WM ICT Profile

1
West Midlands (UK) ICT Profile
West Midlands ICT capabilities and offerings
overview
ICT Working Group 2008
2
Introduction
The West Midlands region
- a diverse vibrant region located at the heart
of the UK

• World-class business environment, with highly
  developed supply chains and professional service
  networks
• The population of the West Midlands is 5.4 mil -
  9 of UK total. The regions capital city,
  Birmingham, is second largest in the UK and has a
  population of over 1 million people
• There are more than 2.5 mil people employed in
  the West Midlands and
• There are about 2.7 mil economically active
  people in the West Midlands. (Source ONS, Labour
  Market Statistics, April 2007)
• The region has a Gross Value Added (GVA) figure
  of 85 million (7.8 of UK total). This equates
  to a GVA per head of 16K
• The region is located at the hub of the UKs
  road and rail network. 75 of the UKs
  destination is within 5 hours truck drive and all
  the major European cities within 48 hours.
• Birmingham International Airport (BHX), the
  second largest airport in UK, serves over 100
  destinations world-wide and Coventry Airport
  serves 18 European cities.

• ICT is important to the West Midlands
• for two reasons
• Output from firms within the sector accounts for
  a significant proportion (6) of regional output
• ICT supports almost all sectors of the economy,
  which will create a substantial knock-on benefit
  for the regional economy as a whole

(Source ONS, AWM)
3
Priorities of ICT

• Research collaboration with the universities in
  the areas of
• IS Management Strategy and Computer Science
• Pervasive Mobile Computing and Communication
  Networks
• Knowledge Engineering Modelling
• Human Aspects of Computing Applied
  technologies
• Artificial Intelligence Intelligent Systems
• Green ICT
• IT Security and e-Crimes prevention
  (computational forensics digital security RD)
• Serious Games (Computer Games applied to
  non-entertainment fields)
• Others

4
Priorities of ICT Implementation Strategy

• The West Midland ICT Steering Groups strategic
  objectives include
• Create a framework to support SME engagement and
  interaction with
• e-government and procurement services
• Facilitate adoption of common standards for
  public sector e-services
• Facilitate public sector adoption of
  collaborative knowledge
• (to support efficiency and enhanced value)
• Establish a framework to deliver common network
  services
• (through effective inter-working partnerships)
• Establish the e-Business Delivery Infrastructure
• To be in the top third of UK regions for
  e-Business adoption
• Be an interconnected exemplar region developing
  world class IP in key sectors

5
Strengths of ICT
Main areas of research within our regions
universities
Other information

• New research fields are also gaining momentum
  such as IT Security and e-Crimes prevention
• The smallest but growing area of expertise is in
  Robotics (limited in scope by the high
  infrastructure
• costs required for robotics RD
• Our region has a very high national profile for
  computer gaming through our Screen Image Sound
  Cluster
• In addition, there are a number of national
  organisations centred within the region
  including
• National Centre for Strategic IT Management
• National Computer Centre ACCREDIT
• National Business to Business Centre
• UKita The UKs SME IT Association

6
Strengths of ICT

• The West Midlands excels in custom software for
  industrial applications, in particular
• automotive industry design and production,
• manufacturing and business applications,
• Virtual Reality and Real Time applications,
• computer game design,
• systems level software and applications
  solutions
• One of the most advanced telecommunication
  networks in Europe. Telecommunications is one of
  the regions fastest growing sectors.
• Birmingham is the only UK city with 100 coverage
  of a self-healing fibre optic network. Businesses
  enjoy more efficient, reliable communications.
• The region's position at the forefront of UK
  telecommunications has attracted major players
  and innovators to locate here. Among the world
  class software companies based here are HP, EDS,
  Fujitsu, IBM, Oracle, Sega, Siemens, Core Design
  and Software AG.

7
Centres of expertise
8
Strategies and Challenges
The ICT Cluster and the ICT Policy groups have
identified the following strategies Increase
the number of regional ICT SMEs involved with
RD Increase the supply of skilled ICT
graduates with appropriate range of technical
soft skills Develop university/SME/end user
partnerships ensuring market focused Knowledge
Transfer Increase the numbers of SMEs around
new and emerging technologies to create critical
mass to form new sub-clusters Exploit ICT
adoption by all SMEs which offers a 10 increase
in productivity Improve business
competitiveness Drive up entrepreneurship
Exploit regional knowledge assets
Challenges
To develop a Cluster of ICT businesses with the
vision, innovation and capability of being truly
competitive in a global market. To provide
support by universities and other regional
partners to ensure the regions ICT workforce is
equipped with the appropriate skills to meet both
the needs of employers today as well as the needs
of emerging technologies in the future.
9
Thank you
Contact information
Pat Costello Cluster Innovation
Manager p.costello_at_wlv.ac.uk
Mike Musson ICT Cluster Manager mikemusson_at_advanta
gewm.co.uk
Website www.wmictcluster.org