Innovate Tees Valley gives assistance to budding entrepreneurs

Smartsociates, which has created a network of freelance professionals, contractors and small businesses, is being helped to develop new products for its online platform with support from Innovate Tees Valley.

Smartsociates - based in Middlesbrough - was founded in 2015 and provides a forum for freelance workers, contractors and small businesses within the engineering and technology sectors to find work and develop their skills through one-to-one learning.

It also allows businesses to advertise jobs, post project enquiries and execute work using inbuilt quotation, sales order, invoicing and secured payment systems adapted for marketplaces.

Its integrated communication system covering text messaging, voice and video, file-sharing and whiteboard enables businesses to interact within the platform seamlessly.

The firm looked to Innovate Tees Valley for support as it looked to develop its offering.

Innovate Tees Valley, funded by the European Regional Development Fund and led by Teesside University, is delivered with the help of partners, DigitalCity; North East Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC) and the Materials Processing Institute (MPI).

Suhail Aslam, Innovate Tees Valley project manager, said: “Because we are backed by a network of regional business organisations we are able to offer SMEs in the Tees Valley unrivalled support and advice.

“Smartsociates have a great business model and we are delighted to have been able to help them meet the challenges of growing the company in such a variety of ways.”

Through Innovate Tees Valley’s Knowledge Exchange Internship programme, computing graduate Sankeeth Sriranganathan was placed with the company to provide specialist support as the company developed its online platform.

Academic expertise was provided by Mansha Nawaz, a senior lecturer in the university’s school of computing, media and the arts.

The company has received support for other partners within the project, which has included advice and mentoring from NEPIC, which give assistance with growing the business and reaching more clientele.

DigitalCity has also invited the company to attend the Fellowship Accelerator programme, which gives young businesses funding and mentoring as they develop an idea or products ready for the market.

Pascal Pemha, the company’s venture lead, added: “The number of freelance workers is growing rapidly and is predicted to represent about 35 per cent of the talent pool in most organisations by 2020.

“We aim to provide a quality service that brings freelancers, contractors and small businesses together, creating a workforce ecosystem where they can support each other interactively.

“The support we have had from Innovate Tees Valley has been fantastic. It has brought new skills into our business which weren’t there previously and has allowed us to try new things and attract more freelance workers to use our services.”