Digitally Enabled Business Clinic - a cost-effective means of universities supporting SMEs to increase their productivity

"We are proposing a feasibility study of a Digitally Enabled Business Clinic (DEBC), building on the success of Northumbria University's Business Clinic (BC).

The DEBC will enable businesses to engage with university students and access free business consultancy, providing the latest knowledge from a range of disciplines, leading to positive business outcomes.

This project benefits from our experience gained from the tried and tested model of Northumbria's existing BC.

We will create, test and evaluate a digitally enabled model of the business clinic, which will enable the highly successful BC approach to be implemented quickly and cost effectively by other universities. Digital media will be used to attract low to mid productivity SMEs and deliver free consultancy services and a range of online webinars.

The DEBC will collaborate with our network contacts in particular the NELEP, Asian Business Connexions (ABC is part of the Federation of Asian Business which operates nationally) and the Federation of Small Businesses, helping us target/recruit SMEs from struggling sectors who would benefit from digital advice.

The project will reach 30-40 SMEs of low to medium productivity, providing an opportunity to tap into the perspective of 'young eyes' from our motivated and innovative Business School students. The DEBC will provide a cross functional range of advice (including digital marketing, finance, strategic management) through digital media and tools, removing the need for costly physical infrastructure.

From our experience since 2013, we know that the Business Clinic model is effective. What makes this project innovative is that we will test an alternative digitally-enabled model, which could be quickly scaled up. The project will determine whether DEBC concept is a cost-effective way for SMEs to interact with a local university, gain pro-bono neutral advice, access state of the art knowledge and have the added value of the younger generation perspective. We will monitor the reach, uptake and impact on business outcomes. We will prepare a ""How to Implement a DEBC Guide"", and a set of compelling case studies to underpin the formation of DEBCs in other regions. The UK industrial Strategy aims to support universities and businesses working together to innovate. Rolling out a network of DEBCs would be an innovative mechanism enabling UK businesses to easily connect with and benefit from existing technologies, new knowledge, insights and fresh perspectives of University Business Schools."