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Wimborne based company Copyrite Business Solutions Ltd predicts a £150k increase in sales following the successful completion of a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with BU.
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships place a graduate into a company to undertake a project of strategic importance lasting 18 to 36 months duration, and are supported by academic supervison from an appropriate University with the required specialist skills.
Copyrite Business Solutions supplies and supports office machinery and electronic document management systems. These solutions include bespoke systems to meet specialised market requirements.
Copyrite recognised an opportunity to use a model-based approach in designing their value-added electronic document management software applications, by introducing advanced business and ICT skills from BU's School of Design , Engineering and Computing. They also identified that by implementing best-practice business integration and workflow management procedures, they could respond to customers' requests for business consultancy. The ability to provide further technical support would enable Copyrite to expand its markets, allowing them access to a market that would include all organisations that use and store paper, and electronic documentation, i.e. from UK based micro companies right through to multi-national organisations.
Market research into the latest best practice was carried out, and a complete strategic overview undertaken of the internal procedures required to implement business integration and workflow management. Visits to Copyrite's clients were undertaken to discuss requirements for bespoke software functions. It was quickly identified that the primary task of the graduate would be to successfully develop a device that would enable documents to be scanned in and transferred to an application running on a PC. The new product developed is customisable to reflect user needs.
The graduate also developed another product which could be edited and configured with minimal effort/skill, and that would allow scanning of a document into a folder in such a manner that it could be understood by a wide range of other software applications.
In addition, the graduate developed a 'Mailshot System' for the Company which consolidated email addresses from several sources and removed duplicates.
" The KTP proved to be of great value to our company," commented Copyrite Business Solutions ' Managing Director Mike Baynham . "It not only provided key expertise and specialist skills to help us develop a new product, but also stimulated culture change leading to potential long-term benefits throughout the organisation."
"Workflow automation has generally been the province of large companies. This project showed how modern software technologies can be used to bring those benefits within the reach of SMEs," explained Michael Jones (Principle Lecturer in Computing) who led the University support for this KTP .
Dr Frank Milsom (Senior Lecturer in Computing) provided the academic supervision and support that enabled the KTP to deliver such useful benefits . "It has been a privilege helping Copyrite Business Solutions explore the potential benefits of adding value through using software to create flexible solutions, bespoke to clients' needs, " reported Dr Milsom. "The Company's appreciation of information technology has been greatly enhanced, the graduate has increased both his business awareness and computing expertise, and the University has benefited from case study material applicable to a range of student learning opportunities." | 
