Digital Drive – SME support & funding

Digital Drive is a £4m initiative that aims to help SMEs in County Durham to maximise their growth potential and sustainability through digital technology.

The initiative offers*:

One to one business support to help with strategic business planning, digital marketing and guidance on digital technologies that could be beneficial;
Fully funded masterclasses and conferences covering topics such as digital transformation, digital content and search engine optimisation;
Digital Health Check to assess your online presence, review your digital skills and provide advice on the best use of technology for your business;
Grant funds of up to 40% to support digital consultancy projects; equipment that will help your business to improve through the use of digital technology; website, software or app development; or the installation of broadband infrastructure.

*All support and funding is subject to eligibility criteria.

Digital Drive is funded by the European Regional Development Fund, Business Durham, which works on behalf of Durham County Council, and private investment. The initiative forms part of the wider Digital Durham initiative to improve broadband speeds for residents and businesses across the North East.

Interested in finding out more

Contact Digital Drive to register for support, events and funding opportunities, through one of the contact methods below:

Website: www.digitaldrivedurham.co.uk

Email: info@digitaldrivedurham.co.uk

Phone: 0191 389 8458

Apprentices helping to switch on County Durham

A team of 25 apprentices are hard at work bringing superfast broadband to households and businesses the length and breadth of the Digital Durham programme area.

The group is being trained up and given the skills to install and maintain fibre broadband, alongside gaining recognised qualifications over a two and a half year period.

Bethany Johnson joined BT’s local network business, Openreach, in September 2014 – attracted by the idea of ‘learning and earning’ on the job, whilst working towards a BTEC Level 3 Certificate in Professional Competence for IT and Telecoms Professionals. Twenty one year-old Bethany from Fencehouses, has already gained plenty of experience helping to connect up people’s homes to the new fibre enabled green roadside cabinets.

She said: “I had a job as an accounts manager before joining Openreach, but I just couldn’t see myself stuck behind a desk for the rest of my working life. I wanted something where I would be on the go and out and about working with different people every day. Working for Openreach ticked all those boxes.”

Bethany is currently learning how to connect up and maintain the network and has recently completed her training in one of the more challenging aspects of the job – detecting and fixing faults. She said: “It is not easy but I like to go in and play detective. It is especially satisfying when you do find a solution. The customer can’t thank you enough and that’s a lovely feeling.”

The job also provides Bethany with the flexibility to pursue her other passion for detective work – as a special police constable. Bethany said: “What’s great is that I can fit my hours around the time I spend doing my police work. Originally Openreach was going to be a stop gap to becoming a police officer, but the tables have now completely turned.

“There are so many different avenues you can go down once you’re qualified. If you’re far enough ahead with your studying, then you can use the time to do other things so I’ve been able to spend time working with other teams in other parts of the business to experience what they do.”

Bethany added: “I’ve really enjoyed my time so far and I’m looking forward to where this job will take me next. If you are ‘hands on’ and you like being out and about then this is for you – I couldn’t recommend it enough.”

Simon Roberson, BT’s regional partnership director for the North East, said: “Young people like Bethany are at the forefront of the fibre revolution that will drive future economic growth across the North East. Superfast broadband is changing for the better the way people communicate, learn to do business and enjoy their spare time.”

Cllr Jane Brown, Durham County Council’s cabinet member for corporate services, said: “It is pleasing to see that our ongoing support of the Digital Durham scheme has helped create fantastic opportunities such as these for local young people as they embark on their careers in the technology industry.”

The Digital Durham broadband programme is delivered by Durham County Council and BT. In total, £34 million has been invested by BT, Durham County Council, the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme and public sector partners in Gateshead, Sunderland, South Tyneside, North Tyneside and the Tees Valley.

A second phase of fibre deployment is already planned to begin in July 2016 benefitting an additional 29,000 homes and businesses. By the end of the roll-out, 97 per cent of premises within the programme area will have access to fibre broadband.

Hi- Tech ‘onesie’ brings faster broadband to Shincliffe Village first

Pioneering communications technology is being used to bring faster broadband to a picturesque village in County Durham

Around 180 homes and businesses in Shincliffe Village are now able to enjoy some of the fastest broadband speeds in the UK following the switching on of an innovative ‘all-in-one’ fibre broadband cabinet. Normally two cabinets are needed to bring fibre broadband to an area – the existing road-side cabinet that supplies telephone services and a new one for the fibre technology. By combining all the technology into the ‘onesie’ cabinet the amount of street furniture is reduced – ideal in certain areas of natural beauty, where there are conservation restrictions as well as to overcome certain technical issues.

Cllr Jane Brown, Durham County Council’s Cabinet member for corporate services, welcomed the news.

She said: “This is fantastic news for residents and business owners in Shincliffe Village who will now be able to take advantage of faster internet speeds and all the benefits this brings both at home and in the workplace.

“It is also pleasing to see that the village is benefitting from a relatively new technology specifically developed to bring faster broadband to locations where the standard roll-out methods are not suitable. We look forward to seeing this technology used in other areas where possible.”

One resident looking forward to getting online superfast is Daniel Roe, who runs his company Concision.co.uk, writing and editing web content, sales materials and articles for businesses, from his home in the village.

Daniel, who launched the family run start-up in June last year, said that knowing fibre was coming to Shincliffe Village was a significant factor in deciding to move to the area.

He said: “We decided to move to Shincliffe Village only after we realised there was going to be fibre broadband available. Having fibre will make a huge difference to the business. We have clients all over the world so our primary contact with them is online. We rely on VoIP services like Skype to communicate with them. We also use online multi-media presentations to show them work we are doing or to pitch to new clients – at the moment we struggle to do it over our current broadband. We also need fast access to online material that we are constantly researching and reviewing for customers.

“It will make us a lot more flexible and agile and able to respond a lot quicker, which means quicker turnarounds on projects which in turn means more satisfied clients and ultimately more business.”

Thousands of homes and businesses in the nearby communities of High Shincliffe, Bowburn and Coxhoe have also been connected to the fibre network, with further upgrades planned in the coming months due to the huge demand for fibre services.

More than 95,000 households and businesses are now able to connect to faster, fibre broadband thanks to the Digital Durham programme. On average, engineers from Openreach, BT’s local network business, are switching on 22 new street cabinets and making the new fibre network available to around 4,700 more premises every month.

Simon Roberson, BT regional partnership director for the North East, said: “Rolling out fibre broadband on this scale is no mean feat. Sometimes we have do things differently in order to overcome technical issues or challenging geographies. This was one of those times. When our primary roll-out solution did not work in this part of Shincliffe Village, we had to identify a different solution. The ‘onesie’ was the perfect solution and people are already embracing the new technology.”

Fibre broadband at home means everyone in the family can do their own thing online, all at the same time, whether it’s downloading music in minutes or watching catch-up TV; streaming HD or 3D movies in a few minutes; or posting photos and videos to social networking sites in seconds. Fibre improves the quality of online experiences and supports new developments in internet services.
Benefits for businesses include faster file and data transfers, better access to cloud computing services and software, more sophisticated web-based contact with customers and support for more flexible working.

It’s an ‘opt in’ service, but because the Openreach network is ‘open’, residents and businesses wanting to upgrade have a choice of fibre broadband providers, with more than 140 companies now operating across the UK.

The Digital Durham broadband programme is delivered by Durham County Council and BT. In total, £34 million has been invested by BT, Durham County Council, Government funding from Building Digital UK (BDUK) and public sector partners in Gateshead, Sunderland, South Tyneside, North Tyneside and the Tees Valley.

A second phase of fibre deployment is already planned to begin in July 2016. This will see a further £9 million invested in the programme area. It includes £2.82 million from the Government’s Superfast Extension Plan and £4 million from BT, with the remaining investment split between the local authority partners. An additional 29,000 homes and businesses will benefit as a result. By the end of the roll-out, 97 per cent of premises within the programme area will have access to fibre broadband.

For more information about the Digital Durham programme please visit www.digitaldurham.org