EMBRACING INNOVATION THROUGH DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY

Digital technology can play a vital role in helping businesses to unlock new markets, bringing new products to market and increasing flexibility in the way that we all go about our daily business. Yet many businesses across South Yorkshire have been slow to embrace the opportunities offered by digital solutions, stifling growth.

These were the conclusions drawn by the Sheffield City Region’s Strategic Economic Plan, which not only identified that digital was a key sector in its own right, but one that could play a vital role to support growth within a wide range of sectors including manufacturing, engineering and serviceled businesses.

In 2020, the four local authorities operating across South Yorkshire successfully secured funding to pioneer the South Yorkshire Digital Innovation Grant scheme. The match-funded grant scheme provided businesses with an opportunity to access between £1,000 and £5,000 to match fund digital projects worth up to £10,000 in a bid to help SMEs across the region embrace technology to boost growth.

Launched in August 2021 as one of a number of measures to help businesses overcome some of the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Digital Innovation Grant scheme was led by Enterprising Barnsley and supported by Business Doncaster, Business Sheffield and RiDO.

HARMONY MUSIC SCHOOL WHITE’S BAKERY

Headquartered at Ecclesfield Business Centre, Harmony Music School provides oneto-one music tuition to help budding pianists, drummers, guitarists and singers. Its youngest pupil is aged just 4 and its oldest learner is 86 years old.

When the Covid-19 pandemic stopped Harmony Music from delivering faceto-face lessons, Aubrey and Abby decided to try moving their tuition services online. Delivering their tuition using just a camera and microphone, the experience planted an idea to explore new ways of sharing their knowledge and inspiring others to take up learning a musical instrument.

It proved to be a watershed moment for the business, and Aubrey and Abby realised they could expand their business beyond their physical location by broadening their online tuition offering. Coupled with plans to launch a series of self-taught courses, which can be downloaded from the company’s website, the musical duo realised that whilst their plans offered a golden opportunity to expand and grow the business, it would require a significant financial investment.

The funds provided through the Digital Innovation Grant have enabled the company to introduce an online booking system, whilst upgrading the audio and visual equipment has helped

Aubrey, Abby and the rest of their teaching staff to support budding musicians across the UK, with regular lessons being taught to pupils across Yorkshire and beyond.

Work is also underway to develop their self-taught teaching sessions, which Harmony Music hopes to officially launch later this year.

“Since acquiring the funds, we’ve secured regular work with students based across the UK, and we’re now planning to recruit additional music teachers to meet the rising demand for our services.”

Aubrey Robinson, Co-Founder, Harmony Music School

White’s Bakery is a fourthgeneration family business that produces a range of tasty cakes, muffins and biscuits, which are enjoyed by school children across the UK. When the Covid-19 pandemic left the 90-year-old business fighting for its very survival, managing director David White realised that the business faced a very stark choice: evolve or risk closing its gates forever. Working with a business consultant, David began exploring ways of overcoming the barriers that were holding the business back. Together, they quickly identified a number of factors that were impacting the business: a reliance on old and unreliable machinery, the use of cumbersome and time-consuming paper-based admin systems and an unclear growth plan.

White’s Bakery secured help through the Digital Innovation Grant to improve the way in which the vital ingredients used in every product could be tracked and traced. Working in the food industry, traceability is vital; however, the bakery had historically relied upon cumbersome paper-based records. The grant helped White’s Bakery to invest in scanning guns and barcode technology, allowing the vital information to be recorded at the click of a button.

Help was also secured through the Business Productivity Grant scheme to help White’s Bakery invest in a state-of-the-art metal detecting machine, used to detect potential contaminants on the company’s production line. With all lines tested each hour, the new equipment also replaced a paper-based monitoring system.

“The solutions we implemented have helped us to reduce the time taken to record the vital information needed to deliver the highest possible levels of food safety, but they have also allowed us to capture much more detail. We’re now working towards doubling our turnover and have exciting future growth plans to scale the business further.”

David White, Managing Director, White’s Bakery

Although it would be difficult to imagine any type of business that doesn’t use any form of technology, embracing digital can help SMEs to overcome and unlock very real barriers to growth by helping businesses to adapt and respond to the challenges they face.

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on many businesses not only saw the office being replaced with home working, but it perhaps also illustrated the vital role that digital technology can play in helping businesses to adapt and respond to the challenges they face.

The UK’s Digital Strategy, published in 2017, not only laid out plans to make Britain the best place to start and grow a business but crucially, it stipulated that every business should receive help and support to become a digital business. The strategy positioned technology as being a vital aspect of business innovation, estimating that the economic contribution of digital technology would generate a GVA of £200bn by 2025; this figure appears to be in sight, and in April 2023, data published by the Office of National statistics revealed that in 2020 alone, digital had contributed a GVA of £142.3 billion.

In South Yorkshire, an area that has lower than average levels of productivity and economic output compared with other parts of the UK, the South Yorkshire Digital Innovation Grant scheme was developed to help businesses overcome barriers to growth by embracing technology.

Of course, it wouldn’t be fair to suggest that every business in the region has been resistant to embracing technology; in many cases, the real barriers have often been sourcing the right forms of technical support, and the costs of implementation. For some, the Digital Innovation Grant has helped SMEs to overcome those very real barriers, with successful projects ranging from embracing cutting edge technology to introducing new products or services to simply helping manufacturers to manage levels of stock and production more effectively.

Since its launch, the Digital Innovation Grant scheme is projected to have supported over 230 businesses in the region. Of those, 148 said they intended to use the grant funding to introduce new products or services, and a total of 109 jobs within the region are anticipated to be created as a direct result of the scheme.

A report commissioned by Enterprising Barnsley revealed that of those businesses that did secure help from the Digital Innovation Grant scheme, just 38% said that digital played an important part in their business, prior to receiving help from the grant scheme, whereas 48% said they either hardly used or had some use of digital solutions in their business. After receiving investment, over 60% of businesses said digital now played an important role in their business, with 80% reporting positive impacts upon productivity and profitability.

As many businesses continue their recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, coupled with rising rates of inflation and the cost-of-living crisis, the need for digital technology has never been greater, and the Digital Innovation Grant has helped businesses look towards a brighter digital future.

HEADLINE FIGURES:

232 BUSINESSES SUPPORTED

150 NEW PRODUCTS OR SERVICES INTRODUCED

109 ANTICIPATED NEW JOBS CREATED

60% OF SMES SAID DIGITAL SOLUTIONS NOW PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN THE BUSINESS

WILL HELP BE AVAILABLE THROUGH THE DIGITAL INNOVATION GRANT SCHEME IN FUTURE?

The Digital Innovation Grant scheme closed to new applicants in March 2023; however, a new phase of grant funding is set to be launched in July as part of a revised Business Productivity Grant scheme. Any businesses interested in pre-registering for the next phase of the South Yorkshire Business Productivity Programme should contact Enterprising Barnsley, Business Doncaster, Business Sheffield and RiDO.