As e-business champions and experts in online communications, the North East Regional Portal has helped thousands of regional firms adopt innovative software and technologies over the past five years.

Originally set up by One NorthEast in 2001 as a project in response to government research highlighting the poor take-up of the internet by businesses, public sector bodies, communities and individuals in the North East, the Regional Portal activities and support were initially centred on its online portal – www.n-e-life.com.
 
Chief Executive Norma Foster said: “the n-e-life.com website has helped thousands of businesses transform the way they work and has created enormous benefits for individuals and organisations in the North East.

"Acting as an online regional gateway that attracts a million visitors a year, it has opened the world to the region and acts as an effective online promotional platform for North East business.”

However the Regional Portal offers much more and has grown into a company that offers significant and innovative support to the North East’s businesses.

“We champion e-business and offer a range of services to help businesses adopt and use ICT and the internet to best effect,” explained Norma.

“The Regional Portal comprises a dedicated team of eight who are skilled and passionate about e-procurement, project management and e-business.

“We are working closely with One NorthEast to support the Regional Economic Strategy, and through our range of services we deliver tangible and personable support to North East SMEs and inform, support and nurture them in relation to e-business adoption.”

Through funded initiatives, such as Grow Your Business and Catalyst, the Regional Portal has helped hundreds of North East businesses access up to 80% towards the costs of adopting innovative software and technologies, from website design and content management to implementing innovative softwares and solutions.

One business that has benefited from the Catalyst project to improve Internet use is firststartmobile.co.uk based at Yarm in Tees Valley.

An approved service provider to the scheme, JL Web, helped the mobile phones firm with the layout and content of its website. Graham Hatch, a partner in the business, explained that the website now offers a wide range of mobile phone accessories and a repair service as well as ring tone and game downloads.

Project management is at the heart of the Regional Portal.

As passionate advocates of Prince2tm, the UK’s best practice model for project management, the Regional Portal team always work to these standards in all projects it manages.

Complementing this approach, the Regional Portal also provides project management consultancy services for North East organisations and regularly delivers Prince2tm project management training courses designed specifically for the region’s companies to become more competitive.

“We are the only North East organisation affiliated with the Business Learning and Conference Centre (BLCC) to provide this international-level of training for the businesses in the region,” Norma explained.

Another area of activity for the Regional Portal’s is providing supportive services designed to help regional firms make contacts and win contracts in the public and private sectors and is currently working with One NorthEast to help North East businesses win as much work as possible from London 2012 Olympic contracts.

As experts in this field, the Regional Portal offers a range of support for North East SMEs including an online tender monitoring service, a series of practical training courses and a help desk function. And it’s a vital service explains Norma, “a recent survey of 1200 businesses showed that 63% of regional companies felt they need more guidance in the field of procurement.

“To date, we have helped over 2,400 firms secure new business through these services.”

Always setting the e-business agenda, the Regional Portal’s bold and innovative approach is recognised nationally and internationally as driving the North East’s position at the leading edge of the digital revolution. 

Relevant links

More about the Regional Portal services

More about the Regional Portal team

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