Incubation In association with Business & Innovation Centres (BIC)

INCUBATING GIANTS

Patrick Munden, Director, South East BIC

Start-Ups require much more that just office space and, as such, BICs are offering incubators with additional support.

In many ways, starting a business can be exactly like Bob Dylan's lyrics in Shelter from the Storm. Starting up can be extremely exhaustive and emerging entrepreneurs can find themselves 'hunted' by many competitors. In this situation, an incubator can be of tremendous value by providing refuge and infrastructure to new and upcoming businesses.

But incubation is no longer just about buildings, and, in BIC's case, the concept of incubation has been taken to an absolute new level. While several incubators see their role as providing physical infrastructure such as office space and equipment, Irish BICs have developed the uses of incubators and evolved them into 'powerhouses' for emerging businesses.

NOT JUST BUILDINGS

WHAT ARE BICS?

Business and Innovation Centres (BICs) are unique specialist business development organisations providing expert advice and support on a regional basis to high potential Irish entrepreneurs and business start-ups as well as established business wishing to innovate. The Irish BICs are part of the European BIC Network

Think about business incubation and what comes to mind? Probably an image of a building that houses a number of small business units for start-up companies. There is a common perception that this is what business incubation is about but without additional support services, a business incubator is just real estate.

Start up companies do need office/workshop space and equipment and business incubators can provide this at a subsidised rate until the company is on its feet and is able to move into its own premises. This, however, does not utilise the incubator's full potential. Says Ultan Faherty, project coordinator at WESTBIC, "it is one thing to provide lovely state-of-the-art infrastructure and buildings with a lot of like-minded companies but developing a business requires much more than that; identifying and getting customers, getting your first sale, going international and knowing how IT can help your business gain a competitive advantage." Adds Sue Arundale-Scott, quality and technical assistance manager at the European BIC Network (EBN), "what start up companies really need is good advice, training, help with business planning and particularly help to find financial support through loans, venture capital or some other means." Accordingly, BICs are committed to providing that 'extra' bit of aid in order to utilise the incubator's full potential and maintain its successful standard and quality.

UPHOLDING THE QUALITY

BICs go through an accreditation process and are subsequently monitored annually to maintain their status as an official 'EC-BIC.' The quality system, set up the by EBN, and its implementation by the BICs, is monitored by the BIC quality mark committee.

Explains Arundale-Scott, "in order to maintain BIC status, the centres must follow the BIC quality criteria. In particular, they must have a clear positioning strategy and action plan aimed at creating jobs through the creation of innovative companies or the development of existing companies."

SERVICES TO ENTREPRENEURS

BICs provide support to entrepreneurs and existing companies at every stage of a project's development, from startup support with incubation space, feasibility studies, business planning and seed finance, through to technology and strategy advice for expansion into new products and markets.

The motivation for the project, 'the innovation and incubation initiative,' came from research that found that Europe lagged behind the US in nine out of eleven indicators used to evaluate the success of business incubators.

Started in 2005, the aim of the project was to address the needs of BICs and incubators in relation to competitiveness and quality management by providing information and web-based training to business incubator personnel. The project was set up in order to boost the performance of business incubators by increasing the level of information and training available to their personnel. "As a result, the essential know-how about setting up and running an incubator has been distilled into an attractive multimedia package. The partners involved in designing the course materials provide comprehensive guidance on all aspects of running an incubator rather than specialise in a few key areas. The training materials are organised into three modules that cover the life cycle of high potential start-ups (HPSUs), from identifying and selecting promising companies, through incubating them in their early stages, to helping them to grow and thrive," explains Faherty.

NEXT STEPS

Subsequently, the partners involved have decided to take this project one step further by submitting a follow-on project called II. This project would involve additional partners, with a view to enhancing the quality of the content with more case studies, more modules based on the results of the pilot testing, more exercises and new tools.

Author: Patrick Munden is the Director of South East BIC.

LEADING THE WAY

LIMERICK BIC HAS BEEN ONE OF THE PIONEERS IN EUROPE TO PROVIDE INCUBATOR SUPPORT.

The incubation centre in Limerick, originally known as the Innovation centre, was developed over two decades ago. Over the years, Martin Corry, project manager at Shannon Development has observed the changing trends of the incubation centre. Explains Corry, "Irish entrepreneurs are now very sophisticated and are looking at developing technology and value-added driven companies within incubators and seek much more than office space. Today, and this is common with most incubators, it's more of a one-stop shop as well as providing the infrastructure." "People are looking at the soft support needed be it the accommodation, be it the input around business planning and consultancy, be it business training and support, be it linkages to marketplace and finance providers. There is a greater emphasis on providing many of the needs of the start-up company and the whole incubation environment helps greatly, particularly at the early stages of business start up." Earlier, when the incubator started off, it was only about technology companies. But now there is a really good mix with technology, value-added service, and environmental and financial service companies. Apart from being an incubator, Shannon Development also has a venture development process. "Whatever stage that people are at, in terms of becoming an entrepreneur, we like to think we can plug them in with the appropriate mechanism, be it a venture start training programme or commercialisation strategies," Corry points out.

IT ADRENALIN

STATE OF THE ART BROADBAND PROVIDES A BOOST FOR COMPANIES BASED IN THE GUINNESS ENTERPRISE CENTRE.

Sixty-five companies, most of them involved in IT software development and multimedia, are now benefiting from the installation of leading edge broadband at the Guinness Enterprise Centre (GEC). The centre, managed by Dublin BIC on behalf of the stakeholders, now has a 2.5-gigabyte fibre optic connection with resilience supported by a 10-megabyte wireless connection. In addition, voice communications is Voiceover Internet Protocol (VoIP) enabled. "This strategic new development will enable the GEC to provide high specification voice and data connections at much reduced costs to our client companies. They can also have permanent use of the service within hours of their request for it. The new broadband facility places GEC companies on an equal footing with leading edge companies at home and abroad," explains John McInerney, project manager at Dublin BIC. Enterprise space is now available for qualifying businesses at the GEC. For further information contact John McInerney on (01) 671 3111 or email john@dbic.ie