What we do: Project VIA
Valuing Intellectual Assets in Renewables Companies
Project VIA - Valuing Intellectual Assets - is a unique programme offered by the Intellectual Assets Centre funded by European Regional Development Fund and Scottish Government.
Project VIA for Renewables Companies follows on from the successful Project VIA for Software Companies in the Highlands and Islands which ended in April 2009. Since May 2009 we have been delivering the new Project VIA to companies in the Highlands and Islands from across the renewable energy sector.
The project is being delivered by industry experts through a series of Workshops and Masterclasses and is designed to raise awareness among participants of the importance of intellectual assets and the role these assets can play in supporting business development and innovation. It offers participants an opportunity to focus on critical business areas such as:
• Brand development and protection
• Creation of new processes, products and revenue streams
• Marketing Strategies
Workshops and Masterclasses
Each year in Project VIA we tailor the Workshops and Masterclasses to the needs of the participating companies. These needs are identified through a thorough benchmarking analysis, using one of the IA Centre’s unique on-line tools to get to the heart of any organisation’s IA Management and identify strengths and weaknesses. Participating companies are taken through the IA Centre’s Benchmarking Tool by their assigned consultant at the start of the project and they will continue to work with this consultant on a 1:1 basis throughout the period of the project to develop their IA Action Plans and ensure that their needs are met and expectations exceeded by the Project. We want our project companies to make demands of us and we thrive on rising to the challenges that they present us!
The Workshop programme so far has included looking at Business Model Innovation, Maximising IA in e-business and Developing your Brand.
Companies can join the project at any time and we run Catch-up Workshops to cover an actitvity that may have already taken place before a company joins the project.
Masterclasses are presented by IA experts and this year's Project VIA companies have benefitted from attending the IA Centre's annual Supplier Gathering Event, held in Edinburgh in December, where companies were able to hear from Tim Harford ("The Undercover Economist"), David Gurteen of Gurteen Knowledge and Ian Brinkley of The Work Foundation. Presentations from this event are available on the Events Page of the IA Centre's website.
Project VIA 2008 (Software Companies)
For Project VIA 2008 we ran 3 interactive Workshops and 4 Masterclasses across the Highlands and Islands and the outline programme is shown below:
Workshop 1 “Marketing: Market Verification and The Proposition” Benny Placido and Tim Sandford of Market Transformations www.markettransformations.com
Masterclass 1 “Natural Born Sellers” led by Fiach Maguire a Consultant with Alttitude, www.alttitude.mmidev.co.uk
Workshop 2 “Project Management for Product Development” Dr Gordon McNeilly of MayTay Medical www.maytay.eu and “Strategic Marketing for Software SMEs” Karen Hewitt of Ogam Insight www.ogaminsight.com
Masterclass 2 was held in Cafe Arriba, Portree where the delegates were able to enjoy both an excellent menu of Mexican food and the stimulating Masterclass delivered by Ian Ritchie of Coppertop www.coppertop.co.uk and Ralph Averbuch of Electric News Network, www enn.ie on "Why Remote Location is not a Barrier to International Trade".
Workshop 3 “IA Licensing” Lorne Byatt and Dr Michael Ellis of Ellis IP and Associates www.ellis-ip.co.uk
Masterclass 3 The Masterclass for Project VIA was jointly led by Maureen Kinsler of Marks & Clerk www.marks-clerk.com, a leading Scottish patent attorney specialising in patenting of inventions embodied in software, and Gerry Gavigan the Chairman of the Open Source Consortium www.opensourceconsortium.org
As a result of Masterclass 3, an outline of Free, Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) has been produced which consists of two sections. Section 1 provides a general introduction and background to FLOSS and Section 2 consists of a Q&A session between Project VIA companies and Gerry Gavigan of the Open Source Consortium. This resource is available here.
Dissemination Event The interim results of Project VIA were revealed in a Dissemination Event held alongside the IA Centre’s 3rd International Congress and IFKAD ’09 on the 18th February 2009.
Masterclass 4 The Final Networking Event for the Project Companies was held at Glenmoriston Town House in Inverness on the 17th of March, where companies participated in an IA Masterclass led by the IA Centre’s Chief Executive Iain Russell.
"I found real value in this project since it covered all aspects of Intellectual Assets, like business processes and market knowledge. The workshops were particularly useful bringing a new perspective to the practicalities of marketing, product and project management."
Mike Robertson, 4QL, Orkney
Some of the benefits of managing your intellectual assets...what the companies said about the project
“The VIA project has helped me broaden my perception of intellectual assets beyond just intellectual property to all areas of the business. This brings home just how much of the businesses intellectual assets are bound up in the people who work here, because no matter how much is documented it is the people that make it work.” Mark Hinton, Managing Director, Kildrummy, Shetland
“We have used IA techniques to systematically address the issues that were slowing the growth of the business and have focused on developing better strategic partnerships, improving internal processes and increasing customer satisfaction and retention. This is all with a view to establishing a stronger position within our target market.” Campbell Grant, Managing Director, Sitekit Solutions, Skye
More details about the programme
The programme will run though to April 2010, with opportunities for one-to-one management support and peer group interaction. A key programme outcome will be the creation by participants of an Action Plan which will lay the foundations for a new approach to the measurement, management and development of intellectual assets in their business. The programme will involve the utilisation of a number of online tools developed by the IA Centre and support the development of a new web-based intellectual assets management tool which could be utilised by companies across Scotland.
If you would be interested in participating and want to find out more information about the programme, please complete our Contact Us Form, email your contact details to the IA Centre at info@ia-centre.org.uk
Some more info is available in the FAQ leaflet, downloadable below...
Case Studies 2008
Here are the case studies about some companies who participated in the VIA project in 2008.
'Valuing IA in Software Companies' FAQ leaflet
This leaflet answers some of the frequently asked questions about the project
Case Studies 2007
Here are the case studies about some companies who participated in the VIA project in 2007.
EVVICA Tool
This is a tool for assessing the profitability of your projects using a Estimated Value Via Intellectual Capital Analysis technique, referred to as EVVICA. By answering a series of multiple choice questions and entering some basic financial projections, this tool will give you an indication of your projects' possible outcome.
