipswich-based e-KIS team on the best way to adapt the software to survive as a robust system both in the short and long-terms.
In February this year, the two partners launched a research and development project, which will deliver up-dated versions of e-KIS - to carry the software toolkit into the markets of the future.
A Recipe for Success is optimistic that it will be awarded a SMART development grants of up to £150,000.
Graham Shorter, managing partner for Grant Thornton in Suffolk said: "In today's competitive market, every company has to constantly look at new ways to develop their business. However, new initiatives need to be carefully researched before they are launched if a business is going to reap the rewards of enterprising ideas".
A Recipe for Success
In developing its innovative new software toolkit called e-KIS (e-commerce Keep It Simple), the team at A Recipe for Success was acutely aware of the role that research and development would play in getting their product to a wider market.
e-KIS is a multi-channel content management system, which helps companies manage their communications, both internally with staff and externally with customers, via television, mobile phones, personal organisers and PCs.
However, research has shown that potential customers did not necessarily want identical information delivered to different electronic devices. For example, a long news story might be readable on a web page, but would not be suitable for delivery over a mobile phone.
The first version of e-KIS was delivered after a nine-month feasibility study, partially-funded by a £45,000 DTI SMART grant, and is already being used by professionals in large and small organisations, such as BT, the East of England Development Agency, the DTI's Trade Partners initiative and Business Link Suffolk.
But technology is changing rapidly and, recognising this, A Recipe for Success has taken steps to combine its strengths with those of a partner. Essex University's world renowned computer department has the in-depth knowledge of future technology to advise Ipswich-based e-KIS team on the best way to adapt the software to survive as a robust system both in the short and long-terms.
In February this year, the two partners launched a research and development project, which will deliver up-dated versions of e-KIS - to carry the software toolkit into the markets of the future.
A Recipe for Success is optimistic that it will be awarded a SMART development grants of up to £150,000.
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