Local business man, Mr Ahmed approached the DDU for assistance with his new venture Era3 which is planned to take his business forward into a new era. The new venture will market a range of products one of which is a USB memory stick.

The assistance centred on the development of a marketing strategy, branding & corporate identity and the protection of the new trade marks.

Members of the DDU team worked with Mr Ahmed to ensure that the new venture appears to “punch above its weight” in its early days to help secure exclusive agreements with overseas suppliers.

Gloven is a new  company that sells a range of homeware products. The main products are a range of highly flexible oven gloves that have been patented by the company, which are innovative and use high specification materials more commonly used in motor racing overalls.

The client contacted the DDU for advice on intellectual property and developing another route to market via an e-commerce website.

From the 1st January 2010, the Digital Development Unit has joined a new organisation, Regenerate Pennine Lancashire.

Regenerate is owned by the seven Pennine Lancashire local authorities: Lancashire County Council and the borough councils of Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Hyndburn, Pendle, Ribble Valley and Rossendale. It will be led by a governing body made up of the leaders of the seven councils, and by a board mostly made up of the councils’ chief executives, together with representatives from the private sector.

The company was formed to help seven councils deliver projects in the most effective way possible, i.e. by pooling expertise and resources, achieving greater value for money and attracting more private sector investment.

Capsool Limited has been established to provide a unique internet based service for customers across the world. The basis of the Capsool offering is a website that enables manipulation and storing of multimedia content into digital time capsules. These digital time capsules, or capsools, can be constructed, stored and delivered to recipients in a number of different ways.

Internet access via mobile devices is seeing a significant increase. With the advent of higher resolution screens, improved touch technology and the integration of standard browser technology, websites accessed on mobile phones are now able to offer the same functionality as their desktop versions. The iPhone has accelerated this trend.

The Directors of Direct Wallpapers (Retail) Ltd started trading in Burnley in 2007 following the sale of a previous successful business. They specialise in the wholesale and retail sales of designer wallpapers sourced from the UK and Europe. The business has successful sales from their warehouse on Plumbe St, Burnley. The business management team recognised an opportunity to create demand for their products on the internet but were keen to ensure that they choose the best way of approaching this route to market.

Direct Wallpapers (Retail) Ltd approached the Digital Development Unit for advice and assistance to help them to develop a successful on-line retail business. We were able to assist them with a requirements specification and find the best supplier agency for them.

Precision Parts Engineering Ltd was established in 1976 as a bespoke specialist CNC machining company. The company identified the Aerospace sector as a target for increased business but the main barrier to growth was their Quality Assurance system.

They had operated ISO 9001-2000 which was sufficient for other sectors but aerospace customers required the AS9100 standard. The company contacted the DDU for advice and assistance on achieving this standard and growing the business.

Premier Polytunnels are based in Barnoldswick and manufacture and sell plastic polytunnels for agricultural and domestic garden use.

Using their experience in the horticultural industry the client saw an opportunity to offer these products to a large UK market via the internet and decided to start an e-commerce business to do this. The company contacted the DDU for advice and assistance.