Surge to help businesses harness the power of digital

Digital Surge is a £1million Digital Programme for companies across Northern Ireland which is being led by Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council.

The programme will be delivered by a consortium of Northern Ireland businesses with £860,000 support from Invest NI towards the programme and local councils contributing £216,000.

The initiative aims to introduce local businesses to a range of digital tools through workshops, mentoring, masterclasses and network cluster events for small and medium sized businesses.

Kevin O’Connor, head of business with Derry City and Strabane District Council, said the Surge Programme would really complement the range of support initiatives already being offered by council.

“Digital technology offers local businesses an amazing platform to showcase products and streamline services though many people find it daunting keeping up with the latest advances,” he said.

“The Surge Programme equips businesses with the knowledge to harness the potential of the most innovative digital tools which have the capacity to catalyse their growth and development.

“I would really encourage local businesses to check out the range of areas being explored, from Big-Data to Machine Learning, and how they can effectively use these exciting new technologies to fast track their way to success.”

Businesses completing the programme will come away with an Innovation Roadmap and Digital Acceleration Plan and will be onward routed to more intensive supports in the ‘digital innovation ecosystem’.

The advanced digital technology areas being covered by this programme include:​

· Smart technologies/ smart environments and the Internet of Things (IoT);

· Process automation via robotics/cobotics;

· Big-data and analytics;

· Immersive technologies (AR/VR/MR/Haptics);

· Artificial intelligence and machine learning;

· Distributed ledger systems / blockchain technologies.

Gillian Colan-O’Leary, consortium project lead, said: “We are really looking forward to helping small businesses across Northern Ireland embark on their digital transformation journey.

“Businesses which recognise the role advanced transformative technology can play, at a strategic level, will certainly increase their growth potential, and we will provide the support they need to discover how to fundamentally change how they operate and deliver value.”

The programme is part funded by Invest Northern Ireland, the European Regional Development Fund under the Investment for Growth & Jobs Northern Ireland (2014-2020) Programme and all 11 councils in Northern Ireland.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper whenever you are able to do so.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper when you can safely.

You can also enjoy unlimited access to the best news from across Northern Ireland and the UK by subscribing to newsletter.co.uk

With a digital subscription, you can read more than five articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit https://www.newsletter.co.uk/subscriptions now to sign up.

Thank you