Ballymena & Antrim businesses can get set for the ‘Digital Surge’

Digital Surge is a £1million Digital Programme designed to support over 1000 businesses across Northern Ireland to improve their digital journeys and registration is now open for a series of workshops being held throughout March and into April.

Formerly known as The Digital Transformation Programme, Digital Surge is being led by Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council.

The Programme is also part funded by Invest Northern Ireland, the European Regional Development Fund under the Investment for Growth & Jobs Northern Ireland (2014-2020) Programme and all 11 Councils in the province.

The Programme will be delivered by a consortium of Northern Ireland businesses and Invest NI has offered £860,000 of support towards the Programme with councils contributing £216,000.

“We are really looking forward to helping small businesses across Northern Ireland, embark on their digital transformation journey. Businesses which recognise the role advanced transformative technology can play, at a strategic level, will certainly increase their growth potential, and we will provide the support they need to discover how to fundamentally change how they operate and deliver value.” Gillian Colan-O’Leary, Consortium Project Lead,

The programme will assist businesses to ‘demystify’ the various enabling digital technologies/tools and inspire ‘active ideation’ through workshops, mentoring, masterclasses and network cluster events for small and medium sized businesses throughout Northern Ireland.

Businesses completing the programme will come away with an Innovation Roadmap and Digital Acceleration Plan and will be onward routed to more intensive supports in the ‘digital innovation ecosystem’.

The advanced digital technology areas being covered by this programme include: Smart technologies/smart environments and the Internet of Things (IoT), Process automation via robotics / cobotics, Big-data and analytics, Immersive technologies (AR/VR/MR/Haptics), Artificial intelligence and machine learning and also Distributed ledger systems/blockchain technologies

Jacqui Dixon Chief Executive of Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council on behalf of the 11 Council consortium said: “This Northern Ireland wide programme will support our businesses in the new reality of trading in a COVID-19 recovery context.

“By shifting and pivoting their business models via adoption of advanced digital tools they will be able to drive forward the digital agenda for growth with the potential to create and sustain jobs.”

To express an interest in the programme and/or register for the workshops visit antrimandnewtownabbey.gov.uk/digitalsurge

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