SMEs Rule! - A Case Study in Enterprise and Innovation

Preface

We love working with SMEs and Bright Red Publishing [here] are one of the best we have ever worked with. The site we helped create now have over 45,000 registered users, with over one million test questions undertaken by pupils and teachers in Scotland, and it's all free!  So how can a small company like Bright Red Publishing win against companies who are many times larger, and with greater budgets ... innovation, vision and drive! As we look to the new school year, we can only see it making an even great impact on our next generation. As an academic, that is the best result that can happen. 

I thought I'd update this post to keep you up-to-date on how SMEs can fully engage with universities around innovation, and how it can create large scale impact not only for the company, but also into society.

I don't understand how it happens ... as I'm a Professor of Computing and not one in business ... but I just love when a small company takes on the might of large companies ... and wins. For the public sector and with large companies ... you can throw money at things, but it doesn't mean that it will stick!

Enterprise and innovation is in the heads of the people involved, and not in the processes and procedures that companies setup. Without the drive, focus and determination to succeed, projects will often fail. For SMEs, picking their partners is key to that success, as there is no way that they can invest in all the skills required. For them, they often have to stick to what they do best, and collaborate around all the other things. Large companies will often recruit and think they can "buy-in" the right skills.

So there is one thing that no country can put a value on ... the education of their children. Like it or not, education is not a fair system and children from lower incomes will generally have fewer opportunities ... so the collaboration between ourselves and Bright Red Publishing is overcoming this problem ... but providing a free resource for virtually every subject taught at N5 and Higher level in Scotland. Quite a feat for a small company ... to provide a completely free on-line environment ... in a way that the public sector or other large companies have failed to do.

So I give you the amazing and gutsy little company ... Bright Red Publishing! They now have over 35,000 registered users, and who have taken over 1 million test questions. And it's free and inclusive to all! To have the chance to be involved in this innovation, and to help in the education of our kids, is a dream for an academic.

For us, we didn't go into this collaboration for our own benefit, as could see clear benefits for the improvement of on-line education for our children ... as there are some terrible examples out there. But the benefits for us now are clear, including being asked to give keynote speeches at Teacher Conferences and in bidding for other innovation projects. At our heart is the improvement of education, though, and this on-going project is best opportunity ever for us to make a contribution to our most important asset ... our future generation! 

Introduction

One of the great things about being an academic is that you get to work with great SMEs (Small-to-medium size businesses), and it's with them that you see innovation in practice, and a continual focus on agility and in taking advantage of any opportunity that comes along.

I have spent a good deal of time talking to large companies, often with large teams of people, and which can lead to very little in the end. Large companies are often risk averse, and innovation becomes a process which suppresses the contribution from individuals. Another thing about large companies is that they often miss opportunities when there is a disruption of the market. With Microsoft, they missed the rise of the mobile device, and it was left to others to take advantage of the disruption that these devices have caused on the desktop market.

With SMEs they have to focus on developing within new opportunity with limited resources. A key factor for them is to identify the partnerships that will allow them to take forward their vision, without affecting their key product development. If they pick their partnership properly they can have a continued focus on what they do best. So my perfect case study is Bright Red Publishing, a great Edinburgh-based publishing company, and who create educational material for Scottish schools.

Background

The Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) was developed on the back of a consultation exercise in 2002: 'National Debate on Education'. It is a fully defined framework which advances the educational infrastructure in Scotland, from 3 to 18 years old. The final document was published in Nov 2003 and it had four key principles for children's education:

• become successful learners;
• be confident individuals;
• be responsible citizens; and
• be effective contributors.

While some have criticised the implementation of the plan, there is no doubting that that the key objectives are something that is important for development of an educated workforce, and in creating a fairer society. It also gave Scotland the opportunity to refresh some areas which are struggling to keep up, such as with Computer Science, and create a more integrated approach to core subjects like English and Maths.

Basically CfE was investing in two of the most precious things that a country has: its educational infrastructure; and its next generation. No-one can criticise even one penny of investment on these . With changes too, innovation and enterprise can thrive, and it is a model which many countries of the world have used to stimulate their economy, and with disruption, there can be opportunities for those who can move fastest to the opportunity.

Spotting an opportunity and seeing it through

Within Scotland, the competitors for school textbooks are either Scottish-based publishers who focus purely on the Scottish syllabus, or are larger publishers who will often try to minimise costs by scaling material created for the English educational infrastructure into a Scottish context. Other education content has been created, especially by the BBC, and which has required an investment which few SMEs could ever dream of. With the changes in the syllabus, though, existing material will often be "rehashed" to fit in with the new syllabus, as the large budgets of the past, especially within the BBC, are not available anymore.

Within publishing, though, the smaller companies are always going to be at a disadvantage against the larger ones, who have large production teams, and have extensive marketing budgets. The larger companies also have teams supporting Web material that have had extensive budgets for their development. What they have in process, they often lack in innovation and in linking properly to pedagogy. A key failing is often that software developers produce the software that they are asked to produce, and the linkage to the end user is lost. Many software projects often fail, as the systems become full of requirements analysis, with little thought of adding the key features that the end user requires.

So how can a small company succeed over the larger ones ... through quality and innovation? With the Cloud and the availability of advanced software processing technologies, a small company could actually create a Web infrastructure which was more dynamic and engaging than the large companies who had spent large amount of money on legacy systems.

So with the changes to the Scottish educational infrastructure, Bright Red Publishing spotted a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, especially with the Big Bang around the National 5 (N5) framework, and where every subject was changing. Along with this the new Higher level (N6) would also see changes to every subject, although these would be phased-in, as opposed to the Big Bang approach of the N5 subject. So, Bright Red's approach was to create a consistent design for their books, with a strong sense of brand, but with colour keys for each subject:

So with the development of the new range of books, each with a re-write focused on the new syllabus, being a challenge within itself, Bright Red knew that each of the books required the associated Web material to be ready as the books were released, and which seamlessly integrated with them. In these days where children typically use iPads in classes and at home, any delay in getting the Web material on-line after the release of the book, would count against the books in their roll-out.

Unfortunately many IT projects within publishing often fail to deliver Web material in a timely manner and of the required quality, so Bright Red were faced with the dilemma of actually doing the Web integration themselves, and risk diluting the main focus of the book roll-out, or pick a strategic partner. A large Web integrator might look to integrate the material, and add little to the aid the production process for Bright Red, and a small company might not be able to provide the required resources to properly develop it against the full scope of the project. So, luckily for us (the School of Computing at Edinburgh Napier University), they started to collaborate with our research team through the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) Innovation Funding scheme, which released small amounts of funding to establish the collaboration between the company and the university.

Built on Innovation and Enterprise

With an initial proof-of-concept educational infrastructure in-place through the Innovation Funding, Bright Red decided to go for the complete integration of their print material with their Web site. So, as books appeared in the book shops, the Web site was ready within weeks, and where students could easily move back and forward between the book and the Web material. But Bright Red's key decision was that the site was not just there to provide a carbon copy of the book - it was there to complement and enhance the book.

So, in the design of the site, we've tried to match to the Bright Red publishing process, and create a pipeline for the creation of the material, but also to add-in innovative methods where possible, such as with virtually ever Maths calculator that you can imagine.

For example, we take have taken the material on Interquarile Range and Boxplots, and create an on-line calculator for min, max, the lower quartile, the upper quartile, the median, and the box plot:

This allows children to test their answers against a well-tested Web page. Also, we've integrated Cloud-based services to improve education, such as with a French translation engine:

Conclusion

So, apart from working with our great students, one of the great things about my role is that I can work with some great SMEs, and see them develop. I always love when a David takes on Goliath, and wins. If this didn't happen, we'd end up with one large company that controlled everything, and where nothing changed. It is often a disruption within the environment that can allow the agile companies to move fast and adapt, whereas larger ones will tend to sit back and assume that they will maintain their market share. With something so radical as changing the complete education foundation of a nation, we have a massive disruption, where agile publishing companies can gain an advantage with a consistent new design, and with new content, and integrate Web-based material.

Too often Web-based educational material is seen as an after-thought, and just a way to deliver content electronically. This thinking was never in the minds of the Bright Red team, who always wanted their books to stand-up on their content, and for the Web material to provide the additional dynamic support that the books could not give on their own.

The Bright Red Digital Zone is free to use for Schools, and is an environment which both showcases and supports their range of books. With over 55,000 registered users, and large-scale support for forthcoming exams, it can only increase in its scope, providing support for our most important asset - our next generation. Overall it is difficult to measure the impact of this project, as it provides the opportunity for every child in Scotland to have the same level of educational support.

In terms of innovation, a disruption in the market can also allow fast moving SMEs the opportunity to target, especially if they can take advantages of new technologies and develop key strategic partnerships, while focusing on what they do best. Many small companies have had difficulties taking on new skills, while developing their core products, and the quality of the thing they do best becomes diluted with compromised decisions. In publishing, the focus should always be on the content, and providing the end user with what they want from their books. The linkage to the Web material should provide the support for this, and not replace it. It is the mind of the author of the books that matters more, and the passing of their thoughts to pupils, than the device that delivers the content. So in publishing, content is king!

Seldom I have seen a company take such a strategic approach, on limited resources, to the changes in their market, and follow through one of the most integrated marketing and sales approaches, and with something that brings such benefit to all. Sometimes disruption can provide a way for innovation and agile methods to thrive, and the strategy shown by Bright Red Publishing is exemplary in virtually every respect. For them, the Web site was a way to fully justify their product, and not an "add-on" at the end, which is seen as secondary.

For them the development of the Web material was fundamental to their whole strategy, and they setup a partnership with those who know how to educate - a university. So rather than deal with software developers, they were dealing with academics who knew how to code. The code itself then becomes secondary, and the educational environment comes to the fore, which re-enforces the quality of the product, and complements it. It is the reason that Google succeeded with their search engine and where Yahoo failed. For Google they concentrated on the search engine, whereas Yahoo focused on cluttering their search page with more content. Basically users just wanted a search engine, in the same way that the foundation for the educational infrastructure is not important but the learning process is.

Overall, it's a perfect use case of a smart company who know their market inside-out, and have the strategy and drive to deliver their vision, and not hide from the challenges of changes.

SMEs are our life blood, and have the potential of being our Skyscanner's of the future. Behind them is a drive and enthusiasm, and where each individual can make a significant contribution to not only the company, but to our society. In terms of Bright Red, they've actually created content to support our next generation, with both books and Web content - which is amazing ... a true David v. Goliath...

Go David!!!!