The aim of a collaboration network is to encourage and support businesses to work together through collaboration or joint ventures to pursue market opportunities that they would be unable to do on their own, to attract new customers and accelerate sales revenues. In turn, this should stimulate and accelerate the local economy through joint working and professional support services.

Collaboration partners are small companies, individuals, organisations, universities or major corporates. The network’s team works with the partners to set requirements for projects, finds and assesses opportunities, delivers tools for collaboration, and constantly managing the project – and expectations.

The network’s analysts research market opportunities, contacts and prospects, competition and trends. They deliver actionable reports, and information, to enable network members and their collaboration partners to pinpoint and engage with the opportunities. The team also looks after any consultants’ work, and the commissioning or purchase of market information.

There are substantial and immediate advantages from collaborating with others: not only can SMEs improve what they are already good at – focusing on and developing competencies – but they are able to reduce lead times and increase speed of response to customers. And when partners focus on their own competencies, innovation grows through synergetic cycle of improving performance.

Collaboration facilitates sharing of all type of resources (equipment, know-how, special skills, facilities etc.) among partners and consequently reducing risk, such as the avoidance or sharing of the risk for costly new investments.

And most of all, collaboration gives immediate access to customers and markets that would be outside the capability or scope of any one partner.