It makes a really refreshing change to be able to let you know about a round of funding that is available for NE England SME businesses. The funding is available as part of an ERDF investment programme for SME's engaged in mainly B2B activities which are undertaking revenue projects that will produce tangible results to create or safeguard jobs.

SME's can apply for the funding via this program directly or using a qualified North East Service Providers like ourselves to seed the project for them.

So if you have a 2012 initiative that might be:

In a week that seen the launch of the Apple iPHONE 4s and the hugely tragic death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs it would appear that their Brand has actually grown despite Steve's sad passing.

An article appeared from the Reuters news agency yesterday and it makes interesting reading:

As part of the work that we have been doing in the US and India over the last few months we are looking for a mobile technology software development Associate based in the UK.

Emerging Technologies in the mobile and cloud based technology spaces, will dramatically change the way businesses engage with their customers ... we plan to exploiting these technologies to the full.

In this months Issue of the IOD magazine Director, Trevor Clawson explores how SME's can develop an APP and really extend their customer communication and brand loyalty.

The following is a summary of the article and some pointers to getting the best from your APP developments.

As you may know we are involved in various aspects of digital imaging technology from creation of content, to development of resources and software. Well we have just arrived in Birmingham at the NEC for the annual Focus on Imaging exhibition that starts tomorrow morning.

Whilst at this years show it will be really interesting to see  what effects the economic situation has had on the industry and more importantly on the development of new products and services.

Well today we have seen the previous worlds largest and most profitable mobile phone company bow to real technology pressure.

Nokias CEO described their business place only on Wednesday as like being on a burning platform (which was set on fire by the Apple iPhone) and now looks like it is going to collapse altogether.

Day 5 - Creating A Robust Strategy for 2011

So why a band of gold as a title? Well a band of gold is most often though of a wedding ring a symbol of the Bond between Two People of of longevity and belonging. So what has this got to do with business Strategy? The simple and obvious answer is that Strategy is like the bond uniting your business ambition and a series of actions designed to get you toward those ambitions.

There is never a better time to plan your marketing and product development activity than over a glass of cheer so have one on us.

Day 4 - Creativity Lessons from a Family Christmas 

What happened was a massive leap in creativity, thought, innovation and on Christmas Day presents that had been well thought out, creative, hand made and loved by everyone.

Day 3 - Working with Academia as a key source of competitive advantage

I can't overstate the importance of knowing who is who, and who knows what in your local academic community. 

Be that a source of specialist knowledge in any aspect of your business (Marketing or Product Development) being connected with the local business school or school of engineering & technology could be that vital link to the latest tools and techniques or even expert advice.

Day 2 - Looking Wide For Technology Ideas

Having survived Christmas Day, its time to turn our thoughts to using those technology ideas we started thinking about in our first day of Christmas technology blog.

I remember many years ago now I was leading a design team investigating the design of a new radar system for inland river navigation craft. The kind of craft you find on the River Rhine.