Strong uptake from digital transformation call for solutions

  • 150 SMEs successful in their application to join The Innovation Exchange in Q1
  • 20+ large businesses to publish innovation challenges throughout 2022
  • New ‘call for healthcare transformation solutions’ to open in May

Following a national call for digital transformation solutions, 150 innovative SMEs were successful in their bid to join The Innovation Exchange, the new initiative that connects large businesses facing innovation challenges with SMEs that can fast track the solutions.

The successful companies met strict criteria including proven ability to deliver innovative digital solutions and demonstrate an innovative approach and potential to scale.  In 2022, The Innovation Exchange will accept over 250 SMEs onto the programme, with over 1000 expected to join the initiative over the next four years. Additional calls will be announced throughout the year with a second call for applications coming in May focusing on challenges and solutions in healthcare transformation.

The Innovation Exchange has also announced that eight large businesses have signed up to the programme in the first quarter of the year, each committing to publishing at least one innovation challenge which participating SMEs are invited to respond to. By the end of 2022, a minimum of 20 corporate partners will have published challenges and a total of approximately 500 proposals are expected to be put forward  by SMEs for consideration.

The Innovation Exchange is pleased to announce that The Musgrave Group, HSE, Health Innovation Hub, Ryanair, Glanbia, IBM, Select USA, Carberry and An Post  have joined the programme. With recruitment ongoing, the number of corporate partners is expected to double by the end of quarter two. These large businesses get access to Ireland’s most talented and innovative SMEs and to a framework that is designed to accelerate their digital transformation ambition.

The SMEs in The Innovation Exchange are at the leading edge of digital transformation across all industry sectors from manufacturing to retail. They have capability to solve challenges by harnessing emerging technologies such as IoT, data analytic and AI to solve problems for big business in the areas of sustainability, energy, big data, workflow management, recruitment and retention.

The SME innovators, which include well established technology solutions providers as well as start-ups and scale-ups that are developing the next wave of distributive and transformative solutions, get access to a customer pipeline and to a framework that develops their capability to navigate sales and procurement through specialised, tailor-made training.

Some of the SMEs that were successful in the first call for solutions include Ambisense, GladCloud, Touchcom, Cognition, World Boatyardx,  Energy Elephant, HR Locker, Visual ID, ApplyOn and Overcast. [See more details in appendix]

“The calibre of SME’s that applied to be part of the programme is very high. We are not only looking for tried and tested digital transformation solutions, but also for the ability to collaborate with large businesses who also want to put their stamp on the end solution that they will adopt” said programme director, Conor Carmody.

The Innovation Exchange is a multi-year programme that facilities collaboration between Irish SME’s and large multinationals to boost innovation.  It will support over 1,000 companies between 2022-2025. The programme is managed by Dublin BIC in partnership with Skillnet Ireland.

 Sample of SMEs new to The Innovation Exchange in Quarter One 2022

 Ambisense (DCU Innovation Campus)

Ambisense use novel solutions that combine Internet of Things (IoT) hardware with their intelligent, online platform, Ambilytics, to take customers beyond simply managing and displaying their data. Ambisense help them dive deep into the data; delivering intelligence and insight into the current and future behaviour of environmental pollutants, alerting them to potential problems in advance and allowing them to take a proactive approach to risk management.

Environmental monitoring, indoor air quality, facilities management, digital twinning, smart buildings, smart cities and green tech.

 

GladCloud – The digitization of Trade Marketing

GladCloud is a Collaborative Social Media Marketing Platform for (B2B2C), so national brands can Locally activate campaigns, by transforming their independent merchant partners into digital brand advocates at scale via custom co-branded social media posts and sponsored advertising.

The platform is specifically designed for brands that sell products or services via large networks of independently owned merchants.

 

Touchcom – Management of Technology Expense Management and Device as a Service.

Touchcom simplify the management of an organisation’s enterprise mobility program. Managed Mobility Services make life easier for employees, executives, and IT teams. Touchcom’s Managed Mobility Service allows an organisation to centralise, comprehend and control the complete lifecycle of every aspect of their mobility program all through one platform.

Touchcom look after LinkedIn Globally, Workday EMEA, NTMA.

 

Cognition World (Dogpatch Labs)

Saas-based technology firm providing sustainability management software along with connectivity and wireless battery-operated sensors and support. Cognition World are using their technology to address the challenges of IOT, Big Data and Sustainability.

Medium-sized businesses.

 

Boatyardx

BoatyardX provides bespoke software development services, spanning the process of product building from discovery/investigative work, through minimum viable product development to production build and operation. They work with companies looking to provide or improve digital services, in areas of business ranging from finance to data management to improving workflows in complex processes.

Improved matching in supply and demand across platforms in various sectors including finance, digital advertising, training, recruitment and licensing.

 

Energy Elephant

EnergyElephant helps organisations around the world improve sustainability, save time and reduce costs with their all-in-one energy and sustainability management platform. Energy Elephant innovation area is working with companies who have net zero carbon commitments.

Current customers include: Linkedin, Virgin Media, Zalando, IAA, British Film Institute, Bank of Ireland and AIB. Multi-site organisations with sustainability/carbon challenges.

 

HR Locker

HR Locker have a dedicated digital transformation team ready to bring companies to the cloud and beyond. HR Locker facilitate the digitalisation of all ‘things’ recruitment – people management, people performance and training. Their innovation area is helping companies manage remote, hybrid and office workers.

Tech, Professional Services, non for profits and Construction

 

Visual ID

Visual ID have developed Cloud software solutions to manage the compliant production and publishing of content and marketing material for all media outputs. Visual ID applications deliver Brand Compliance, Control and Cost savings by giving their clients the controls to allow HQ and their store and agent networks the ability to create compliant personalised and variable content for print, social media, digital screens and web media and also the ability to manage all delivery and publishing challenges.

Grocery retail / Pharmacy/ Financial services

 

SCG Growth Partners – ApplyOn

ApplyOn enables companies to digitalise multiple compliance-based workflows and processes with their workflow management platform which includes an integrated CRM for customer management and integrated process modules. SCG rapidly design and deliver bespoke workflows to meet customers’ business needs cost-effectively saving clients up-to 70% compared to other systems.

Insurance, legal, finance, compliance, applications and healthcare.

 

Overcast – Specialist enterprise cloud video solutions.

Overcast provide Media Asset Management (MAM) solutions that compliment augment Digital Asset Management (DAM) solutions and help enterprise businesses manage video from camera to distribution to archive.

Overcast work with Diageo, Vodafone, Yeti and a number of other global brands. 

 

Parents and Brands

Parents and Brands deliver actionable insights with measurable results for businesses through their private digital platform by hosting tailored panels, recruited from their engaged parent community, to unlock qualitative insights on behalf of businesses looking for brand and product specific answers.

Parents and Brands are using technology to deliver consumers insights digitally to brands and businesses.

Any B2C facing sector

 

Threadable

Threadable is an Irish software business established in 2015 – with a focus on helping companies, ranging from start-ups to established enterprises, to fast-track the design, development and launch of their innovative solutions. They partner with customers to accelerate their digital transformation, in order to boost their productivity and profitability, working in partnership with them to navigate and simplify their digital journeys.

 

Utility AR

UtilityAR builds Augmented Reality Smart Glasses based software which allows an industrial Technician or Engineer to automatically see information about the piece of equipment they are working on. This information could include detailed procedures on the task they must carry out, dynamic metering data, or video guidance. Additionally, they can do a Remote Adviser video call which allows a colleague or adviser to see what they are seeing and to draw on their vision to assist them to fix any problems they encounter.

The software works on any Augmented Reality Smart Glasses, VR headset, PC or phone, so users are not tied down to any specific solution at this early stage of Augmented Reality’s development. Additionally, it can be set up using a simple excel driven database or can be linked to the users existing SAP, IBM Maximo, or other asset databases to provide maximum flexibility.

Digitisation, Industry 4.0, Augmented Reality, Smart Glasses, Virtual Reality, Smart Manufacturing

UtilityAR already works with over 100 enterprise customers, including several large multinationals based in Ireland and abroad.

 

Business Games Ireland

Business games Ireland helps companies turn their trainings into gamified learning experiences. Their areas of impact include onboarding, recruitment, change management, leadership, diversity/inclusion and compliance.

‘No matter the what, we take care of the HOW and the WOW!’

Business Games Ireland accomplish this by creating scalable, affordable, user friendly learning solutions leveraging technologies such as chatbots, virtual meeting spaces, whiteboards, etc. All multi-language and multi-device.

Experiential Learning – Technology Enhanced Learning – Gamified learning – Social Learning – Multi-device Supported Learning

Human Resources / Learning and Development Departments in any company with a sizeable workforce

 

Kyzentree – Kt-Pulse.

Kt-Pulse is used to drive continuous improvement on the manufacturing floor, by tracking the performance of key processes, engaging the whole production team from the operators to senior management. Kt-Pulse is used to diagnose performance issues in key processes, and present actionable insights for the management & improvements teams. Kt-Pulse is then used to control and maintain the improvements. Kyzentree have built a digital platform that extracts insights from production operators across a range of manual and semi-automated manufacturing processes in a very agile way. The insights captured through the operators is translated into ready-to-use dashboards that create better visibility on how processes are performing and where to prioritise improvement activity.

Manufacturing:  Medical Device, Pharmaceutical, Electronics, Food & Beverage

 

Dulann – Digital Transformation of compliance led paperwork and processes.

Dulann is empowering companies all over the world to fundamentally deliver more efficient complaint safer workplaces, in a whole new way by digitally transforming compliance led paperwork and processes!

All Sectors. Specific Expertise in Food Processing, Construction and Medical/Pharma.

 

Fathom Ltd

Fathom are an innovation and cloud transformation consultancy who help their clients solve business problems through the adoption of cloud technologies and the development of great software applications. They are a team of experienced business analyst’s and full stack engineers who deliver exceptional results via cloud transformation, DevOps, machine learning,  earth observation data, text to speech, speech to text and web applications.

Multi sectoral experience, specifically, Fintech, Travel, Govt, Ed Tech & Environmental sectors

 

Ecat

ECAT is a cloud-based service delivery management tool that allows organisations to collect, collate, distribute and analyse data efficiently. Ecats’ aim is to reduce repetitive paper based processes.

Facilities Management, Warehousing and logistics, Manufacturing

 

Chatspace – AI for Decision Intelligence.

Leverage your data to quickly understand what happened, why it’s happening and how to take action. Chatspace transform data into meaningful insights in a fast, secure and reliable way so their clients can augment their decision making.

Enterprise (large & medium size) and universities

 

Bounce Insights

Bounce is a consumer research platform that enables consumer facing brands to gather authentic consumer data from any cohort they need access to. Bounce is creating the future of consumer research, enabling brands to validate the assumptions behind every decision they make at speed. Bounce achieves this through an end-to-end research platform with a team of experts to make capturing insights fast, agile and convenient for any brand.

Bounce work with consumer-facing brands and companies that rely on consumer research to drive decision making. Their target industries include FMCG, Alcohol, Grocery, Retail, Media / Advertising Agencies, Telecommunications & Financial Services

 

Mersus Technologies – Avatar Academy Learning Experience Platform.

Software that digitises industrial processes and assemblies for knowledge transfer, using computer gaming technology. By creating virtual laboratories, the Avatar Academy platform allows people to prepare for jobs in Biopharma and Medtech industries before actually starting on any live production line. Mersus’ Avatar Academy is set to bring a new paradigm in training technology as the media combines with its powerful inbuilt data analytics capabilities in transforming training. It has the potential to bring a myriad of efficiencies to Ireland’s thriving MedTech and Biopharma sectors and beyond.

Lifesciences (Biopharma Med Tech) Advanced Manufacturing