Collaboration Nation Digital services feasibility projects - Technology Strategy Board
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Technology Strategy Board Driving Innovation Collaboration Nation Digital services feasibility projects
Disclaimer The entries in this directory were provided by the individual companies. The Technology Strategy Board cannot guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any of the information about the winning projects. Technology Strategy Board North Star House North Star Avenue Swindon SN2 1UE Telephone: 01793 442700 www.innovateuk.org © Technology Strategy Board October 2011 T11/063
Introduction This directory of projects we helped to fund provides an overview of the opportunities highly innovative companies can offer across the UK through their developing technologies. It can also be used to help link those companies to the wider funding, business and public sector community in order to develop their ideas into new products, processes and services. Feasibility studies in digital services Digital is one of the core programmes at the Technology Strategy Board. Our mission is to help innovative businesses unlock the economic potential of digital technology by identifying and addressing digital challenges and by resolving tensions between people, processes and technology. Stimulating the development of novel digital services in key emerging areas is one of our priorities. We invested approximately £2m in 76 innovative feasibility studies in digital services proposed by small or micro companies. They were successful in our January 2011 ‘Digital Services for Growth’ competition. The competition sought proposals for innovative digital services in four challenge areas – adoption of the cloud (services and technologies that enable the delivery of computing services over the Internet); the Internet of Things (a network of things such as buildings, vehicles, clothing, portable devices and other objects with the ability to sense, communicate, network and produce new information); augmenting public services; and harnessing the value of open data. Each three-month project received up to £25,000 to explore how to unlock business opportunities in digital services in these areas and to help them to overcome the initial hurdles to development. Some projects were conducted by single companies, while others were carried out by collaborative consortia. The small and micro companies leading the 76 projects are well distributed nationally and have an average of 7.1 employees. Successful projects should be well positioned to seek support to develop their ideas, including through future Technology Strategy Board competitions. Footnote This directory provides a snapshot of the winning projects and companies so that potential future collaborators, investors and companies interested in open innovation can get to know the companies involved.
Index of companies 4D Creative..................................................... 46 Matter2Media................................................. 56 21media innovations ltd................................... 6 Medifit Instruments Ltd.................................. 32 AIMES Grid Services CIC..............................64 Medilink West Midlands Ltd .......................... 33 Ambiental Technical Solutions Ltd................ 65 Mirada Medical Ltd........................................ 74 Angel Solutions Ltd ....................................... 22 Mobile Acuity.................................................. 57 Ask4 Limited................................................... 47 mySociety Ltd................................................. 34 BAFTA (British Academy New Wave Innovation.................................... 58 of Film & Television Arts)................................66 Nexor Ltd........................................................ 75 Blackroc Technology Ltd............................... 48 Obex Technologies........................................ 76 Broadband Access Strategies LLP............... 23 ObjectSecurity Ltd......................................... 77 Bubblephone Ltd........................................... 67 OBS Medical Limited..................................... 35 Calvium............................................................. 7 Onteca Ltd................................................ 12, 78 Cambridge Healthcare Ltd............................ 24 Opine Consultancy........................................ 13 Celestor Ltd....................................................68 Orangutrans Ltd............................................. 36 Cirrious Ltd.....................................................69 OSIC Limited.................................................. 37 Cotoco Limited .............................................. 25 Outlandish Ltd................................................ 79 Cybermoor Services Ltd................................ 49 PatAnalyse...................................................... 14 Deep Visuals Limited....................................... 8 Pitchie Ltd.......................................................80 Dream Machine Media Ltd ........................... 50 PIXELearning.................................................. 59 Edesix Ltd ...................................................... 51 Placr Ltd.......................................................... 15 Exvine Plc....................................................... 70 Profit From Science........................................ 16 Festivals Edinburgh......................................... 9 read4sure Ltd ................................................ 17 Fire Arc Ltd..................................................... 52 RPPtv Ltd........................................................ 81 GeoLang Ltd.................................................. 53 Seamless Sensing Ltd................................... 82 getWell Media Ltd....................................26, 27 SES Construction Software Ltd..................... 18 GovEd Ltd....................................................... 10 Shoothill Ltd.................................................... 38 Hao2.eu Ltd ................................................... 28 Sidekick Studios.................................39, 40, 41 Independent Networks Co-operative Slider Studio Ltd............................................. 42 Association Ltd............................................... 71 Startup Intelligence........................................43 Infonote DataSystems Ltd............................. 54 Substrakt........................................................44 Instinctive Creations....................................... 29 Techmatics Ltd............................................... 83 Intergence Systems Limited.......................... 72 Tinley Media Ltd............................................. 19 i-Spy Digital Ltd.............................................. 30 Trusted Renewables Ltd ...............................60 KineticaRT Ltd................................................ 55 Virtual Technologies....................................... 61 Kyenesim........................................................ 11 WildKnowledge Ltd........................................ 62 LASSeO Ltd.................................................... 31 YorkMetrics..................................................... 20 Lexegesys Ltd................................................ 73 4 | Collaboration Nation
Collaboration Nation Digital services feasibility projects Harnessing the Value of Open Data
21media innovations ltd
Public data service provision to internet-protocol-based television platforms
B78, Knowledge Business Centre Director
InfoLab21 Keith Mitchell
Bailrigg keith@21media.tv
Lancaster (0161) 408 5860
Lancashire www.21media.tv
LA1 4WA @21media
21media develops interactive applications for mobile, web,
internet protocol television (IPTV) and digital television platforms.
Our core product delivers high-quality and personalised
television content directly to any web browser on any platform.
What was the business need that What are the potential benefits?
motivated the project? Our study shows that the television
The purpose of this feasibility study was to landscape is rapidly changing and that
identify the potential opportunities in upcoming platforms will provide truly
providing public data services to internet- interactive capabilities that go beyond the
protocol-connected televisions (IPTVs). current ‘red button’ experience. While there
are a number of open data and public data
What approach did you take to initiatives looking to provide web-based
address the challenge? access to services, there is currently little
We reviewed the available open and public or no effort targeting service provision to
data resources, identified the unique hybrid-television, digital and next generation
challenges in bringing data applications to set-top-box platforms.
the television environment and prototyped a
proof-of-concept data application suitable for
What are the next steps?
deployment on upcoming platforms, such as We have identified a market opportunity
YouView. and our next steps are to further develop
relationships with those organisations we
have talked to as part of this study – local
and county councils, broadcasters and
technology providers – in order to undertake
future projects and business ventures.
6 | Collaboration NationCalvium
Enabling media designers to use public data
for new businesses and mobile apps
Pervasive Media Studio Product director
Leadworks Tom Melamed
Anchor Square tom@calvium.com
Harbourside (0117) 9157235
Bristol www.appfurnace.com
BS1 5DB @thegingertom
Calvium makes tools and services that enable designers and
digital media agencies to create beautiful smartphone apps
using their own skills and content. We have been running for
almost two years and have strong mobile-development and
HTML5 expertise.
What was the business need that What are the potential benefits?
motivated the project? Our suite of tools allows digital media
Our customers want to create applications agencies to add value to their existing
that take advantage of live data from online relationships with their customers by also
data sources. They want to do this with little creating innovative and connected
or no programming, as their skills are in smartphone apps for them using their
content creation and design rather than existing skill sets. This means smaller brands
in Objective-C or Java programming. can now afford to have associated apps, the
digital media agencies get increased revenue
What approach did you take to and we get fees from the use of our tools.
address the challenge?
The challenge was to create a system that
What are the next steps?
was flexible in terms of both the visual result We are working on bringing our prototype
and the data that it could consume, without up to production standard and hope to have
introducing complexity that only programmers a fully commercial implementation of this
could understand. We achieved this by technology in the market very soon. We are
creating graphical editing systems that keen to meet people who are interested
allowed designers to create screen designs in using our tools or investing in our
without programming and by creating a development and marketing efforts.
series of widgets for this system that allowed
users to easily specify the data sources
and their rendering.
Digital services feasibility projects | 7Deep Visuals Limited
Creative learning from digital collections
B23 Science Park Director
Milton Road Alan Payne
Cambridge alan.payne@deepvisuals.com
CB4 0EY (01223) 437163
www.deepvisuals.com
Deep Visuals was established as a spin-out from Kodak
Research in 2009. We are creating new ways to interact
with digital collections. Our first product, ViziQuest, is a
totally image-led way to explore collections using our novel
semantic browsing technology. Our first clients are museums.
What was the business need that What are the potential benefits?
motivated the project? An important part of the project was to test
Following sales of our ViziQuest system to the concepts with users, which we did with
museums, we saw a need for museums to two different groups of school children.
engage with a wider section of the We collected good evidence that the system
community, especially children. Many will engage and educate users and, as a
museums have been investing in expensive bonus, build skills of creativity and narrative
digitisation projects and we saw the need construction. Feedback from pupils, teachers
to exploit these recently created assets to and museum professionals was extremely
help maximise their investment. positive. A fully developed product would
appear to have demand in both museums
What approach did you take to and schools.
address the challenge?
We built on our semantic browsing
What are the next steps?
application by adding a fun, creative layer. We will develop a ‘hard-copy story’ product
The browser is used to stimulate creativity based on selecting images with our browser
by exploring a collection of photos and and printing them using customised
selecting a number of photos as props for templates. We have formed a partnership
a story. The selected photos are imported with the Fitzwilliam Museum and together
into a digital comic book where a narrative we are actively exploring funding
is added. A novel interactive demonstrator opportunities to develop the comic-style
has been created by adding to the narrative demonstrator into a commercial product.
with a number of fun audio effects.
8 | Collaboration NationFestivals Edinburgh
Festival open data
Business Centre C1 Head of marketing and innovation
Waverley Court James McVeigh
4 East Market Street james.mcveigh@festivalsedinburgh.com
Edinburgh (0131) 529 7970
EH8 8BG www.festivalsedinburgh.com
@edfests
Festivals Edinburgh is the organisation created by the directors
of Edinburgh’s 12 major festivals to lead on joint strategic
development and maintain their global competitive edge.
What was the business need that What are the potential benefits?
motivated the project? This API pilot served both press/media and
The festivals’ core data asset is our listings. web developer/entrepreneurial users and
Limited capacity means these are typically resulted in services widely used and reported
presented in print, on proprietary websites on during the peak festival time in August.
and a through a limited number of third-party It also resulted in the participant festivals’
media syndications. Real and anticipated first material open innovation activity and
demand from third parties suggested that an has directly led to at least two new start-up
open data approach would lead to additional projects that are being run as ongoing
services – providing new value for audiences, concerns. Importantly to the festivals, the
the festivals and the third parties. project has also created new sales channels
for tickets.
What approach did you take to
address the challenge? What are the next steps?
On the supply side we enlisted a technical Following the summer festival season, there
specialist to create the 2011 listings will be an in-depth review of the overall
application programming interface (API) project which will inform future strategy and
which took data from seven summer festivals iterations. This will include the potential of
and which was supported by some bespoke using the listings API as the foundation for
licensing agreements negotiated with the additional content, and commercial and
participant festivals. On the demand side, social layers.
prior to the live API, we ran a high-profile
event to engage developers called Culture
Hack Scotland which was considered one
of the most successful such events by
the sector.
Digital services feasibility projects | 9GovEd Ltd
The Carbon Quilt – making carbon data visible,
for commercial and societal advantage
PO Box 1283 Managing director
Bedford Ravi Kapur
MK44 1JY ravi.kapur@goved.co.uk
07977 412739
www.goved.co.uk
@GovEdComms
GovEd is a communications consultancy, media production
company and creative agency, with particular specialism in
science, technology and education. We have extensive expertise
in communicating about climate change and greenhouse gases,
including through our joint venture company Carbon Visuals.
What was the business need that What are the potential benefits?
motivated the project? Our aim is for wider take-up of these visual
We have developed a unique set of software tools to support more effective organisational
tools and visual techniques for communicating and personal decision-making about
and supporting decision-making in carbon carbon-reduction at all levels of society.
reduction, based around our ‘Carbon Quilt’ We believe this concept has significant
concept. Our project aimed to develop commercial potential in the carbon-analysis
technical solutions for integration of these and strategy sector, and we also see its
tools with existing decision-making tools potential to support growth and innovation
and visualisation platforms, including in in the wider economy by helping to support
areas such as supply chain management and accelerate the transition to a low-carbon
and business strategy. economy.
What approach did you take to What are the next steps?
address the challenge? We are now looking both to secure further
We focused on three areas of development client projects and to attract investment to
– advanced 3D visualisations and integration enable the next stage of technical
with platforms such as Google Earth; development and full commercial realisation
integration with carbon analysis and supply of our products and services. We are also
chain management tools; and dynamic seeking technical partners in areas such as
visualisations (including browser-based), building management solutions, display
using real-time data-feeds. Our research, technologies and low-energy technologies.
analysis and agile development process have
resulted in some unique solutions that have
already generated new commercial and
public sector interest, as well as a detailed
technical pathway for further development.
10 | Collaboration NationKyenesim
Twend
Kynesim Ltd Managing director
190 Kendal Way Richard Watts
Cambridge rrw@kynesim.co.uk
CB3 0AX (01223) 8501436
www.kynesim.co.uk
Kynesim provides high-quality embedded systems engineering,
software and hardware design to clients in a wide variety of high-
technology disciplines with particular expertise in communications
and digital video. Partner Sellekta is a London-based design
consultancy focusing on web/mobile user interfaces.
What was the business need that What are the potential benefits?
motivated the project? Improved discoverability of video content is
The problem with over-the-top (OTT) digital a benefit both for producers and for users.
video distribution (delivered over the Internet Improved interactivity will benefit producers
or broadband) is that it is hard to make video and advertisers primarily, though users may
discoverable, scalable or interactive. Search also enjoy it. Scalability improvements accrue
technologies are underdeveloped, bandwidth primarily to content distribution networks in
demands of a popular video are significant, reduced contingency requirements, though
and interaction around a video is hampered these will feed back to producers. It may
by the lack of connection between prove easier to monetise more interactive
companion devices and big screens. content, though this would have to be the
The need is to visualise social media to subject of a separate study.
provide interactivity/discoverability while
mining that data to predict bandwidth. What are the next steps?
The two main next steps are to develop our
What approach did you take to recommendation/content management
address the challenge? application and try it out on real users,
We built a number of prototype implementations probably via the Android app store; and to
which explore social media/video interaction. partner with advertisers or producers to
It demonstrated the base set-top technology explore whether the interactivity of the
platform plus the software components that prototype can be translated into gains in
comprise it. A real-time hashtag social media audience satisfaction and total viewers.
stream has been overlaid on top of a live
TV output, mirrored on Android mobile
phones.This is demonstrated as a prototype
tweet-linked electronic programme guide
to enable social-trending functionality.
Digital services feasibility projects | 11Onteca Ltd
Crowd-sourcing meaning from public data
37-45 Windsor Street Managing director
Toxteth Jon Wetherall
Liverpool jon@onteca.com
Merseyside (0151) 709 0028
L8 1XE www.onteca.com
@jonwetherall
Onteca is a digital entertainment developer and micro-publisher.
We develop applications for iPhone, Wii and other digital
channels. We also offer consultancy services on social,
interactive and multi-screen television usage and a number of
technology solutions in this area.
What was the business need that What are the potential benefits?
motivated the project? We observed the best results with augmented
Creating structured forms of information has human content creation. This uses machine
been one of the major trends of the last 10 automation to do the initial pass on the data.
years. Wikipedia, Metadata Schema and We then improve the data with human help.
even Twitter contain structured data that can Understanding meaning in potentially loosely
be reused for other purposes. Algorithms that structured information is difficult. It has direct
build meaningful content from structured applications for us in reducing the cost of
data, and that crowd source the human content creation and also has applications
intelligence necessary to put together in areas such as search intelligence.
genuinely good quality information, can
reduce the cost of content creation. What are the next steps?
We will integrate crowd-sourced knowledge
What approach did you take to more closely into our applications. This can
address the challenge? be done in two ways, through metrics and
We created a system for constructing through positive reward systems. We are
structured information around quiz and able to manage large sets of information
learning content. It is built on HTML5 and drawn from public data sources. We are
Javascript front-end with back-end server looking for partnerships to further develop
technology running from the cloud to obtain this work.
the information. We investigated a number of
techniques for storing, analysing and
improving this information. We also looked at
combining with Google Translate to translate
this content into multiple languages and to
create new applications that can be sold
around the world.
12 | Collaboration NationOpine Consultancy
Homebook: a new dimension in digital services for home-finding
The Grange Founder
Church Street Gareth Roberts
Great Shelford gareth.roberts@moooveon.com
Cambridge 07779 257636
CB22 5EL
Homebook is in the home-finding business. The company is
developing an application platform that will use an individual’s
personality profile to search for products and services in the
global market place.
What was the business need that What are the potential benefits?
motivated the project? The impact of personality on purchase
A home is the largest purchase people make. decisions and choice of products has been
This market drives more than 20 related extensively studied. Homebook represents
business sectors worth more than £250bn a world first in directly linking the personality
a year in the UK. A web platform that could profile of an individual to specific objects
use an individual’s personality profile to find and services. The system will require less
a property or homes could be a disruptive personal effort for a better individual match
technology in the property market. of available properties and services. Once
Homebook is a scaleable multi-million-pound set up, the system could act autonomously
business that could be globalised. and actively to present an individual with
desirable objects or services.
What approach did you take to
address the challenge? What are the next steps?
Homebook would offer a digital service that Homebook is ready to scale up and enter
begins with identifying the home-finder’s the market place. We are seeking angel/
personality, aspirations and desired venture capital investors with an interest
outcomes. The system uses these attributes and expertise in social networks, consumers
to define search queries and links these or property. A collaborative relationship with
to offerings in the home marketplace. Such a large social network or search company
a process driven by personal attributes or a property company looking for the next
would be expected to deliver more ‘desirable’ generation of technology is possible.
properties and dramatically reshape the
home-finding process. The relevant technical
problems were solved and we now have
a working demonstrator.
Digital services feasibility projects | 13PatAnalyse
Improved automation for complex patent studies
77A Shelford Rd Managing director
Cambridge Victor Zhitomirsky
CB2 9NB victor.zh@patanalyse.com
(01223) 911576
www.patanalyse.com
PatAnalyse is an integrated technology consultancy specialising
in high-quality patent searching and strategic analysis.
Experience in technology consultancy allows us to provide an
interpretation of the competitive intelligence landscape; our
analysis is closely aligned to the client’s business strategy.
What was the business need that What are the potential benefits?
motivated the project? Efficient web-based interaction between
We have developed revolutionary techniques experts, under the control of artificial
for patent-searching. Our tools improve intelligence algorithms, greatly improves the
the reliability of patent searches using a quality and efficiency of patent studies,
self-learning process. The core of our approach which makes them more affordable for
is related to organising efficient web-based smaller companies. The results of the project
interaction between experts. But reliance on have enabled further development of the
human judgement does not necessarily ‘smart’ patent management tools. The tools
produce high-quality results. Artificial aid efficient collaboration between users in
intelligence algorithms are required to identify the client organisation and enable them to
and correct the most questionable data. re-use the results of the intellectual property
intelligence studies provided by us.
What approach did you take to
address the challenge? What are the next steps?
We have successfully developed a We are organising trials with several
sophisticated predictive artificial intelligence commercial partners to test our new patent
algorithm based on pattern recognition. knowledge management tools for internal
The algorithm is specifically devised to learn use in the clients’ R&D team. Efficient
an optimal combination of a huge number collaboration between users under the
of features in the prediction of the classification control of the self-learning artificial
task. This is to enable a robust quality audit intelligence algorithm helps to organise
process in a system with multiple user input. a better transfer of technical knowledge
The current study used a training set of embedded in patent specifications.
100,000 patents screened and classified
by a dozen subject area experts.
14 | Collaboration NationPlacr Ltd
Two-sided apps for digital services in public transport information
68 Herne Hill Chief executive
London Jonathan Raper
SE24 9QP jonathan.raper@placr.co.uk
(020) 3239 9551
www.placr.co.uk
@madprof
Placr is a public-transport-data aggregator serving users,
developers and operators with timetables, departures, routes
and performance information through our transport application
programming interface (API) and our placr.mobi service. We are
a small company with three employees, established in 2008.
What was the business need that What are the potential benefits?
motivated the project? There are benefits to users (free transport
Public transport information is complex, app), to developers (timetables, service
difficult to access and not available in the updates and social media in one place)
same form everywhere. Current apps do not and to operators (social media content
allow the user to share/contribute information management and analytics) from this new
from/to the service, or communicate with the service. These benefits can each be
operators. Existing apps rarely have monetised to create a sustainable business
sustainable business models as the revenue model, which will allow Placr to roll out the
is based on one-off lifetime charges for app service nationally. The funding for this
purchases or low-margin advertising. feasibility study allowed Placr to build critical
new relationships with bus operators.
What approach did you take to
address the challenge? What are the next steps?
The key outcome of our feasibility study is the The key step is the recruitment of operators
creation of a new transport information to use the platform. Our aim is to offer social
platform designed to support digital services media content management services to
and social media (http://placr.mobi).There are operators as a package with our web app.
now ‘activity streams’ for every route/stop in We aim to carry out further market research
the service areas where messages can be into the need for this kind of service among
posted and retrieved by users and apps. operators.
This new platform can provide services to
users and developers and analytics to
operators, raising average revenue per user
for transport information distribution.
Digital services feasibility projects | 15Profit From Science
Solution-finding portal, matching SMEs with university innovations
14 Belvoir Street Marketing director
Leicester Andrew Hogbin
LE1 6QH info@profitfromscience.com
07968 592215
www.profitfromscience.com
Profit From Science offers online tools and services to help
companies and universities profit from science. We work
with companies to find science solutions and innovations
and we help universities to market and deliver their expertise
and capabilities to industry.
What was the business need that What are the potential benefits?
motivated the project? We envisage more instances of UK
Universities want to find out about industrial companies finding new technical solutions
problems they can solve to generate income, or innovations, leading to cost savings,
but do not always know how to find growth and increased competitive advantage.
companies with relevant needs. Companies We also see more instances of universities
seek to profit from the science solutions and finding opportunities to help industry, to
innovations universities can provide, but create impact from research and to earn
knowing where to look and find the right additional revenue. There will be more
solutions in the mass of public data available value-creating connections made between
can be a difficult process. technology providers and commercial
exploiters, and the way in which universities
What approach did you take to are engaging with and contributing to
address the challenge? industry will be more visible.
We needed to understand the challenges
faced by companies seeking to extract
What are the next steps?
understandable information from the wide We need to develop the demonstrator portal
variety of data sets held by universities. We into a robust and scaleable platform suitable
talked to companies and universities and, out for full trials and testing, use trials to inform
of these discussions, we developed the optimisation, and then proceed to launch.
portal specification. We investigated and We also need to raise awareness and
tested different ideas by combining a number promote the portal and services to
of data techniques in new ways. Finally, we companies and universities. We are seeking
built a proof-of-concept portal demonstrator funding and partners for this next phase.
to test feasibility, functionality and usability.
16 | Collaboration Nationread4sure Ltd
Integrating public data into intellectual property rights (IPR) management
tools for SMEs
273 High Street Chief executive and founder
Linlithgow Michael Fielding
West Lothian michael.fielding@hawkip.com
EH49 7EP (0131) 5640401
www.hawkip.com
read4sure provides a web-based intellectual property (IP)
management dashboard for those with smaller IP portfolios.
What was the business need that What are the potential benefits?
motivated the project? The benefits include increasing an SME’s
Around 70% of UK patents are filed by small competitiveness by cutting IPR management
and micro companies, yet traditional burden, reducing outside attorney cost and
intellectual property rights (IPR) management reliance, and enhancing IPR reporting to
tools require extensive training and familiarity decision-makers and stakeholders (investors,
to be useful, and constant data input to funders etc).
remain up to date.
What are the next steps?
What approach did you take to Our next step is a launch and to build up an
address the challenge? initial customer base. We are seeking
Our study established the requirements of partnerships with other IP service providers
and potential for IPR management software and will develop trademark functionality. We
designed for the distinct needs of small will also undertake ongoing development of
companies (SMEs). We then built a the dashboard.
demonstrator. The Hawk IP Dashboard is
delivered through a software as a service
(SAAS) business model and extracts relevant
information from public data sources.
Digital services feasibility projects | 17SES Construction Software Ltd
Pitched roof covering specifications
PO Box 97 Managing director
Totnes Andrew Frayling
Devon amf@swiftest.com
TQ9 5WR 08451 665098
www.swiftest.com
SES Construction Software was formed
in February 2003 and is the UK market
leader in estimating software for construction.
What was the business need that What are the potential benefits?
motivated the project? The national/international roof tile
The roof is a complex construction. It has manufacturers are agreed that it is not
many angles and pitches, creating feasible for them to develop their own
engineering challenges in fixing down the approach. Our unique approach to the
roof coverings for a particular location and in software development will allow each
particular weather conditions. The participant to progress in their own way.
development of a ‘fixing specification’ is The UK, Europe and USA are a multi-billion
essential for manufacturers to guarantee the pound marketplace. To compete,
covering. This does not exist today in an manufacturers have to guarantee the whole
industry-wide form. roof based on their products being fitted to
specification.
What approach did you take to
address the challenge? What are the next steps?
Our study aimed to prove the feasibility of In order to build the software, we will need
creating a web-based system that would to formalise the original working party and
accurately create a fixing specification for expand it to include European partners
any roof tile in the UK. The outcome of the and government bodies in order to secure
study has shown conclusively that this is the supply of the data required. Further
possible, that the technology is capable grant funding will be necessary to finance
of doing this, that the data exists, and that the project.
there is enough co-operation within the
market sector to achieve such a tool.
18 | Collaboration NationTinley Media Ltd
Different story
8 Ryland Road Director
Kentish Town Dominic Tinley
London media@tinley.net
NW5 3EA (020) 7193 5313
www.octofolio.com
@octofolio
Tinley Media is an interactive agency specialising in conceptual
design and prototype development of new interactive services.
Recent clients have included BBC R&D, BBC Vision, the
Welcome Trust, Wildscreen and WWF.
What was the business need that What are the potential benefits?
motivated the project? For us, project success is our businesses
People’s consumption of text media is having both a product and practical
changing, and there are gaps in an emerging knowledge of exploiting interactive media’s
market. News organisations are moving to new frontier of apps and tablet devices.
a ‘paid content’ business model. Alternative Success also means we have a larger
news sources are increasingly popular, with portfolio of intellectual capital for use in other
blogging and micro-blogging leading to a rise projects. Beyond our team, bloggers and
in ‘citizen journalism’. We have developed a publishers will reach larger audiences and
concept to fill the gap between these two thus be more successful themselves.
approaches. The concept is simple and has
market potential. What are the next steps?
We will continue development to the point
What approach did you take to of a releasable prototype, recruit more test
address the challenge? users to learn as much as possible from
Our challenge was to build a responsive our prototype, and use the prototype to
HTML5/JavaScript-based app, to filter large create technologies we can exploit with
numbers of items down to a handful that new clients. We will also research possible
should be of interest to a particular person, models for revenue generation and seek
and to search and index large amounts of investors to turn the prototype into a saleable
information. Our solution was to make use of product.
existing open-source technologies and
libraries, namely Python, Django, SOLR and
Nutch. Our innovation was to reduce the
amount of information and choice people are
presented with to that which interests them.
Digital services feasibility projects | 19YorkMetrics
Delivering public data in context
6 Middlethorpe Business Park Director
Sim Balk Lane Antony Powell
Bishopthorpe antony.powell@yorkmetrics.com
York (01904) 709684
North Yorkshire www.yorkmetrics.com
YO23 2BD @yorkmetrics
YorkMetrics is a spin-out company of the University of York
specialising in business analytics. We have conducted over a
decade of world-class research and development into state-of-
the-art semantic modelling technology requiring transition to
commercial exploitation.
What was the business need that What are the potential benefits?
motivated the project? Our approach lowers the barriers to data
The rapid growth in open and linked public collection and analysis, particularly in
data offers exciting opportunities for ‘white-space’ applications that are high-value
generating end-user value. However, the but unmet because of the cost of current
release of this value is often inhibited by data solutions, or where they span different
and analysis operating in ‘silos’ that reflect stakeholders or organisations. For instance,
the disparate needs of users. The business cross-platform tools for gathering and
need is therefore to develop and exploit new querying rich semantic data from every
semantic technologies to overcome these school, council or hospital in the country
problems and deliver improved digital could prospectively be delivered in
services. a matter of days and weeks instead of
months or years.
What approach did you take to
address the challenge? What are the next steps?
Our feasibility study trialled an innovative The next steps are to deliver progressive
semantic data platform using contextual case studies and incremental research and
metadata to move modelling and analysis development towards commercialisation.
closer to the language of users and allow We are looking to partner with public and
disparate data sets to be more readily private organisations that require rich
integrated and synthesised. The case multi-facetted data to support their
study was a local authority that needed objectives, particularly where the information
to improve strategic decision-making by needs are complex and evolutionary.
consolidating data collection and analysis
that is currently duplicated, inconsistent,
obscure and expensive.
20 | Collaboration NationCollaboration Nation Digital services feasibility projects Enhancing Public Services
Angel Solutions Ltd
Children’s centre unit-costing tool
131 Mount Pleasant Chairman
Liverpool Andy Kent
L3 5TF andy.kent@angelsolutions.co.uk
(0151) 705 3665
www.angelsolutions.co.uk
Angel Solutions is a software development company
specialising in the education sector. Established in 1999, we
operate in every local authority area in the country and in
hundreds of schools and children’s centres.
What was the business need that What are the potential benefits?
motivated the project? Our solution could bring a number of benefits
There is an increasing need for children’s including a significant reduction in the time
centres to demonstrate that their services are taken to assess services against
not only targeted at the needs of their users benchmarks; monitoring of services/costs
and their surrounding area, but also that they across communities of centres to provide
represent value for money. This is particularly value for money; effective targeting of limited
the case as the Government is phasing in resources to meet needs of specific centres
payment by results. We needed time and or communities; creation of a ‘services and
resource to explore a solution. roles knowledge database’ giving
anonymised cost ranges for analytical
What approach did you take to purposes; and strengthening of our current
address the challenge? revenue stream in this sector and new
Some children’s centres use paper-based business opportunities.
systems or spreadsheets that are complex
or time-consuming to complete these tasks,
What are the next steps?
but there is no national standard. Crucially, We plan to steer development of the product
centres also have no way to benchmark by partnering with Action for Children and
service delivery against successful projects 4Children, working with user groups, and
that have been delivered elsewhere. We liaising with national policy groups. We are
looked to simplify and integrate these conscious of the political environment that
systems within our web-based Perspective affects the 15 local authorities involved in
tool and have created prototypes to a pilot and consultation, so we have to time
demonstrate it. this carefully.
22 | Collaboration NationBroadband Access Strategies LLP
Smart-device delivery of multi-modal real-time passenger information
33 Chapel Street Partner
Buckfastleigh Kevin Collis
TQ11 0AB kevin.collis@basllp.co.uk
07885 626420
www.basllp.co.uk
BAS LLP is a technology and business strategy consultancy
specialising in broadband, transport and wireless issues and
with particular interest and experience in solutions for the
travelling public.
What was the business need that What are the potential benefits?
motivated the project? The benefits include the promotion of public
Traditionally, all public transport information travel within the Government’s wider green
was timetable based with scant information to energy policies. This is a working solution
update the traveller on current conditions. that will fuel the debate and help government
A third of travellers claim they would travel deliver affordable access to travel data. It
by public transport if they felt ‘in control’. delivers a smartphone-based ‘app’ that
This project offers a solution that allows encourages sceptics to go back to trains,
the traveller to know what is happening, planes and buses. There is also an
putting options at their fingertips and helps opportunity in the field of integrated ticketing
them feel in control. to deliver responsive and real-time validated
travel documentation.
What approach did you take to
address the challenge? What are the next steps?
We structured the task so that the smart We need to overcome the remaining barriers
device was not swamped with data and that to market – an effective commercial
the updating in real time was practical. The agreement for travel data, and the relative
demonstration showed the ability of the lack of availability of real-time bus data from
assistant to re-plan a current journey and a single, reliable aggregated source. We also
adopt an alternative mode whilst in transit. need to take this forward by working with a
Other planners report a delay but do not commercial partner to develop a product that
offer alternative travel plans, especially on handles multiple modes in a city region.
other modes, in other words a bus alternative
to a failed train.
Digital services feasibility projects | 23Cambridge Healthcare Ltd
NHS.info e-health portal
Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Chief executive
Cambridge Dawson King
CB23 3RE dawson@nhs.info
07898 934911
www.nhs.info
@dawson
Cambridge Healthcare is working in partnership with the NHS
and Connecting for Health to develop NHS.info, an e-health
portal for patients and healthcare professionals. The portal will
integrate with the NHS IT infrastructure and provide the platform
for healthcare applications.
What was the business need that What are the potential benefits?
motivated the project? We envisage improved patient outcomes
The UK spends 69% of its annual healthcare and better support for self-management.
budget managing long-term conditions. By The benefits of the portal include a reduction
engaging patients actively in their in the amount the NHS spends on managing
management, the portal seeks to improve long-term conditions; opening up of the
patient outcomes and reduce healthcare healthcare marketplace to third parties,
costs by encouraging and supporting who will drive innovation by designing
self-management. Past information healthcare applications and who will deliver
technology solutions for the NHS have been consumer choice; a new level of scalability
expensive and unsustainable. NHS.info is and interoperability; and the ability to
provided free of charge and has a harness healthcare data to inform
commercial operating model. commissioning, improve efficiency and
inform public health decisions.
What approach did you take to
address the challenge? What are the next steps?
We built a prototype portal that included a We will develop a number of fundamental
secure messaging service, natural language applications, such as video consultations.
processing to select useful information to We will also develop the application
build patients’ personal health plans, programming interface for third-party
personalised information sources, the ability applications. There will also be a clinical
to create a network through invitations and a dashboard for healthcare professionals.
state-of-the-art security infrastructure. We also
hosted the portal within N3, the national NHS
network. We launched the portal a few months
ago and have over 50 active users already.
24 | Collaboration NationCotoco Limited
Increasing patients’ ability to self-care
HTEC House Managing Director
George Curl Way Don Fuller
Southampton don.fuller@cotoco.com
Hampshire 02380 689610
SO18 2RX www.cotoco.com
Cotoco has researched and developed innovative ways of
managing and personalising information for key work groups in
commercial organisations, using digital technology in order to
engender improved performance and behavioural change.
What was the business need that What are the potential benefits?
motivated the project? Bournemouth University assessed our project
The Department of Health states that there and reported a statistically significant
are 15 million people in the UK with long-term improvement in the ability to self care of
conditions, and numbers are increasing. people who had used the toolkit. More than
As a result, it has never been more important 45% of participants reported that they had
to empower people to self care. This study modified how they managed their condition
sets out to see if digital techniques as a result. The study demonstrated the
successfully used in industry could improve potential of a digital toolkit to support
people’s ability to self care. people to self-manage their care effectively,
potentially improving quality of life and
What approach did you take to saving valuable NHS resources.
address the challenge?
Our study aimed to identify areas where
What are the next steps?
people lack competence and/or confidence Our ambition is to apply these techniques
when managing their long-term condition. to many other long-term conditions, and to
There is not a lack of information for these help as many people as possible. We seek
people – quite the opposite, there is usually to engage with the Department of Health,
too much. It is often too complex, too NHS, pharmaceutical companies, and
general, and hard to put into action. The patient associations in order to take this
challenge is to create an engaging and successful approach forward.
personalised computer-based support toolkit
that helps people take appropriate action.
Digital services feasibility projects | 25getWell Media Ltd
Impact research
38 Kempe Road Director
London James Kinross
NW6 6SJ getwellmedialab@gmail.com
07989 344238
www.getwellmedia.com
@getwellmedia
getWell Media is revolutionising the pre-publication peer review
process for scientists and academic publishers by measuring
the social impact of science as it spreads through social and
professional networks.
What was the business need that What are the potential benefits?
motivated the project? The benefits are significant – a rapid, robust
Peer review is the foundation of all science and democratised peer review process for a
yet it is fundamentally flawed. Digital media global population of academic and scientific
has radically changed how scientific data is researchers; an incentivised and engaged
read and social networks have altered how peer review community; novel metrics of the
opinions on scientific output are shared, yet social benefit/impact of science for both
this is not reflected in impact measurements. academic institutions and publishers seeking
A quantitative metric of the social impact of to demonstrate the impact of their work; and
research is needed as a measure of research cost-effective and efficient analysis of
quality. individual performance for academic
institutions and industry.
What approach did you take to
address the challenge? What are the next steps?
We have worked with our partners at Equal We are seeking a second round of funding to
Media Ltd to create new tools to measure drive the demonstrator through to a fully
scientific opinion as it spreads through social functioning tool ready for market and the
and professional networks. We have engagement of a scientific publisher to serve
developed novel analytics to incentivise the as a partner. We will also publish an evidence
peer review process and to help academics base from the alpha test to demonstrate its
understand the impact of their work. We have significant potential.
also designed an entirely novel pre-
publication platform to bring publishers and
peer reviewers together in a collaborative
work space.
26 | Collaboration NationgetWell Media Ltd
Getwell media laboratory
38 Kempe Road Director
Queens Park James Kinross
London getwellmedialab@gmail.com
NW6 6SJ 07989 344238
www.getwellmedia.com
@getwellmedia
getWell Media provides digital information on medical device
technologies and procedures for patients and medical
professionals. It was founded by a practising surgeon who
understood that patient information is often not provided in the
digital medium used by patients.
What was the business need that What are the potential benefits?
motivated the project? This is the first approach of its kind. We see
Patients and doctors are not easily able to it being rapidly expanded to provide a large
interpret metadata regarding medical and number of games for hundreds of surgical
surgical therapies. Patients find it difficult to and medical conditions. The aim is to alter
make informed decisions about treatments people’s perceptions about how medical
because they are not able to gain access education can be delivered to all patients
to appropriate medical information at the and medical professionals and to transform
point of care. There are also limited the medical education market. The financial
interactive tools for teaching doctors about implications are significant for medical
the principles of medical procedures. manufacturers who require affordable and
reliable marketing platforms.
What approach did you take to
address the challenge? What are the next steps?
We have created a proof-of-principle We need funding to allow us to continue
demonstrator game on a mobile platform. developing a much larger selection of
It is based on real-world clinical outcome games in numerous other surgical conditions
data and surgical approaches to hernia and medical specialities. We also need
repair. This product uses structured clinical engagement from governmental
outcome and efficacy data (for example organisations with a remit in patient
randomised control trials) which are education, for example National Institute
streamed into a mobile gaming environment. for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).
By encouraging users to engage in a fun We would also like to introduce this
and interactive ‘game’, data is interpreted in approach to an international audience
a more intuitive and personalised manner. of healthcare providers.
Digital services feasibility projects | 27Hao2.eu Ltd
People with autistic spectrum conditions making a world of difference
12 Avenue South Director
Surbiton Nicola Herbertson
Surrey nikki@hao2.eu
KT5 8PJ (0208) 123 4708
www.hao2.eu
Hao2.Eu Ltd is a female-led social firm specialising in 3D social
media technologies, and providing training, design and
development services to the public and private sectors. Hao2.eu
is a Business Professional Certificate accredited member of
Intellect, and 80% of its staff have autistic spectrum conditions.
What was the business need that What are the potential benefits?
motivated the project? Our feasibility study tested demonstrator
Services using traditional channels products, created practical solutions to
(telephone, web/email and face to face) overcome common technical/organisational
do not meet the disability/support needs of barriers and identified what further R&D
people with autistic spectrum conditions needs to be done. We identified the main
(ASC) because of the costs and the barriers benefits for individuals with ASC and
they experience when using them. 3D social organisations providing services to them –
media technologies could offer a cost- significant cost, time, travel and premises
effective and sustainable fourth channel, savings; increased participation of people
leading to increased participation and more in remote locations; more accessible
positive outcomes. employment and learning opportunities;
and access to new market opportunities
What approach did you take to
address the challenge? What are the next steps?
Our team of people, most of whom have We need to carry out a longer term study
ASC, worked with three public sector with more detailed cost-benefit analysis and
organisations to demonstrate and test our a larger sample. We also need to carry out
products. The work confirmed the costs/ further R&D to design sector/disability-
benefits of using 3D social media specific technical solutions and services and
technologies to better meet the needs of to secure investment partners to continue the
people with ASC. Our collaborative, inclusive R&D, protect intellectual property rights and
approach resulted in some practical/low-cost to develop a social enterprise model to
solutions to overcoming technical/ rapidly scale activity in the UK and abroad.
organisational barriers to innovation and
subsequent adoption of this technology,
and identified further R&D needs.
28 | Collaboration NationYou can also read
