Log in
This case study reports the impact on businesses and practitioners of model-driven software architecture research, workflow-based application development, and intelligent computing through a series of connected JISC, Knowledge Connect projects, and, especially, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships.
Key impacts for software companies, related to their software development processes and products, include the adoption of the model-driven architecture approach, showing:
Integration of intelligent computing in the form of data mining and decision support in software processes and products.
Development of the UK construction industry was hampered by a focus on individual projects, with two drawbacks: limited transfer of lessons learned from one project to the next, and limited focus on systemic innovation and wider commercial opportunities.
Drawing on their research, our Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group helped construction companies — including Laing O'Rourke (LOR), Arup, and Mace — overcome these obstacles by adopting a `systems integration' model to capture and utilise lessons learned, and by developing Executive Education programmes to make project engineers aware of wider commercial and innovation issues. These improvements enhanced delivery of major projects such as the Olympic Park and Crossrail.
The Group changed firm behaviour, re-orientated project management practices, and translated lessons learned into organisational capabilities at LOR, Arup, and Mace.
Beneficiaries were the UK construction and consulting engineering sector, who as a result were better equipped to innovate and compete globally, and their clients, such as the UK Olympic Delivery Authority and Crossrail.
Building Information Modelling and Management (BIM(M)) research at the University of Salford has contributed to the concept and development of an integrated approach to improved efficiency in the construction sector:
Building Information Management (BIM) involves the creation and use of digital information about built assets. Mandated by UK and other governments because of its potential to reduce waste and optimise efficiency, its successful exploitation requires changes in construction technology and process. This research has had a transformational impact on both. Our technical research forms the basis of the National Library of BIM objects, as well as technological solutions and product developments for many organisations. Our work with UK and overseas governments has shaped industry's uptake of BIM. We have founded a centre of excellence to introduce BIM to practitioners and organisations, and created a commercial joint-venture consultancy company.
Research undertaken at the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering (DoEng) since 1998 on strategic technology management resulted in a principled and generalised method of creating roadmaps for technology and innovation management. This research was developed into a complete toolkit through case studies and consulting by the DoEng's wholly-owned subsidiary Institute for Manufacturing Education and Consulting Services Ltd (IfM ECS). Organisations in 26 countries commissioned over 115 consulting projects during 2008-13, benefiting through improved business performance and practices, the adoption of new technologies or processes and the better alignment of technology strategies with policy and commercial imperatives. IfM ECS's revenue from consulting, publications and events based on the research findings was GBP 3,479,758 in the period.
Building on excellent computer science research, carried out in a number of applied research centres, the University has taken a leading role in the establishment and development of the software sector in the North East. This has resulted in a regional strategic approach, which has delivered significant social and economic benefits, with impacts including the creation of jobs, SME growth, cluster establishment and inward investment. Sunderland's applied computing research has also resulted in an increase in innovation and research in software SMEs and has impacted on the perception of Sunderland as the heart of a regional software cluster.